Taiwanese-American Corbin Carroll on Tuesday ducked late into the Arizona Diamondbacks’ clubhouse with his uniform pants stained in dirt — two stolen bases will get a player dirty — but was otherwise clean when he was spotted by the rest of his bubbly-bathed teammates.
“Have yourself a Game 7,” jubilant teammates shouted as they chased down the breakout post-season star. “Why are you dry?”
Carroll had little room to escape inside a cramped visitors’ locker room — not that he wanted to — and was soon doused with beer before a victory cigar followed.
Photo: AFP
World Series trips do not come often for this franchise in the desert. So when it was time to celebrate, the Diamondbacks did it with the same vigor they used to knock off last year’s National League champs.
Carroll went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored, and Arizona advanced to the World Series for the first time in 22 years by stunning the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS).
“We did it. That’s all I can say,” said Carroll, the frontrunner for National League Rookie of the Year. “Just believe in each other, believe in our guys. We know what we have in that clubhouse, and it’s special. We’ve known it all year.”
Photo: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY
Arizona are to play the Texas Rangers in an all-wild card World Series no one saw coming, with Game 1 set for Friday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
In their only other trip to the Fall Classic, the Diamondbacks won a seven-game thriller against the New York Yankees in 2001.
The young Diamondbacks, who at 84-78 squeezed into the playoffs as the final National League wild card, completed their comeback from an 0-2 hole in the NLCS. They won Games 6 and 7 in Philadelphia, where the defending National League champions had been 12-2 over the past two post-seasons — including 11-0 in National League playoff games.
“I’ve said it a million times, and I’ll say it again: A connected team is a very dangerous team,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “No matter what happened in those times of crisis, these guys stuck together.”
Rookie starter Brandon Pfaadt struck out seven, and five relievers combined on five scoreless innings of one-hit ball for the surprising National League pennant winners.
“They played great baseball,” Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber said. “There’s no way around it. Everyone’s got a sick feeling in their stomach. It’s not the way we pictured this thing ending.”
Kevin Ginkel, the fourth Arizona reliever, showed his mettle with a gutsy performance in the seventh. After left-hander Andrew Saalfrank walked consecutive batters with one out, Ginkel entered and retired Trea Turner and Harper on flyouts to center field.
Ginkel then struck out all three hitters in the eighth, and Paul Sewald pitched a perfect ninth for his sixth save this post-season.
With that, Arizona’s bullpen slammed the door on Philadelphia’s powerful lineup — and shushed Phillies fans who were left weeping on their own.
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