ARIZONA RALLIES AGAIN TO FINISH OFF MILWAUKEE
Diamondbacks 5, Brewers 2
Two years after suffering through a 110-loss season, the Arizona Diamondbacks are spraying champagne and heading to the NL Division Series.
They feel like they belong, too.
“In ’22, you kind of saw the shift toward the end of the year, and then we came in this year and this is what we expected to do,” Zac Gallen said after he pitched the Diamondbacks to a 5-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night and a sweep of their NL Wild Card Series. “We expected to be playing in October.”
It’s the first NL Division Series for the franchise since 2017. The Diamondbacks will take on the NL West champion Dodgers in the opener of
their best-of-five series Saturday in Los Angeles.
The NL Central champion Brewers have dropped nine of their last 10 playoff games, a stretch that started with their Game 7 home loss to the Dodgers in the 2018 NL Championship Series.
“The playoffs are a tough animal to conquer,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “They are. Unfortunately, we have not.”
Attention in Milwaukee now turns to the future of Counsell, who has managed the Brewers since 2015 and has guided them to five playoff appearances over the last six seasons. Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio has said the team wants Counsell back, but the manager hasn’t indicated whether he wants to return.
The 53-year-old Counsell declined address his future after Wednesday’s loss.
“That ain’t for tonight, man,” he said.
Ketel Marte put Arizona ahead for good with a tworun single during a four-run rally in the sixth inning as Milwaukee right-hander Freddy Peralta faded after a strong start. Gallen allowed two runs in the first, and then sailed through the rest of his six innings.
The sweep was another step in a rapid climb for the Diamondbacks.
Arizona’s 52-110 record in 2021 tied the Baltimore Orioles — another team currently in the playoffs — for MLB’s worst record that year. The Diamondbacks went 7488 last season.
Now they’re in the playoffs thanks in part to Corbin Carroll’s
breakthrough rookie season and stellar performances by Gallen and Merrill Kelly atop the rotation.
“Considering what we’ve walked through and the dark times that we had, this is a pretty special moment,” manager Torey Lovullo said.
The Diamondbacks showed their grit by rallying each of the last two nights. They erased an early 3-0 deficit against Corbin Burnes to win 6-3 in Game 1. They trailed 2-0 on Wednesday and were hitless for the first 42⁄3 innings.
The only other teams to win their first two postseason games after trailing each by multiple runs are the 1956 Brooklyn Dodgers, 2008 Tampa Bay Rays and 2009 New York Yankees.