What If the D-backs got Corey Seager out in game 1 of the 2023 World Series?

It’s the classic situation every kid dreams about when playing at their local park, but for the adults on the field, it’s come to life: World Series, bottom of the ninth, game on the line, a home run ties it up. Our pitcher on the mound is Paul Sewald. A midseason acquisition from Seattle, Sewald has pitched admirably for the D-backs. In the postseason he has yet to give up a run and locked down six saves while also securing a pitching win and no losses.

In the batter’s box is Corey Seager, a noted D-backs rival after spending his first seven season of his career with the Dodgers. The lefty hitter doesn’t wait to ambush Sewald on the first pitch, sending a 94mph fastball off into the Texas night to tie it up. It’s just the sixth time a game-tying home run came in the bottom of the ninth in a World Series. Arizona will go on to lose the game in the 11th and lose the series in five games. But what if Paul Sewald gets the fly out, Seager never hits that home run and the D-backs take game one?

Game 1

Corey Seager makes the second out and Evan Carter comes up. Sewald stares him down, throws a slider, and Carter sends it over the wall into right field. Tie game! Just kidding. Sewald gets the job done and the D-backs take a 1-0 series lead. How exciting! They’ll interview Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte on the field after the game who both went 1-5 but with 2 RBI apiece to outscore Texas by themselves. Ever humble, Marte, the NLCS MVP winner, says he’s happy to help the team win a game on the biggest stage.

Game 2

In real life the D-backs easily handled the Rangers to the tune of a 9-1 victory, roughing up future D-back Jordan Montgomery and Martín Pérez out of the bullpen for eight of those runs. To me, there’s no reason to believe a similar outcome wouldn’t happen again. Maybe Montgomery doesn’t give up all those runs, but once the bullpen comes in, all bets are off.

None of the relievers the Rangers brought in had an ERA below 6.00 for the playoffs to that point. Maybe the Rangers bring in some of their more effective relievers that postseason like Josh Sborz, Cody Bradford, Aroldis Chapman or José Leclerc. Perhaps Tommy Pham doesn’t go 4-4 at the plate again, and maybe Merrill Kelly doesn’t go seven innings deep. But at this point, the D-backs had already taken the lead, and featuring a more than capable bullpen of their own, take Game 2 for themselves.

Teams to go up 2-0 in a MLB best-of-seven postseason series have won 78 of 93 times as of this writing. However, the D-backs just came back from a 2-0 series deficit against the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS to get where they are now. While the odds may be in Arizona’s favor, the D-backs are well aware this series is far from over.

Game 3

The D-backs return home to Arizona for the next three games. With a 2-0 series lead, the fanbase is as excited as its ever been. It may be nearing November, but the Valley is as hot as ever with Diamondbacks Fever. In front of a capacity crowd of 48,517 people, Max Scherzer and Brandon Pfaadt are ready for a pitcher’s duel. However, Scherzer has not been on top of his game this postseason and the D-backs are ready to jump all over him. Meanwhile, Pfaadt is coming off an incredible NLCS where he gave up only two runs in 9.2 innings of work, striking out 16 batters.

Unfortunately, this game also goes much the same way it does in real life, this time to Arizona’s detriment. As we know, Scherzer is one of the greatest pitchers to ever toe the slab. He brings a wealth of postseason experience too, having pitched in 29 postseason games beforehand and winning a title with the 2019 Washington Nationals. In a pivotal Game 3, Mad Max leaves it all out on the field in his advanced age with five innings of one run ball, leaving it to the bullpen to finish things out.

While Pfaadt had a great NCLS, the lights of the World Series and the pressure to please the home crowd get to the young man and he falters a bit. Try as the D-backs might, they lose their first game of the World Series 7-2 with their runs coming in via a Geraldo Perdomo RBI double in the third inning and a Corbin Carroll RBI single in the seventh. Arizona’s fans head home defeated, yet still hopeful.

Game 4

The D-backs are no longer invincible. Still, they’ve won 11 of their last 14 postseason games and are the hottest team in baseball despite a mediocre 84-78 record which was just barely enough to get them into the postseason. After getting some first-game-at-home jitters out of the way, the Snakes are ready to play ball.

In real life the D-backs opted to try a bullpen game strategy, starting the lefty Joe Mantiply against Texas’s own lefty Andrew Heaney, a traditional starter. It didn’t go too swell for Arizona, giving up 10 runs in three innings before turning it over to Ryne Nelson who gave up just one in 5.1. In the alternate universe, Torey Lovullo seems to have a hunch that although he’s a youngster like Pfaadt, Nelson has it in him to step up on the biggest stage of his life. Nelson posts a quality start, giving up just two runs in six innings of work.

The bullpen falters a bit down the stretch, giving up four runs, but the offensive onslaught lead by the top of Arizona’s order gets to Heaney early on and is able to tack on just enough runs of the bullpen to hang on for a 9-6 win front of the home fans to take a 3-1 series lead. In the span of a few short days, the D-backs are on the precipice of history.

Game 5

Seager remains one of the hottest hitters on the planet, Marcus Semien is proving he’s worth the $175 million the Rangers gave him, Evan Carter and Josh Jung look like potential breakout stars and the Rangers’ trade deadline acquisitions have all panned out to get them this deep in the postseason. They’re not going down without a fight. Not this early at least.

Yes, the D-backs are prepared for this game and fully intend to win a championship in front of the home fans. But there’s something about having your back against the wall, being put into a corner, that gives the Rangers a little bit of an extra edge. They pull out all the stops to ensure a victory. After a poor Game 1 start, Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi is looking to redeem himself and does. He’s used to these kind of moments after coming up clutch in the Red Sox’s 2018 World Series run where he gave up just 4 earned runs in 22.1 innings of work.

This time Eovaldi’s able to muster seven innings of shutout ball, much to the chagrin of the D-backs and their fans. The game turns over to the bullpen and Aroldis Chapman’s 100+mph heaters get the D-backs swinging and missing. Neither offense shows up thanks to an excellent showing from Zac Gallen, but Texas does just enough to eke out a 3-0 win and head back home. Baseball players are a notoriously superstitious group, and the D-backs’ players are surely thinking of 2016 when Cleveland blew a 3-1 World Series lead to the Cubs. They’re determined not to let history repeat itself.

Game 6

After failing to take the title in front of the home fans, the series has shifted back to Arlington, Texas. The D-backs, having already taken two games in Texas earlier, aren’t intimidated by the opposing crowd. Relying on his experience in Game 2 and his Korean series title, Merrill Kelly is the starting pitcher tonight with a chance at history. He knows he’s capable of a career-defining performance, but the Rangers’ lineup won’t be easy to slither through.

Right off the bat Kelly encounters a bit of trouble. After getting the first out of the game, he’s bitten by a walk to Seager, single to Carter and another walk Mitch Garver have the bases loaded. The crowd gets loud and ready to explode early. Up to the plate comes Jung who’s having a great postseason of his own. After getting to a 2-2 count, Kelly throws a nasty pitch low and in resulting in a ground ball. It trickles to Perdomo at short, six, four, three, it’s a double play keep the inning scoreless The D-backs are ready for their moment.

After a few innings where the Snakes couldn’t quite get anything going, there’s finally some signs of life in the offense as Carroll launches an opposite field home run to drive in Perdomo, Marte and himself. 3-0 lead. But here come the Rangers in the fifth inning. The third time through can be tricky for pitchers, and it’s no different for Kelly. He’s in trouble once again, and this time the defense can’t bail him out. Coming off his first All Star appearance in July, catcher Jonah Heim is ready for a mistaken location fastball up high and drives in two runners to make it 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth. Sensing danger, Lovullo quickly pulls the plug on Kelly and heads to the ‘pen.

After a shutout inning from Kyle Nelson in the sixth, it’s Miguel Castro’s turn to pitch the seventh. But it doesn’t go as planned. Maybe it’s because he’s having a career-year, maybe it’s redemption after flying out in Game 1, but Corey Seager deposits a baseball over the right field wall into the seats for a three-run blast of his own to give Texas a 5-3 lead. Undeterred, Arizona comes back in the top of the eighth to tie it up thanks to hits by Gabriel Moreno and Christian Walker.

Top of the ninth,Carroll draws a walk from Sborz, and on the first pitch of the next at bat, steals second. Knowing the magnitude of the moment Marte locks in at the plate and screams a liner into the right field gap to send Carroll home and give Arizona the lead. The rest of the offense falls short in the inning, and now it’s now three outs until title town.

After failing to come through in Games 3 and 5, Lovullo decides to stray from Sewald and puts Kevin Ginkel in to close out the series. It would be a fitting end to the season for Ginkel and the D-backs if he can pull it off. Ginkel’s is one of the longer tenured D-backs having played there since 2019. He was part of the 2021 squad that lost 110 games, and here is now, ever so close to a ring. There will be no dramatics here as Ginkel is steady as ever, having not allowed a run all postseason.

With two outs, Semien grounds out to Evan Longoria. In his final career game, Longoria throws the ball across the infield to Walker, and Arizona brings home their second World Series. The D-backs have injected their venom into the Rangers franchise, killing their hopes of attaining their first title.