It's OK to admit that before the 2023 MLB playoffs started you didn't know how to pronounce "Pfaadt." Now you know: It rhymes with "thought." As in, nobody thought the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team that was outscored during the regular season, would reach the World Series, especially after dropping the first two games of the National League Championship Series.
Now we know: The Diamondbacks will meet the Texas Rangers in a battle of two teams that had losing records in 2022 and lost more than 100 games just two seasons ago -- 110 for the Diamondbacks, 102 for the Rangers. It has to rate as one of the most unlikely matchups in World Series history.
To get here, both teams had some surprising performances. That's the beauty and joy of October baseball. Adolis Garcia can drive in 15 runs in the American League Championship Series, a record for any postseason series, Nathan Eovaldi can shove and Ketel Marte can get a hit in all 16 of Arizona's playoff games -- but you still need contributions from up and down the roster.
Like the aforementioned Brandon Pfaadt, a rookie right-hander who had a 5.72 ERA in the regular season and started Game 7 of the NLCS -- giving him the third-highest ERA ever for a Game 7 starter. Pfaadt held the Philadelphia Phillies to two runs in four innings, enough to turn the game over to an Arizona bullpen that would fire five scoreless innings. In the most critical at-bat of the game, with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the fourth and the Phillies threatening to break open a 2-1 lead, Pfaadt struck out light-hitting Johan Rojas on a big sweeping breaking ball Rojas chased out of the zone. The Diamondbacks scored twice in the top of fifth and that was, it turned out, the ballgame.
The Diamondbacks entered the postseason with just two trustworthy starters, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. Pfaadt was their No. 3 starter by default. After an initial shaky outing against the Milwaukee Brewers in the wild-card series, in which he got knocked out in the third inning, he proceeded to toss 4⅓ scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the division series and then 5⅔ innings against the Phillies in Game 3, a brilliant outing in which he fanned nine and turned the tide of the series. He didn't get credit for the win in any of those three starts --- but the Diamondbacks won all three games. The entire roster has to chip in.
Let's look at some of the other surprising contributors on both the Diamondbacks and Rangers, and break down why they may end up deciding the 2023 World Series winner.
Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel and Paul Sewald, RPs, Diamondbacks
Key moment: Four scoreless innings in NLCS Game 7 to beat the Phillies
On July 31, the Diamondbacks' bullpen had a 4.42 ERA -- ranked 24th in the majors. Guys had shuffled up and down between the majors and Triple-A all season. GM Mike Hazen knew he had to make a move and acquired Sewald from the Seattle Mariners. The D-backs promptly lost their first nine games of August, including one game Sewald blew when he allowed three runs in the ninth inning.
Eventually, however, the pen came together. Sewald settled into the closer role. Ginkel, who had been the team's best reliever (even though he had even briefly been part of the Triple-A shuttle), took over in the eighth inning. Hazen then signed Thompson, who had been let go by the Tampa Bay Rays, and the tall side-armer got on a roll and settled into a high-leverage reliever. From Aug. 12 on, including the postseason, the bullpen's ERA is 3.31.
The three righties have been spectacular in the postseason. Sewald and Ginkel have combined for 17 scoreless innings. Thompson has allowed three runs in 10⅔ innings, giving the trio a 0.98 ERA. This is how a team that won 84 games and doesn't have a fourth starter can reach the World Series: have your key relievers all get hot at the same time. In Game 7, Ginkel got the biggest outs. After Andrew Saalfrank walked two batters in the seventh, all Ginkel had to do was get Trea Turner and Bryce Harper. He got Turner to swing wildly at two big, hard vertical sliders; got a foul ball on a fastball and then a fly ball on another slider. He fell behind Harper 2-1, as Harper took two sliders below the knees. Two and one is a hitter's count. It would have been understandable to pitch around Harper at that point but Ginkel didn't back down. He threw a 95 mph fastball, a hittable pitch, but Harper just missed and flew out to center field.
Ginkel then fanned the side in the eighth and Sewald went 1-2-3 in the ninth. These three give the Diamondbacks a chance against the Rangers -- where they will once again be the underdog.
"We have just felt like we've played with our backs against the wall all postseason," Sewald said before Game 7. "Maybe all season. So I think we've played in that underdog mode more so far this year, so I think if we can just keep playing like that, that's our best chance."
Alek Thomas, OF, Diamondbacks
Key moment: Two-run, game-tying home run off Craig Kimbrel in NLCS Game 4
Thomas' forte is his defense in center field -- he's so good he pushes speedy Corbin Carroll to a corner outfield position when both start. Thomas' bat, though, has been a work in progress. As a rookie in 2022, he hit .231 with a .619 OPS. In 2023, he got off to such a poor start he was sent back down to Triple-A in mid-May, hitting under .200. He was better the rest of the way, slashing .245/.282/.395 after returning to the majors a month later, but he finished with just nine home runs in 374 at-bats. He's in the lineup for that game-changing glove.
Then the postseason started. He homered against the Brewers. He homered against the Dodgers. He doesn't start against lefties, so he was on the bench for Game 4 in the NLCS. His moment came as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on second base. Hitting for Emmanuel Rivera, he crushed a 3-2 fastball on the outside corner 412 feet to right-center. It was the biggest hit of the series, and after Arizona tacked on another run in the inning, the D-backs pulled out the 6-5 victory. Two games later, Thomas added his fourth home run of the postseason.
"Definitely a roller coaster of a season for me," Thomas said after Game 4. "Yeah, I was sent down, and definitely had to work on some things and change some things. Then I came back up, and it seemed to work out. Then kind of slipped into that funk again, but none of that matters at the end of the day. You still have to show up to work and put your best foot forward. Yeah, it was a lot of hard work."
It will be interesting to see how manager Torey Lovullo uses Thomas against the Rangers. Against lefties, Lovullo has been consistent in his lineup: Carroll starts in center, Tommy Pham moves from DH to right field and Evan Longoria DHs. The Rangers have Jordan Montgomery and possibly Andrew Heaney as lefty starters. The problem is Longoria has done nothing at the plate (and hasn't for three months now) and the Diamondbacks are making themselves worse defensively at two positions -- Carroll isn't as good as Thomas in center and Pham isn't as good as Carroll in right. I doubt Lovullo will change things up, but it feels like the one strategic mistake he's made.
Jordan Montgomery, SP, Rangers
Key moment: Win over Rays in Game 1 of the wild-card series
When the playoffs started, the Rangers' rotation was in disarray. Max Scherzer was injured and believed to be out for the entire postseason. Jon Gray had landed on the IL the final week of the season. Nathan Eovaldi had returned in September after missing a month but had a 9.30 ERA that month. Andrew Heaney and Martin Perez had been banished to the bullpen. The only starter worthy of getting the playoff opener was Montgomery, the other trade deadline acquisition.
And Montgomery pitched an absolute gem, tossing seven scoreless innings against a high-powered Rays offense. The Rangers were on the way, and who knows how October unfolds if Montgomery doesn't deliver in that first game. He later tossed 6 1/3 scoreless innings in a 2-0 victory over the Astros in Game 1 of the ALCS. He came on in relief in Game 7 on two days of rest and picked up another win. Montgomery averages 93 mph with his fastball. Teams obsess over velocity in October, but he's proven velo isn't always king.
It's also noteworthy that Montgomery will be pitching in the World Series while the New York Yankees are once again watching on television. Montgomery began 2022 with the Yankees but was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Harrison Bader -- because the Yankees needed a center fielder and didn't plan on using Montgomery in their postseason rotation that year. When the Cardinals flopped this season, Rangers GM Chris Young acquired Montgomery and reliever Chris Stratton for a couple of prospects. That deal was lost in the dust of the Scherzer trade but has proven to be the most important deadline acquisition.
Josh Sborz, RP, Rangers
Key moment: Three holds against the Astros in the ALCS
It's easy to look at Sborz's 5.50 ERA from the regular season and wonder how the heck Bruce Bochy decided to trust him as the key bridge to get to Aroldis Chapman and Jose Leclerc. Sborz's 2023 was a tale of two seasons. In the first three months he had a 2.70 ERA and held batters to a .164 average. In the final three months he battled a hamstring injury and had a 10.42 ERA and a .300 batting average allowed. In the final series of the regular season, however, he had two impressive outings, and that was enough to suddenly make him a high-leverage bullpen arm.
"It's really just being healthy," Sborz said earlier this postseason. "When I feel right, it just comes out of my hand right every time. I think when I came off the IL the second time, I never got back to being right. With my hamstring being hurt again, I was able to back off, work with some of the front office guys, and just get my pitches moving correctly, where they needed to be." He's allowed one run and two hits in 8 2/3 innings in the postseason while picking up four holds. He throws hard with a fastball that averages 97 mph, but as he alluded to, it's more about location for him: Spotting the fastball in the right places and then getting to his slider or curveball -- a rare reliever with two good breaking balls.
Jonah Heim, C, Rangers
Key moment: Two-run home run off Framber Valdez in ALCS Game 6
Heim was a nine-year minor league veteran who had gone from Baltimore to Tampa Bay to Oakland when the Rangers acquired the lanky backstop in the Elvis Andrus trade before the 2021 season. He hit .196 that year for Texas but the Rangers stuck with him due to his outstanding defense, and he's turned into a solid hitter, producing a .258/.317/.438 line with 18 home runs while also being the Gold Glove favorite (he ranks as one of the best pitch framers in the business).
Heim had homered off Valdez in Game 2 -- a 408-foot blast on a 1-2 curveball -- and faced him in Game 6 in the fourth inning with the score tied and two outs. Valdez threw an 0-1 changeup that hung up in the zone and Heim lofted a fly ball to right field that just snuck over the glove of a leaping Kyle Tucker. It traveled a mere 336 feet -- hardly the Rangers' hardest-hit home run of the playoffs -- but it gave Texas a 3-1 lead, and, via win probability added, it was the biggest hit of the ALCS for Texas.
Evan Carter, LF, Rangers
Key moment: Two-run double in ALCS Game 7 against the Astros
The 21-year-old rookie has done it all this postseason: He's reached base in all 12 games, hit safely in 11 of them, made several outstanding defensive plays, drawn nine walks, stolen three bases in three attempts and done it all with a smile Bruce Bochy likens to a kid still playing Legion ball. All from a rookie who wasn't called up until September -- and even then, only because Adolis Garcia landed on the IL.
In Game 7, the Rangers were up 4-2 and loaded the bases with one out in the fourth against J.P. France -- for some reason, Dusty Baker thought it was a good idea to leave the 12th man on his staff in the game. Carter spit on a first-pitch curveball in the dirt then curled a soft looper that landed just inside the right-field foul line off a changeup for a two-run double -- the key hit of the game. It was struck at only 72 mph but it was an excellent piece of bat control, not trying to do much with the pitch.
Carter began the postseason batting ninth; now he's hitting third. "I could see this in the kid in spring training," Bochy said after Game 7. "The calmness and confidence that he plays with. We put him in the 9-hole, and he was doing a great job of turning the lineup over. Then we put him in the 5-hole, didn't faze him. Then we put him in the 3-hole, that didn't faze him. This kid has a nice career ahead of him. For a 21-year-old to be in the 3-hole and handle it the way he has, it says a lot about his makeup."