Arizona Diamondbacks’ eventful previous 4 meetings with Texas Rangers

The Arizona Diamondbacks had an eventful four games against the Texas Rangers in the regular season prior to their World Series meeting.

There was the play of the season, one of the wins of the season and, in hindsight, the biggest debut of the season.

Here’s what to know from those four fixtures the D-backs had a 3-1 record across.

May 2 — D-backs fumble lead, bullpen takes loss

The 6-4 loss in meeting No. 1 for Arizona was a Zac Gallen start, one in which the right-hander got rolling after giving up one run in the first two innings, retiring eight straight heading into the bottom of the fifth. But with a 4-1 edge, Gallen gave up two runs in that fifth inning before Scott McGough sacrificed a two-run homer in the sixth and a runner let on by Kyle Nelson in the seventh scored off a Kevin Ginkel wild pitch.

That made it five unanswered runs by the Rangers to take the ball game. The D-backs were originally up 3-1 thanks to a solo homer by Ketel Marte, Dominic Fletcher RBI single and Marte sac fly.

May 3 — Arizona saves Pfaadt’s MLB debut that was more nightmare than dream

Rookie Brandon Pfaadt has been nails in the postseason but his regular season was a story of a young pitcher finding himself, and the righty had to do so right away after he got lit up for seven earned runs across 4.2 innings in his debut.

Fortunately for him, the offense was on fire, slugging out a 12-7 victory. Christian Walker homered twice and was also walked for all five of his RBIs while a five-run seventh inning was the difference and built up a cushion for the scoreless outing from the bullpen comprised of Jose Ruiz, Joe Mantiply, Miguel Castro and Andrew Chafin.

Aug. 21 — Tommy Pham’s walk-off headlines D-backs’ resilient effort

“That’s probably one of the best wins I’ve ever been a part of.”

That was Pham after he had the walk-off hit to give Arizona a 4-3 win in 11 innings over the Rangers.

The D-backs were originally down 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth when Marte homered off Aroldis Chapman to tie the game. After a scoreless 10th, Texas racked up two runs off Kevin Ginkel in the 11th. Nick Ahmed and Corbin Carroll recorded two straight outs to kick off the bottom-half, but a Marte intentional walk was followed by a double by Geraldo Perdomo and then Pham’s two-RBI double walked it off.

This was a bullpen by game from Arizona that nearly went flawlessly except for Adolis Garcia’s solo homer in the seventh inning off rookie Slade Cecconi, who had only that one run on his record in five innings pitched. Mantiply, McGough, Justin Martinez, Castro, Paul Sewald and Ginkel were the other pitchers used.

The D-backs had no chance against Texas’ shiny new trade deadline acquisition Jordan Montgomery. He tossed eight scoreless innings on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts.

Aug. 22 — Alek Thomas’ web gem of the season closes out Rangers

Remember this?

CATCH OF THE YEAR. 😱 pic.twitter.com/VLPvdWfw82

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) August 23, 2023

That’s the biggest memory against the Rangers this season, and rightfully so. But the game, a 6-3 D-backs win, got there because of Gallen’s 11 strikeouts through seven innings he gave up just a run in, at that point looking like a signature victory to headline Gallen’s late push for a Cy Young award.

Arizona only had one extra-base hit and it was not a RBI. All six runs came via singles, errors and sacrifice flies. Texas had 13 hits but only managed to piece together three runs off it, going 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

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