Despite Success, Paul Sewald Says Job's Not Done
The Arizona Diamondbacks are up two games to none over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS series during the 2023 MLB postseason. The D-backs have not lost yet thanks to some clutch hitting, great starting pitching, and a dominant closer named Paul Sewald who wasn't even on the team until August. Sewald was acquired by General Manager Mike Hazen at the MLB Trade Deadline in August for a steep price of three players including fan-favorite Josh Rojas. However, it would be correct to say that the D-backs likely don't even make the playoffs if they don't have Paul Sewald.
His performance during this postseason run for the D-backs has been critical to the team's success. He recorded two saves in the brief two-game sweep of the Brewers in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. Now, he just recorded his first 1-2-3 save in the 9th inning for the D-backs in Game Two against the Dodgers. It was his first save attempt in a D-backs uniform to get three outs in straight order, while his other times doing that were not in save attempts. It couldn't have come at a better time as the D-backs won 4-2 and are now needing to win just one of their next three games to advance to the NLCS.
So far in this postseason, Sewald has a 0.00 ERA in three games and three innings with one hit, four strikeouts, and two hit-by-pitches. His FIP is a sparkling 2.59. However, according to Sewald, "The job's not finished, we have to win another game" resonates with the whole D-backs clubhouse as Zac Gallen echoed that sentiment in his own press conference.
Sewald was quick to acknowledge that the bullpen has been better since he got there because he feels that he allowed everyone else to get into better roles and relax. He was especially proud of Ryan Thompson and Andrew Saalfrank who navigated out of a bases-loaded situation in the sixth inning and Thompson throwing a clean seventh inning to help get the D-backs and their lead to the ninth inning so Sewald could shut it down.
"I want to give Ryan Thompson a lot of credit when he got here it right at September 1st and took over kind of that seventh inning role. It really started to blend into six, seven, eight, nine, everybody knew their role. And Salty [Saalfrank], a rookie, what's he have, eight, nine innings career and he's coming in some huge situations here in the postseason and handled them really well.It makes my job a lot easier when they keep putting up zeros towards the back of the game and then I have a comfortable lead."
Sewald reflected on his career and time with Seattle admitting that he expected a trade and had a lot of memories there. It took him a bit of time to accept but that he was "excited to come to Arizona. We love Phoenix and excited to jump into a team that had really played well for most of the season a put us in a position where a closer might be the last piece that you need to get to the postseason." He was correct in presuming that a closer was truly the biggest piece that the Diamondbacks needed in order to make the playoffs and potentially make some noise as an underdog team.
The Diamondbacks are playing with nothing to lose and so is Sewald. They know they are the underdogs and not supposed to be winning like they are or have won the first four games of their postseason. Sewald said "Why would we play with anything to lose? We were the sixth seed. We weren't supposed to win in Milwaukee. No one picked us to win there. No one is going to pick us to beat the Dodgers when we haven't played well against them. I think we're going out there with a lot of confidence, not afraid to lose."
It seems that this attitude will stay the same as the D-backs take on the Dodgers in Game Three of the NLDS in a sold-out stadium at Chase Field in hopes of clinching a berth to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2007. Should the game be close in the ninth inning, expect to see Arizona's closer on the mound in hopes of finishing the job.
