*Photo from Sports Illustrated*
Arizona wins series 2-0
The snakes keep fighting back. Alek Thomas homered, Ketel Marte drove in a pair of runs, and the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night in Milwaukee.
In their first playoff appearance since 2017, the D-Backs also secured their first playoff series win since the 2007 NLDS, when they swept the Chicago Cubs. After scoring 6 unanswered runs in game one on Tuesday, they scored 5 on Wednesday, outscoring the Brewers 11-5 over both games.
D-Backs pitcher Zac Gallen said that "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. We expected to be playing in October."
Sal Frelick gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead in the first inning, flying out deep enough to score Christian Yelich. Willy Adames added on shortly after that, hitting an RBI single that scored Carlos Santana to double the lead to 2-0. It stayed that way until the 5th inning, when Thomas got the D-Backs on the board with a solo home run to cut the lead to 2-1.
In the 6th inning, Marte put the D-Backs ahead for good, hitting a two run single that scored Corbin Carroll and Geraldo Perdomo to make it a 3-2 game. Tommy Pham then scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-2 D-Backs. Lourdes Gurriel Jr then dropped in an RBI single, making it 5-2 as Christian Walker scored.
Gallen toed the rubber for the D-Backs, allowing two runs on 5 hits and 3 walks, picking up 4 strikeouts in 6 innings pitched.
D-Backs infielder Evan Longoria said of Gallen "I'm really happy that we were able to reward him offensively today. Him and Merrill did the same thing in that Houston series at the end of the year, and offensively we just didn't do anything to help them. Well-deserved win for him. Guy has been the anchor for us all year. Just super special, man."
The real star of the show for the D-Backs was their bullpen. Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel, Andrew Saalfrank, and Paul Sewald pitched the final 3 innings, holding the Brewers scoreless. Over both games, the D-Backs bullpen has thrown 9 1/3 shutout innings to keep the Brewers at bay.
Freddy Peralta started for the Brewers, allowing 4 runs on 3 hits and two walks in 5 innings pitched. Abner Uribe allowed one run while getting one out before Hoby Milner pitched 1 2/3 innings. Elvis Peguero and Trevor Megill each threw a scoreless inning.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell said that "The playoffs are a tough animal to conquer. They are. Unfortunately, we have not. We made a good run in '18, and then it's been some short series that we haven't been able to get over the hump in. It doesn't take anything away from those guys in my opinion at all."
Up next, the D-Backs travel to the west coast as they face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, with game one on Saturday. The Brewers offseason plans kick in as their season ends earlier than hoped.
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