Diamondbacks do what Braves couldn’t: Advance past Phillies
The Arizona Diamondbacks advanced to the World Series for the first time in 22 years Tuesday night by stunning the Phillies 4-2 in Game 7 of the NL Championship Series in Philadelphia.
Arizona won the series 4-3 and plays the Texas Rangers in the World Series, with Game 1 set for Friday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
The Diamondbacks got past the Braves’ nemesis. The Braves lost to the Phillies 3-1 in the Division Series this season and fell to Philadelphia 3-1 in the 2022 Division Series too.
The Braves went 104-58 in 2023, winning 20 more games than Arizona and 14 more than Texas.
The Diamondbacks went 84-78 in the regular season and squeezed into the playoffs as the final National League wild card. The Rangers, 90-72, beat Tampa Bay 2-0 in the wild-card round. Then Texas eliminated Baltimore 3-0 and Houston 4-3.
In their only other World Series, the Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees in a seven-game thriller in 2001.
The young Diamondbacks completed their comeback from an 0-2 hole in the NLCS by taking early leads in Games 6 and 7 to win the final two in Philadelphia.
Corbin Carroll went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored for Arizona.
Brandon Pfaadt struck out seven in four innings and five relievers combined to pitch their way out of late-inning jams for the surprising NL champs.
Bryce Harper and the rest of the Phillies are forced to ponder this offseason how they let a second straight trip to the World Series slip away. Philadelphia returned home one win from a pennant but couldn’t close it out.
