Arizona Diamondbacks reach World Series, proving beyond a doubt they belong

PHILADELPHIA — The silence was louder than any cheers or jeers in the first inning of the winner-take-all Game 7 between the Phillies and Diamondbacks on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Arizona rookies Corbin Carroll and Brandon Pfaadt had taken all the pfight out of the notoriously rowdy Philly phanatics.

Carroll had singled and scored. Pfaadt got Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper to strike out, zapping a battery-throwing fanbase of all its juice.

The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2, winning the National League pennant and advancing to the World Series for only the second time in franchise history.

To any remaining naysayers, the Arizona Diamondbacks deserve to be here.

They belong.

The silence after the game was a jarring contrast to the scene just a few hours before the first pitch, when Phillies fans were in a lather.

The giant video scoreboard in left field showed a clip of a sports radio shock jock called “Mad Dog,” saying he’d quit if the Diamondbacks won.

Outside of the park, cover band Go Go Gadjet was leading a sing-along of “A-O-K,” which Philly fan-favorite Bryson Stott walks out to.

And across the street in a parking lot, someone had gotten ahold of a trumpet and was bleating out Survivor’s “Burning Heart,” made famous when Philly icon Rocky was training to fight a giant Russian during the Cold War.

There had never been a Game 7 in the 140-year history of this franchise and every generation of fan — from Robin Roberts to Dick Allen to Steve Carlton to Joe Morgan to Mike Schmidt to John Kruk to Ryan Howard to Jimmy Rollins to Doc Halladay to Kyle Schwarber — was Phillie-ing up the air with nervous tension.

And then there were the Diamondbacks. Call them cold-blooded?

It wasn’t immediately clear if these guys even knew what a Game 7 was, let alone what it meant.

“You know, obviously we know it's Game 7 in the NLCS,” closer Paul Sewald said before the game. “The winner gets to go to the World Series. But when you start to put too much pressure on a result rather than a process is when you start to get out of your process and start to not perform the way you can.

“We could lose today and the season would be over. That's a reality. But we're going to give it everything we have to try and fight and make sure that we have games next week … The guys in there are ready. The vibe, feel is very, ‘Hey, let's go out there and see what we can do.’”

Arizona short stop Geraldo Perdomo echoed Sewaldt.

“Whether it's Game 7, 6, or any game, you should treat it is the same way,” he said through an interpreter. He was grinning like a knew a secret.

“The difference is, at the end of the day, somebody is going to the World Series, and the other team goes home. But before that, it should be the same.”

The Diamondbacks, according to the so-called baseball experts, weren’t even supposed to be here.

No playoff team had fewer wins. Their superstar was a 23-year-old rookie. And they July was marked by such a bad skid, it took an August and September of winning to bleach the stain out.

The Diamondbacks, according to the “experts,” should have lost to the first-place Brewers, but they didn’t.

They should have lost, according to the “experts,” to the rival Dodgers (who usually abuse the Diamondbacks the way cheesesteaks abuse arteries), but they didn’t.

And certainly, according to the “experts,” they weren’t supposed to hang with the hard-hitting Phillies, who’ve turned their ballpark into the best home-field advantage in baseball postseason history.

Even if the Phillies hadn’t come into the NLCS on a record-setting home playoff win streak, there had only been five teams to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games on the road.

Make that six.

Anyway, baseball isn’t figure skating or boxing or mixed martial arts, there are no judges to impress.

In this sport, teams deserve what the standings and the scoreboard say they deserve.

The standings said they deserve to be in the postseason.

The scoreboard said they deserve to be in the World Series.

And Game 7 said they deserve a moment of silence before they head out to mess with Texas.

Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @SayingMoore.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Diamondbacks silence Phillies, doubters on way to World Series