MLB Rankings: The greatest hits of the season’s final week
By Bill Felber
MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits of the Final Week
4. Christian Walker, Arizona Diamondbacks, 57 percent
The Diamondbacks’ furtive run for a National League wild-card spot was over by the time Saturday’s contest against the Padres began at Chase Field. Like most teams they were, by then, playing for mere pride.
But pride was something the Snakes frequently displayed in abundance during this over-achieving season, including Saturday. Trailing 5-1 entering the bottom of the seventh, they rallied for five runs to win 6-5, with Walker providing the decisive blow.
Like many rallies, this one began with a pitching change. Matt Strahm, San Diego’s third pitcher had worked a scoreless sixth, but only twice in the past month had he recorded more than three outs in an appearance, so interim manager Rod Barajas did the reactionary thing, lifting Strahm in favor of the “next man up,” in this case David Bednar.
Given San Diego’s fourth-place standing in the NL West, the stakes weren’t especially high, but Barajas fell afoul of the principle of bullpen roulette. That’s the dictum, ignored by almost every manager these days, which stipulates that if you go to the pen frequently enough you will eventually find the guy who doesn’t have his stuff that day.
In Bednar’s case, he issued a one-out walk to Alex Avila, followed that by allowing pinch hitter Domingo Leyba to single and then offered up a double to Jarrod Dyson that pushed Avila across.
Josh Rojas followed with a bases-loaded walk, and although Bednar did retire Eduardo Escobar – on a hot liner to short – that still brought Walker to the plate as the go-ahead run.
Walker extracted the fullest possible penalty on Bednar, slamming a 1-1 pitch over the wall in deep left-center for an odds-shifting grand slam.
Six outs remained to be gotten, but the D-Backs got them, Kevin Ginkel closing out the game by retiring Wil Myers with the tying run at second base.