Diamondbacks’ pitcher delivers blow at plate
ARIZONA 11 COLORADO 8
PHOENIX — Three bags, four times.
And you wouldn’t believe who got in on all the fun for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Spirited reliever Archie Bradley hit a stunning triple in the seventh inning, driving in two runs with one of four three-baggers by Arizona that sent the Diamondbacks past the Colorado Rockies 11-8 in the National League wild-card game Wednesday night.
Paul Goldschmidt launched an early three-run homer and the Diamondbacks built a 6-0 lead before ace Zack Greinke faltered. Colorado climbed back into it and cut it to 8-7 when Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story hit back-to-back homers in the eighth off Bradley, perhaps exhausted from hustling around the bases and shouting in excitement to giddy teammates.
But then A.J. Pollock knocked in two runs with Arizona’s fourth triple, this one off closer Greg Holland, as the Diamondbacks scored three times in their half of the eighth to finally put away a wild game.
“That’s one of the best games I’ve ever been a part of, if not the best,” Goldschmidt said.
Arizona moved on to a best-offive Division Series against the NL West champion Dodgers, a team the Diamondbacks beat the last six times they played. Game 1 is Friday night in Los Angeles.
“It’s what we’ve done the whole year: We respond,” Bradley said. “This group is special and I’m just happy to be moving on.”
Arizona became the first team with four triples in a post-season game since the Boston Americans (now Red Sox) twice hit five during the first World Series back in 1903 against Pittsburgh.
It was that kind of crazy night in the desert as the two NL West foes slugged it out. Daniel Descalso also homered for the Diamondbacks, and Ketel Marte tripled twice.
“We know how tough these guys are. We play ’em all the time,” Goldschmidt said. “Every time we scored, we just said, ‘We’ve got to get more, we’ve got to get more.’ ”
Bradley, a spirited setup man who was recruited to play quarterback at Oklahoma, went 1 for 4 at the plate this season to raise his career batting average to .098. With two outs in the seventh, he drove a 3-1 pitch from Pat Neshek to deep left-centre to give Arizona an 8-5 cushion. It was his first extra-base in the majors and the first triple by a reliever in postseason history.
Already a fan favourite for his bushy beard and high-energy work in the late innings, Bradley regrouped from the two solo homers he gave up to get the final two outs of the eighth with the Diamondbacks clinging to a onerun lead. Fernando Rodney allowed a run in the ninth before closing it out as Arizona won in its first playoff game since 2011.
Jake Lamb tied a Diamondbacks post-season record with four hits, all singles, and scored three times.
Jonathan Lucroy doubled twice, scored two runs and drove in one for the Rockies in their first playoff appearance since 2009.
Marte, who came to Arizona with pitcher Taijuan Walker from Seattle for Jean Segura in an offseason deal, became the first player to triple twice in a post-season game since Mariano Duncan did it for Philadelphia against Atlanta in the 1993 NL Championship Series.
The home team won for just the second time in the six NL wildcard games since the one-game format was adopted in 2012. The hosts hadn’t even scored in the last three, but the Diamondbacks ended that before their first out.
Goldschmidt, in an 0-for-17 slump to end the regular season, hit the first pitch he saw from ineffective starter Jon Gray into the left-field seats for a three-run shot.
Greinke blanked the Rockies on one hit through three innings but never made it through the fourth.
Colorado, known for its power at the plate, got back into it with small ball — five hits, four of them singles. Lucroy’s two-out RBI double followed by pinch-hitter Alexi Amarista’s run-scoring single made it 6-4, and Greinke was finished. He allowed four runs and six hits in 4 23⁄ innings.
Left-hander Robbie Ray, a 15-game winner during the regular season, came on for his first relief appearance in three years and threw two shutout innings before giving up a leadoff double to Lucroy just below the home run line in straightaway centre in the seventh. Lucroy went to third on a wild pitch before Ray fanned Ian Desmond.