Paul Sewald, Diamondbacks finish off Phillies in Game 7 to reach World Series

PHILADELPHIA — With the dogpile dispersed, the carpet soaked with Budweiser and champagne, the air in the visitors’ clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park filled with cigar smoke, the Diamondbacks relished their latest feat late Tuesday night: extending a deeply improbable October run to baseball’s brightest stage. 

Arizona will play in the World Series for the first time in a generation after beating the Phillies, 4-2, in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, a second backs-against-the-wall, win-or-go-home victory in as many days at the sport’s loudest, rowdiest ballpark. 

Their 84 wins in the regular season, the third-fewest of any pennant winner in a full season, were barely good enough to make the playoffs. They snuck in as the sixth of six seeds. Now, the D-backs are NL champions. 

The Rangers, who won the American League by dethroning the Astros, will host the Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the Fall Classic on Friday night in Arlington, Texas. 

“No one expected to be National League champions. That would be silly to expect that,” closer Paul Sewald said. “We believed that, but we weren’t expecting it. We’ve been taking it day by day. That’s how we’ve been able to overcome everything that’s happened all season. Taking it every day, continuing to get better and then in this postseason, playing with nothing to lose.” 

“House money” is what Sewald called it Monday afternoon, when they needed to win two in a row to keep their season alive. To anyone outside the organization, it felt like they had no shot — but then again, they began the month it seemed with little chance to make anything of it, too. 

Third baseman/designated hitter Evan Longoria, who will play in the World Series for the first time since he was a Rays rookie in 2008, jokingly called the Diamondbacks’ postseason berth a “charity case.” Then they swept the Brewers in the Wild Card Series, wrecked the division rival Dodgers in the Division Series and rallied from a 2-0 deficit in this best-of-seven NLCS, winning four of the final five games — ousting the defending NL champs in their home stadium. 

“There’s a lot of grit going into that,” Arizona general manager Mike Hazen said. “There’s a lot of having to deal with the environment here, the fans — it’s such a great baseball environment. This is what we want. This is where we want to be, where we want to play. If you’re going to win, you have to go through places like this, the best baseball cities in our sport. And we were able to do it.” 

The final out, Jake Cave’s fly ball to Corbin Carroll in rightfield, drew eerie silence followed by brief boos from the announced crowd of 45,397. 

“You come into this building and beat us twice in this type of atmosphere, you're doing some things right,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. 

Finally showing up at the plate in the clincher was Carroll, the likely NL Rookie of the Year, who went 3-for-4, scoring two of Arizona’s runs and driving in the other two. In the first six games of the series, he was 3-for-23. 

Corbin scored in the top of the first, when he singled, advanced to third on Gabriel Moreno’s hit-and-run single and went home on Christian Walker’s grounder to third, which was hit just softly enough that the Phillies’ infield turned it into a forceout at second base and not an inning-ending double play. 

In the top of the fifth, a half-inning after the Phillies had taken a lead, Carroll plated Emmanuel Rivera with a single, stole second base and came around on Moreno’s single. 

Carroll added a sacrifice fly in the seventh to end the scoring for both teams. 

“The performance hasn’t been there for me for whatever reasons,” Carroll said. “But it felt good to help the team out.” 

Longoria said: “A player like Corbin, it’s only a matter of time before he breaks out. I’ve been telling Corbin . . . I knew that there was going to be a moment where he stepped up, where he was the guy that he was for us all year. It was only a matter of time.” 

And Hazen: “You can’t win without superstars.” 

These Diamondbacks are reminiscent of last year’s Phillies, who got hot late and ended up in the World Series, losing to Houston. They looked destined to get another chance — until they didn’t. Ace Zack Wheeler offered 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief, but it wasn’t enough. Bryce Harper’s hard-hit flyout in the seventh — 108 mph off the bat but basically straight up for a routine catch by centerfielder Alek Thomas — marked the end of Philadelphia’s last best chance. 

The man on the mound at the end was Sewald, a soft-tossing righthander who was mentally preparing for life after baseball when the Mets cut him three years ago. Hazen acquired him from the Mariners at the trade deadline, helping to stabilize a group of relievers who Sewald said had been “the worst bullpen in baseball.” 

Now he and the Diamondbacks are headed to the World Series. 

“This is so wild,” Sewald said. “An 84-win team?” 

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.