Geraldo Perdomo got the Arizona Diamondbacks started with an unexpected homer, then Ketel Marte made the 48,000-plus at Chase Field giddy with another blast.
Christian Walker followed with a line-drive shot into the left-field seats and then Gabriel Moreno polished off the onslaught with a moonshot into left-center.
One inning. Four hitters. Four solo homers.
Photo: AFP
“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Walker said.
The hard-hitting Diamondbacks on Wednesday rode a record-setting barrage of homers in the third inning to a 4-2 win in Game 3 of their National League Division Series, sweeping the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers out of the playoffs.
The Diamondbacks return to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2007, where they are to face either the Phillies or the Braves.
“This is what we worked all year for,” Taiwanese-American rookie sensation Corbin Carroll said. “It’s amazing to be here. It doesn’t feel real.”
Arizona — the No. 6 seeds after squeezing into the playoffs with an 84-78 record — have won all five of their games in the post-season, sweeping aside both the Brewers in a best-of-three series and the Dodgers in a best-of-five.
The wild-card Diamondbacks won with brawn in this one, slugging a postseason-record four homers in the third inning off veteran right-hander Lance Lynn. That gave Arizona a 4-0 lead they never relinquished.
“It’s almost unbelievable, right? I’m a fan, too, and I was looking at it thinking, what in the world is happening here?” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said.
National League West title holders the Dodgers rallied for two runs in the seventh inning on two-out RBI singles from Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez off side-armer Ryan Thompson, but lefty Andrew Saalfrank entered and retired Austin Barnes on a groundout.
Will Smith had a one-out single in the ninth inning off closer Paul Sewald, but Taylor hit a flyout to deep center and Hernandez flied out to left to end it.
Sewald, acquired from Seattle in a trade-deadline deal, earned his fourth save of the post-season.
“You look at the game, the series, they outplayed us, and there’s no other spin to it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “As far as our clubhouse, it’s just a lot of disappointment.”
Lynn cruised through the first two innings of a scoreless game — giving no indication what was about to come.
Perdomo started the scoring with a leadoff homer, his first long ball since Aug. 13. One out later, Marte hit a drive to right on a 1-0 cutter. With two outs, Walker pulled a 3-1 cutter to left for a 3-0 lead.
Then came No. 4 — Moreno sliced a 2-1 fastball down the line to the opposite field that right-field umpire Gabe Morales called fair, but the umpires huddled and crew chief Todd Tichenor reversed the call to foul, a decision upheld by a video review.
Moreno then drove Lynn’s very next pitch — a hanging slider — over the left-field wall, flipping his bat high in the air as he started his trot.
“The one that was really impressive for me was Gabby Moreno. He hits one foul, then he hits one fair. It’s a great moment for us,” Lovullo said.
A few moments later, a dejected Lynn handed the ball to Roberts and trudged toward the dugout.
Lynn gave up 44 homers in the regular season, the most in the majors. The previous mark of three homers in a post-season inning had been accomplished 12 times, most recently by the Dodgers against Atlanta in 2020.
Arizona rookie right-hander Brandon Pfaadt threw 4-1/3 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and striking out two.
While the Diamondbacks thrived, the Dodgers had no answers for a third straight game. A stacked lineup with a pair of former Most Valuable Players — Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman — could not make much of an impact throughout the series.
Both All-Stars struck out in the eighth inning against Kevin Ginkel with a runner on first. Betts finished the series none for 11, while Freeman was one for 10.
“The bottom line is that they outplayed us in every facet of the game,” Roberts said.
Elsewhere, Jose Abreu went two-for-four with a go-ahead, two-run homer as the Houston Astros held on to beat Minnesota Twins 3-2 in Minneapolis and clinch their American League Division Series.
Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos each clubbed two home runs as hosts the Philadelphia Phillies throttled the Atlanta Braves 10-2 to be one win from eliminating their division rivals in the National League Division Series for the second straight season.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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