D-backs' signature small ball backs Kelly's gem to tie up World Series

ARLINGTON -- The sun’ll come up tomorrow, sure, but the D-backs awoke Saturday in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to clouds and rain and some internal concerns about the monumental manner in which they had their hearts ripped out by Corey Seager, Adolis García and the Rangers in Game 1 of this World Series on Friday night. Though the Snakes got to this stage with renowned resilience, it was OK to admit to some curiosity over how this predominantly young club would react to such a walloping walk-off.

Now, in the wake of a convincing 9-1 victory in Game 2 at Globe Life Field, where Merrill Kelly shoved and the bats slashed and swatted their way to 16 hits and seven two-out runs, there can be no denying these D-backs can recover from even the most extreme of outcomes.

Nor can it be denied that this best-of-seven Series, which now departs for the desert for Games 3-5 evened up at a win apiece, is shaping up to be a thriller. Because already, both teams have shown they won’t go down quietly.

“[The Rangers] are a very capable team even when they don’t have that kind of momentum [like they did after Game 1],” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “So I was extremely concerned about that. That was a huge momentum change, in a matter of 20 minutes. How were we going to respond?”

This is how.

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First, with seven superb innings from Kelly, who had his best start of an already impactful October by holding the dangerous Rangers to one mere run on three hits with no walks and nine strikeouts in seven innings.

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“You have to respect it,” Rangers leadoff man Marcus Semien said. “We tried to do our best, get good pitches to hit, but he didn’t give us any.”

In conversations with his coaches and players in the dugout, Lovullo had stressed that if Kelly could just give his teammates a chance to catch their breath and get their feet back beneath them after such a dramatic Game 1 defeat, they could walk away from the walk-off and begin to dig themselves out again.

That’s just what happened. The D-backs might have wound up with a lopsided win, but it unfolded methodically. They didn’t get on the board until the fourth inning, when catcher Gabriel Moreno swatted a solo shot. A Tommy Pham double -- the second of four hits for the D-backs’ sneaky good Trade Deadline acquisition -- set up a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. RBI single to make it 2-0.

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Suddenly, the steam coming off those balls bashed by Seager and García in Game 1 had subsided. The D-backs were back in business, and with Kelly on the mound and in command, business was good.

Kelly, a 35-year-old who spent 2015-18 pitching in South Korea after five seasons in the Rays' farm system, had been National League Cy Young candidate Zac Gallen’s sideman in the regular season. But he’s pitched like an ace all his own in October. Kelly seized the moment at Citizens Bank Park in the Game 6 gem that shifted the NL Championship Series in Arizona’s favor, and he did so again in this gem of a performance that consistently quieted Globe Life.

"That was probably one of [my] better [starts]," Kelly said after the game. "That was the goal coming in. For me, that’s my whole game -- if I execute, I’ve got a pretty good chance. If I don’t execute, it’s going to be a long night."

In World Series history, only four pitchers have had more strikeouts with zero walks in a World Series game -- the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw (11) in Game 1 in 2017, the Dodgers’ Don Newcombe (11) in Game 1 in 1949, the Phillies’ Cliff Lee (10) in Game 1 in 2009 and the Pirates’ Deacon Phillippe (10) in -- get this -- the first World Series game in 1903.

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“I dreamt of [dominating in the World Series], but at that point, when I was doing it, that’s all it was -- a dream," Kelly said. "It took a lot of hard work, a lot of being at the right place. I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the Arizona organization for giving me a chance to be here. I appreciate them a lot for giving me this opportunity. I’m just glad we got it done tonight."

It was a much different night for Rangers lefty Jordan Montgomery.

Perhaps affected by his 2 1/3 innings of relief work in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, the pending free agent went deep into the game but struggled to miss bats. In six-plus innings, he didn’t strike out a batter, becoming just the 13th pitcher to go that deep into a World Series game without a K and the first since the Yankees’ Jimmy Key in Game 2 in 1996 against the Braves. The D-backs didn’t dominate Montgomery, by any means, but they were able to stop the momentum he had established for himself with a 1.29 ERA in the ALCS.

Though the Rangers stayed in it with a Mitch Garver solo homer off Kelly in the fifth, Arizona added on with a textbook example of its relentless small-ball style. A two-run seventh began with an Alek Thomas double and an RBI single from Evan Longoria to chase Montgomery. In true D-back fashion, Geraldo Perdomo’s sacrifice bunt moved Longoria over, and a two-out single from Corbin Carroll off Andrew Heaney drove him in to make it 4-1.

Then, in the back-breaking eighth, a leadoff single from Pham and a pair of two-out walks issued by Martín Pérez set up a two-run single from Ketel Marte and another RBI single from Carroll.

“That’s why they’re here,” Rangers catcher Jonah Heim said of the D-backs. “They take what they’re given. They extend innings, and they do damage when they can. At the end of the day, they’re just going to take their singles and keep on moving. It’s for us to make an adjustment.”

By the time Arizona added yet another pair on an Emmanuel Rivera single in the ninth, all that angst and agony ushered in by Seager's swat a night earlier had been expunged by the D-backs, and now the Series starts fresh.

“For some reason, one of our main ingredients -- that we’re youthful -- means we can come back,” Lovullo said. “It’s pretty fun to watch.”