Arizona Diamondbacks World Series: Paul Sewald, meet the legend of Byung-Hyun Kim
ARLINGTON, Texas — Paul Sewald, meet the legend of Byung-Hyun Kim.
Kim was the closer for the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, who blew two saves in the World Series that year against the New York Yankees. Sewald, of course, is the closer for the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks, who blew the save in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night at Globe Life Field, a 6-5 Texas Rangers win in 11 innings.
The good news is that nobody in the Arizona clubhouse is going to spend too much time thinking about history.
“Nothing there for me,” DBacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “I don't think any of these players were old enough to possibly remember what was going on at that time. I know we have some really big baseball fans; they probably remember. But I don't think anybody is connecting those dots.”
Lovullo, Sewald and the rest of the DBacks have to put this loss behind them quickly. Game 2 is Saturday night, and there will be big questions to answer: Arizona makes a living beating other teams in dramatic fashion; how will they respond now that it’s been done to them? Do the DBacks have it in them to just clobber somebody for once? Won’t all these close games eventually wear them down?
“We played a pretty good baseball game,” Lovullo said. “We were in a position to win it. We did a lot right. Let's improve on the things that we need to tighten up and come out tomorrow and play our finest game. That's all we can do. That's how we've looked at it all season long.
“It's frustrating. This is how the game goes sometimes. And we've got to find a way to be resilient and adaptable and come out with a clean mind and do our best. I have every reason to believe we will. We've done it a lot this year.”
Why pitch to Corey Seager?
As for Game 1, there’s the question of whether Sewald was pitching to Corey Seager in the bottom of the ninth. Seager is famously clutch.
It’s reasonable to wonder why Sewald was pitching to Seager, at all. Especially since in the National League Championship Series, Arizona pitchers avoided Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper like a couple of cowboys who’d stepped in cowpies.
“In the fantasy land,” Lovullo said, “knowing the outcome and you're trying to prevent a 2-run home run to stay in the game, yeah, you feel like, you put him on, and you've got first and second with some very capable hitters behind him, which you've got to be careful of.”
In other words, it’s as simple as Baseball 101: You can’t walk the tying run on base.
“I was thinking with a very clear head,” Lovullo said. “Make pitches, bring our closer into the game and we'll get a couple of outs here and march off the field. That was my mindset.”
His Texas counterpart, Bruce Bochy, managing in his fifth World Series, agreed. He wasn’t surprised Arizona was pitching to Seager.
“Well, there was a guy on,” Bochy said. “We had some pretty good hitters coming up. It's hard to start putting guys on with a two-run lead. And their closer, he's really tough, really tough.”
Now, whether Adolis Garcia should have gotten anything to hit from Miguel Castro in the 11th is a different question.
Why pitch to Aldois Garcia?
There was one out, the bases were empty, Mitch Garver was on deck and Austin Hedges was in the hole.
Garver can hit, but he was 0-for-3 with a pair of walks, and Hedges … let’s just say Austin is weird with a bat in his hands.
Maybe it would have been smart to walk Garcia, nibble around Garver and then see if you can trim Hedges into a double-play ball?
It’s all hindsight.
But let me give you one more thing to think about.
Corey Seager, meet the legend of Josh Hamilton.
Hamilton was the Rangers slugger who homered in the 10th inning in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, giving Texas a late lead over the St. Louis Cardinals.
What do the legends of Kim and Hamilton have in common for DBacks fans? They’re both good omens for Arizona fans.
Kim has a World Series ring. Hamilton doesn’t.
The Diamondbacks won the 2001 World Series, despite losing Games 4 and 5.
And the Rangers lost the 2011 World Series, despite Hamilton’s heroics.
If those parallel moments repeat, the DBacks will walk away as champions.
Now, if you don’t think these things matter for the current series (because they don’t), then this is a real problem for Arizona.
You can’t let wins slip away in the postseason.
The opportunities might ever come back.
Arizona is only down 0-1.
Plenty of time to rewrite any legacy that’s being shaped.
Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @SayingMoore.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Paul Sewald, meet the legend of Byung-Hyun Kim
