“No one will associate it with that time.”
The Arizona Diamondbacks lost Game 1 of the 2023 Major League Baseball World Series to the Texas Rangers, 5-6, on April 28 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Arizona led 5-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. Closer Paul Seewald took the mound to close out the game. Prior to this game, Seewald had pitched in eight fall ball games this season, not allowing a run and recording six saves. It was the most postseason saves in Arizona franchise history, surpassing Byung-Hyun Kim’s three saves during the 2001 postseason.
But the game didn’t go the way Arizona expected. Seawald gave up a leadoff walk to Leandro Taveras. He struck out Marcus Semien to give himself some breathing room, but then gave up a two-run homer to Corey Seager to tie the game. Seager took a 93.6 mph (150 km/h) fastball over the right field wall. Seawald recorded his first blown save of the postseason.주소
Eventually, the game would go to extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th inning, Adolis Garcia hit a game-tying home run off Miguel Castro to give Texas the lead for good.
For Seawald’s blown save, Byung-hyun Kim was summoned 22 years ago. ”Before Garcia’s game-winning homer, Arizona’s most notable extra-inning losses came in Games 4 and 5 of the 2001 World Series against the New York Yankees,” said MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball. “Arizona fans remember back-to-back bad outings by Byung-hyun Kim, who gave up a game-tying homer to Derek Jeter in the 10th inning of Game 4 and a blown save in Game 5.”
The Diamondbacks dropped Games 4 and 5 to the Yankees to fall to 2-3 in the series. But they bounced back with a 15-2 blowout win in Game 6 and rallied from a 1-2 deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning in a winner-take-all game in Game 7 to win their first championship in franchise history.
Arizona hasn’t been to the World Series since, and it’s their first in 22 years.
“I don’t think our players are old enough to remember what happened then,” Torrey Robullo said when asked about a similar situation 22 years ago. He meant the younger players.
“I know we have really great fans, and they probably remember that,” he continued. But I don’t think anybody is connecting the dots.”
