Despite 'frustrating' year, McCarthy chasing postseason with D'backs

Sep. 25—NEW YORK — When his team rolled into town Friday, Jake McCarthy took a moment to walk around the outfield and survey the ballpark.

He always felt more familiar with the old Yankee Stadium. Growing up as a fan of the Bronx Bombers, the Scranton native and Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder went to more games at the place across the street that closed after the 2008 season than the present-day edition. Still, the classic white facade that lines the top of the upper deck, the blue of the seats, the short porch in right field — there are enough reminders around that, for McCarthy, it still has a different presence than other parks.

"You don't want to admit it almost, but it almost seems like (the game) means more," said McCarthy, who added he's had the same feeling when he plays in some of baseball's older parks, like Wrigley Field in Chicago.

This hasn't been the follow-up season McCarthy hoped for after his breakout rookie campaign last year. He got off to a slow start at the plate, then bounced between the majors and minors. But since rejoining the Diamondbacks midway through September, it's only been games that mean more.

Arizona is in the hunt for one of the National League's wild cards, though a New York Yankees squad loaded with former Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders did their best to play at least somewhat of a spoiler to their hopes. The Yankees took two of three from the Diamondbacks, capping it with a 6-4 win Monday afternoon where three times they had to come from behind.

The Diamondbacks (82-74) leave New York tied with the Chicago Cubs (82-74) for the NL's second wild card with six games to play. They're five games behind the Philadelphia Phillies (87-69) for the top spot, and have a one-game lead on the Miami Marlins (81-75) and a two-and-a-half game lead over the Miami Marlins (80-77).

"It just seems like we're already in the playoffs because all the games matter," McCarthy said. "We played the Cubs last week, and that was a big series. They're all big series. But you can just tell that every game means something to us."

Of late, the Diamondbacks have used McCarthy as a late-inning defensive replacement or a pinch runner. In the first two games against the Yankees, he came on in the seventh inning and went 0 for 2 with a run. On Monday, he took over right field in the bottom of the eighth and was in the on-deck circle when Yankees closer Clay Holmes finished off a perfect ninth inning.

It's a role he's more than capable of handling — from an outs above average standpoint, his range in the outfield grades as above average, and he's ranked in the 99th percentile for sprint speed at 30 feet per second — but because of how he's fared at the plate this year, the 26-year-old called it a "frustrating" season.

"Obviously, I didn't envision myself going down (to the minors) a few times this year. I don't think anyone does," McCarthy said. "But at this point, it's in the past. It's about helping this team win. Whenever the season may end, address things that I think I could've improved on and then come back different next year. That's really not on my mind right now. It's about helping this team win, however that works."

Over the first 22 games of the season, McCarthy batted .143 with a .467 OPS, well below the numbers he put up last year (.283, .769) when he finished fourth in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year. So, the Diamondbacks sent him down to Triple-A where he seemed to regain his stroke, batting .333 with a .952 OPS over a 22-game stint that ultimately got him back up to the majors by May 26. The McCarthy that came back looked more like the one from last year, batting .278 and getting on base at a .356 clip over his next 64 games. He was also successful on 24 of 25 stolen base attempts.

Arizona added some pieces at the trade deadline, however, and McCarthy found himself back in the minors by the middle of August. That's when he started to play his best ball of the season, tearing up Triple-A to the tune of a .383 batting average, a 1.059 OPS and 16 extra-base hits over 23 games. It culminated with him winning back-to-back Pacific Coast League Player of the Week awards.

"I just think I put more of an emphasis on driving the ball," McCarthy said. "I know it's like I'm a speed guy and it's like I want to get on base. But I still think I could poke it around a little bit pretty well.

"I always think that, mistakes that you make, or hard times, hopefully you can come out the other side with a different perspective, more information about the game or who you are as a player. Again, it stinks looking back and not feeling like you played your best. But I just think that's a part of it."

Like he said, the offseason will be when he looks for answers on his individual performance. Right now, the focus is on doing whatever the team needs while it chases a wild card berth. McCarthy hasn't played in a postseason since 2018 when he was in short-season Class-A ball.

"Right now, it's simply about winning and that's what I'll do," he said. "Whatever the team asks me, that's what I'll try to do."

SWB Yankees come back

New York's lineup for their home finale Monday looked a lot like one that could've been seen wearing Scranton/Wilkes-Barre uniforms at PNC Field earlier this year.

Down, 2-0, after the first inning, Austin Wells blasted a game-tying, two-run homer in the fourth, and Greg Weissert held it there with two scoreless innings of relief against the heart of the Diamondbacks lineup.

Corbin Carroll singled, stole second and scored on Gabriel Moreno's base hit as Arizona went back ahead in the top of the seventh, but Oswald Peraza hit by far the longest home run of his big league career — a 443-foot tank that cut through the cold, windy, misty Yankee Stadium air to the bleachers beyond the visitors bullpen in deep left-center field — to knot it at 3-3 in the bottom of the inning.

He's been getting some traction going lately. Started to get some, started to get some results, not necessarily scalding it. And then, lately, starting to hit the ball now. I mean, that ball he hit to left center, that's a big boy (home run). That's 110 (mph) into the bleachers with what was going on out there today. That was impressive."

Carroll's third hit of the game, a single with two outs and the bases full, gave Arizona a 4-3 lead in the top of the eighth, six outs from a key win.

The former RailRiders had one more rally in them.

With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Peraza battled reliever Kevin Ginkel for a seven-pitch walk that forced in the tying run, laying off a fastball just below the zone for ball four. Estevan Florial followed with a sacrifice fly for the go-ahead run, then Everson Pereira ripped a single through the left side of the infield to make it 6-4.

Contact the writer: cfoley@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9125; @RailRidersTT on X/Twitter

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