Tommy Pham Delivers 11th inning Walk off Double
Tommy Pham had a great moment today, delivering a two-run walk off double to help the D-backs defeat the Rangers 4-3 in 11 innings. Pham has hit in 12 straight games and has been a catalyst in reviving the dormant D-backs offense. He's also seemed to have found a home, with a manager and teammates that appreciate and support him.
Wearing the D-backs victory vest Pham talked about the feeling of the win and also what it's been like with his new team. "That's probably one of the best wins I've ever been a part of..........I love it. Everyone's been very open arms to me....they just make me feel like I fit in right from the get go".
Sometimes things line up just how a manager plans it. On the pitching side of things, that's how it went for Torey Lovullo the first nine innings of tonight's game. Prior to the game he spoke about his pitching plans for the evening and embracing the opener concept when appropriate. It's something he wasn't willing to do in the past, but recently the combination of injured starters and a lot of youth in the rotation has created a need for him to be more creative. He and his players are responding to that challenge.
Joe Mantiply opened the game by giving up a leadoff single then got two outs against left hand batters. Lovullo went and got Scott McGough who ended the inning with a strike out and then got three more outs retiring the side in order in the second. Lovullo then handed the ball over to Slade Cecconi who went five innings giving up just a solo homer in the 7th to Adolis Garcia. Justin Martinez and Miguel Castro each threw a scoreless inning. Nine innings, one run. You can't draw it up any better than that.
When you script it out and it works the way you want to obviously that's where I'm going with things. There was a strategy, it's like a chess game to me and I'm moving these pieces, I'm moving these players around like this is where you're at and this is what I want you to do. When they respond it's very powerful. But when it doesn't work, it's tough.
The problem for Arizona though was Jordan Montgomery pitched a fantastic game tonight for the Rangers. He threw eight shutout innings, giving up just four hits and walking one. He threw 35 change ups and kept the D-backs off balance all night. It seemed like all the strategy and excellent pitching would go to waste.
Ketel Marte had other ideas. Facing Aroldis Chapman and his 100 MPH heat in the ninth, Marte said he went up to the plate looking for a breaking ball and got one, driving it into the left field bleachers for a dramatic game tying homer.
After the teams exchanged zeroes in the 10th the Rangers scored two in the 11th off of Kevin Ginkel and once again it looked like all the previous good pitching would go to waste. Starting the bottom of the 11th, Gabriel Moreno was the Ghost runner on second base and moved up to third on a fly out to deep right. After pinch hitter Corbin Carroll popped out to the catcher the D-backs were down to their final out.
At this point Rangers manager Bruce Bochy made the choice to intentionally walk Marte to put the tying run on base. Asked if he was surprised that Bochy walked him, he said no, he knows what type of hitter he is. Geraldo Perdomo made Bochy pay however, knocking a double into the right field corner scoring Moreno and sending Marte to third, setting up Pham's dramatic double in the gap.
The D-backs improve to 65-61 with the win and move to within a half game of the San Francisco Giants for the third wild card spot. The Giants and Marlins lost today while the Reds were idle. Game two of the series is tomorrow night at 6:40 P.M. Zac Gallen will be on the mound for the D-backs, facing Jon Gray of the Rangers.
