The Arizona Diamondbacks are in the National League Championship Series for the third time in franchise history, playing the Philadelphia Phillies in a best-of-seven series for a trip to the World Series. Game 4 will be played Friday at 5:07 at Chase Field and will be shown on TBS.
Follow inside and outside of Chase Field in our Diamondbacks fan blog.
The Phillies tied the game with Brandon Marsh’s double in the fifth
The Diamondbacks’ bullpen plan worked admirably in the first three innings. Things hadn’t gone well over the previous two games, and the Diamondbacks and Phillies were tied at 2 after 4 1/2 innings in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.
A run after left-handed batter Kyle Schwarber slammed a solo homer off left-hander Kyle Nelson in the fourth inning, and another left-handed hitter, Brandon Marsh, hit a big hit off another left-hander, Andrew Salfrank, tearing up a double to left-center. A field gap to bring the tying run home.
JT Realmuto reached with a single to center by Miguel Castro, then moved to second on a ground out. This prompted Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo for the game against Marsh to replace Castro with Salfrank.
But Marsh crushed a 1-1 fastball into left center, hopping a single over the wall.
Kyle Schwarber’s home run cuts into the DBacks’ lead
The Diamondbacks’ bullpen suffered its first slump in the fourth inning as the Phillies cut Arizona’s lead to 2-1.
Torey Lovullo’s third pitcher of the game, Kyle Nelson, was called upon to retire a pair of left-handed hitters, Brandon Marsh and Kyle Schwarber. But after getting Marsh to lead off the third inning, he gave up a solo home run to Schwarber to lead off the fourth.
The home run was Schwarber’s fourth in the series and the Phillies’ seventh. It came on a four-seam fastball that Nelson couldn’t get above the strike zone.
For Schwarber, it was his 19th all-time postseason home run, breaking a tie with Reggie Jackson for most by left-handed hitters. Interestingly, his teammate Bryce Harper is only four behind.
—Theo Mackey
Gabriel Moreno adds another run to the DBacks lead
Gabriel Moreno smacked a jam with a single into right field, driving home Kittle Marte and giving the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead in the third inning of Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.
Facing Phillies outfielder Christopher Sanchez, Marte reached short to open the inning, moved to second on a groundout and went to third on Corbin Carroll’s groundout.
Moreno greeted Phillies reliever Jeff Hoffman by fighting a 2-2 fastball and launching it to first baseman Bryce Harper left and into right field.
Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks’ bullpen is going according to plan. Left-hander Joe Mantiply, right-hander Luis Frias and left-hander Kyle Nelson pitched their way through three scoreless innings.
Emmanuel Rivera helps DBacks capitalize on Phillies mistakes
Emmanuel Rivera’s single drove Christian Walker home as the Diamondbacks took advantage of a pair of Phillies errors to take an early lead in Game 4. They are up 1-0 after two innings.
The bottom of the second inning began with Christian Walker hitting a routine ground ball to third base. Alec Bohm fielded it cleanly but threw high to first, where Walker ducked under a flag from first baseman Bryce Harper.
Two batters later, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. struck home to Phillies lefty Christopher Sanchez. It looked like a potential double play ball, but instead of throwing the ball to second, Sanchez seemed to forget how many strikes there were and instead ran to first and flipped the ball over there.
After walking Evan Longoria, Rivera launched a 1-1 dunk from Sanchez to center field.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. He makes an acrobatic move to rob JT Realmuto
Defensive metrics may not rank Lourdes Gurriel Jr. among the game’s best players, but the Diamondbacks left fielder has developed a penchant for scoring exciting goals.
In the second half on Friday, he added the latest release to his resume. With the Diamondbacks and Phillies tied at 0, he returned to the warning track and made a leaping pitch in front of the wall, robbing JT Realmuto of the extra bases.
Coach Torey Lovullo’s training day has worked well so far, with both Joe Mantipelli and Luis Frias facing the bare minimum in one round of action.
—Theo Mackey
The Chase Field roof will be closed for game four
The Diamondbacks were initially planning to open the Chase Field roof for Game 4 on Friday night, but with the temperature expected to be 101 degrees at game time, the decision was made to keep it closed.
The cap situation is determined by Major League Baseball with input from the Diamondbacks.
In past years, the roof would likely be opened shortly before game time or sometime in the first innings. But that is not an option at the moment, due to concerns about the viability of the roof which prevents the club from opening and closing when fans are in the building.
Diamondbacks-Phillies matchup in Game 4
Diamondbacks LHP Joe Mantiply (2-2, 4.63 ERA) vs. Phillies LHP Christopher Sanchez (3-5, 3.44 ERA)
Mantiply, a left-handed bullpen specialist, will be the Diamondbacks’ bullpen starter for manager Torey Lovullo. … Mantabelli served as the opener three times in the regular season, twice in August and once in September. … He pitched three innings in a blowout loss to the Phillies on June 13, allowing 6 hits and 4 earned runs. … He made four appearances in the postseason, getting the win in Game 1 of the Wild-Card Series against Milwaukee, and Game 3 against the Dodgers in the Division Series. But in Game 2 of the NLCS, he allowed 3 hits and 3 runs in a third of an inning. … Sanchez has 96 strikeouts to just 16 walks over 99 1/3 innings this season. His last start was a seven-inning, two-hit, 10-strikeout performance against the New York Mets on September 24. He has only done one tour since then, on September 30.
NLCS schedule and results
All matches on TBS
Game 1: Phillies 5, Diamondbacks 3
Game 2:Phillies 10, Diamondbacks 0
Game 3: Diamondbacks 2, Phillies 1 The Phillies lead the series 2-1
Game 4: October 20, Philadelphia at Arizona, 5:07 p.m
Game 5: October 21, Philadelphia, Arizona, 5:07 p.m.*
Game 6: October 23, Arizona at Philadelphia, 2:07 p.m.*
Game 7: October 24, Arizona at Philadelphia, 5:07 p.m.*
*-If necessary; The time of Game 6 could change if the ALCS is completed.
“Food ninja. Friendly thinker. Explorer. Entrepreneur. Zombie junkie.