Bickley Blast: Arizona Diamondbacks have their team of destiny type moment in walk off vs. Dodgers

Bickley Blast: Arizona Diamondbacks have their team of destiny type moment in walk off vs. Dodgers

and Marada boardings. Arizona sports, the local sports leader, Bigley Blast. The Diamondbacks conjured up some voodoo magic on Tuesday night. A team of destiny kind of moment. They rallied to beat the Dodgers in a game that felt both thrilling and redemptive. And that’s because Tory Lavell chose the same buttons he pushed in that terrible loss to the Giants a week ago. And this time they all worked. Adrien Del Castillo delivered big as a pinch hitter. Another onslaught of sacrifice bunts actually paid off. Jorge Barrosa stood and delivered. And Haraldo Purdomo, our favorite frog, spanked a game-winning hit that electrified Chase Field. But it isn’t just our joy. It was the pain inflicted on the Dodgers, a team who is spiraling, a team whose bullpen is actually worse than ours. And that city is full-on panic mode over their baseball team. And in the end, the Diamondbacks gave the Dodgers and Show their version of Arizona losing a one-hit shutout performance from Brandon Fod against the Giants. And when it was over, Chris Gagiola asked a poignant question. Do you believe win tonight? And the answer is yes. And that belief will become a very powerful thing. All right, today’s Bickley Blast brought to you by my great friends at Chapman BMW who make luxury attainable. Find them online at chapmanbmw.com. This is a fun lineup. We mess around like never say diamond back. So we’re always grinding out at bats and just get in the bat to the next guy and just get on base and anything could happen. That that was Jordan Lawler on the 16th of September. He might have coined a phrase, this year’s phrase, never say Diamondbacks. That was eight days ago. Yeah. And I think the Diamondbacks fan base was still clinging to Hope then. It’s eight days later and this is still very much a reality. Yeah, it’s crazy. Absolutely crazy. And last night, um, I’m not going to say last night made all the gut punch losses worth it, but it went a long way into soothing some of the pain from those gut punch losses because it was the Dbacks given the gut punch to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now, we may very well be in a matter of days in the situation. Where did it get away from them? what was the loss that broke the the the Diamondbacks spirit or their chances to make the postseason? But right now, this team and the most important part of this, the fan base has belief, but this team has belief and that’s the most important thing. Yeah. Listen, and coming out of that Giants game that I referenced in the blast, you know how it gutted me and and everybody who was in that stadium waiting for that incredible celebration. It it happened a week later, six days later. So, I I do think that that was there was some redemption in all of that. And and and here we are now going into a game tonight where you’ve got Ryan Nelson, the Diamondback’s best pitcher, I might add. You’ve got Zack Gallen behind that. You’ve got um you’ve got a Mets team that had a rally to beat the Cubs. You think you got to like the Cubs chances of winning today and this thing might all materialize. Paul SK pitching against Reds. Yeah. If you beat the Dodgers uh tonight, we might come in tomorrow and the Diamondbacks might be that team, right? If I may, I know we’ve talked, we’ve dodged around it before on the show, but the face of Arizona sports until further notice is Heraldo Purdomo. Am I wrong? Until I’m not going to say you’re wrong. I’m I’m I don’t know if I’m there yet. Until maybe this team does or doesn’t make the playoffs the next week. He’s and m maybe maybe Kyler Murray or whoever goes out. Well, Deon Booker is going to kind of sort of today is the day that the Suns kind of open their doors to a new season and we don’t know what that’s going to mean for Deon Booker. But until then, I would say I would say Jerry’s getting close is what I would say. I would say I would agree with that. He’s definitely a fan in that weird position of a fan favorite who wasn’t this big hyped player like Corbin Carroll or Kyler Murray was like he sort of organically became the super duper star and fan favorite over the last two years. Yeah. Tory Lavell at one point this year called Heraldo Purdomo elite and there was some reaction to that. He referenced that last night. I said that word one time in my office when I was talking to the front office um about a month ago and and usually I say things and and they shake their head at me like I’m a cuckoo bird but nobody shook their head at me that day. I think we are all we were all watching somebody emerge um and turn into a very very good player and I threw him into that elite category because I I’m you know one’s above replacement the war. I look up there every day and he’s got a 6.8 8 6.9 war and those are among the best players, top five best players in Major League Baseball. So I put him in that category. We talked about it when Jeff Passen awards came out and Heraldo Predomo got the award best player that you still know nothing about and he leaned on that particular stat. his war numbers are up there with the Aaron judges and the show Otanis and most people outside of Arizona still maybe fantasy players know about him but uh his ascent has been remarkable even during the course of the year and I think he got snubbed he wasn’t even mentioned as an all-star candidate when the list of snubs came out in mid July for National League Allstars nobody said wow Heraldo Purdomo got robbed outside of Phoenix Arizona because his rep his national rep wasn’t where it where it’s going or it is now and he plays a loaded position. There’s a lot of star power at the shortstop position in the National League and the American League for that matter, but he’s right up there now. He’s he’s one of the best in the game. Well, listen, during that postseason run in 2023, um I I going into it, I kind of knew that Catel Marte was going to shine. He’s a player that craved the spotlight, a player that felt kind of snubbed by the All-Star game earlier that season and he shined. And Corbin Carroll was fantastic out of the box. In fact, Corbin Carroll, um, he he he’s powered that team to that first series win against the Brewers, which the Diamondbacks weren’t even supposed to do. That got the whole thing started. But by the end of that, it was Heraldo Purdom who you’re like, “This moment is not too big. This kid is shining in this moment.” And then I remember we talked to him the following spring training out at Salt River Fields in the early 2020, 2024, and and he was just full of ambition and personality. And I remember you and I going, “That kid has got it. Whatever that it is, he’s got it.” And he and now it’s all coming to life. He also reflected on where this team is right now after all the bumps and rough patches of this season. Um, it feel good honestly. Um, like I said, I never expected a lot of success early my career. Um, you know, I feel like uh Gabin proved to everyone what what he been doing with me so far. even when people don’t believe in me when I have my uh hard season or my bad season 2022. And like I said, I I’m a kid that I never going to give up. I always going to work hard. It doesn’t matter if I perform bad or good, I going to be the same kid. And you know, it made me special for my family because they they proud and for my teammate, you know, they they know all the work been put together. Corby, Marte, Thomas, all all those all those guy, you know, it’s it’s about all my C is about all the glory to guy and to my teammate. Honestly, he brought it up and I often go back to that 2022 season. Nick Ahmed gets hurt. Heraldo Purdomo at that point is 21, 22 years old and he’s forced to play every day and he didn’t complain about it and he did his job to the best of his ability, but it wasn’t very good. He was he was called the worst offensive player in baseball. And those type of seasons when they happen to young players often will chew those players up and spit them out and they’re never to be heard from again. Yep. So you fast forward three years and to use Jared Carlin’s favorite uh statistic, he’s hitting like a 100 points higher in bang. That’s funny. No, but just to stick with and he’s become a power threat, a run producer. He’s going to drive in stealing bases and at 25 being the unquestioned leader of that clubhouse. Uhhuh. Amazing. And and let’s face it, Corbin Carroll is is a phenom from day one. Yes. But he doesn’t necessarily have that charisma and personality that grabs, you know, he does when he as a player, but not as a as, you know, interviews and as the face of a team. Purdomo just like captures the fans. He has such joy when he talks, when he plays. It It’s great. How many times after games when he does something good, he just talks about the team having fun. I’m just going to have fun. Yeah. Yeah. No, he’s fantastic. His personality, the leadership, it’s just it’s all there. It’s just all there with the guy. Thanks for watching Bickley and Marada. Click to see the latest Bickley Blast and hit the button in the middle to subscribe to Arizona Sports.

Arizona Diamondbacks fans remain hopefully as the team keeps fighting to stay alive in the NL West Wild Card race. After Tuesday night’s walk off win over Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dan Bickley breaks down why fans still believe this team can see postseason play.

Geraldo Perdomo walks-off Dodgers, Diamondbacks 1 game back of playoff spot: https://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/walk-off-la/3597020/

Subscribe to the Arizona Sports daily newsletter: https://bit.ly/3QWcj1x
Read articles from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/
Download the Arizona Sports app: https://arizonasports.com/the-arizona-sports-98-7-fm-app/
Sign up for texts from Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/text-alerts/
Listen live to Arizona Sports: https://arizonasports.com/listen-live/
Watch live: arizonasports.com/watch-live
Follow the team: https://bit.ly/3R0PIAJ

ARIZONA SPORTS SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaSports/
X: https://x.com/azsports
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@arizonasports987
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arizsports/

ARIZONA SPORTS PODCASTS: https://arizonasports.com/category/podcasts/

Video: Felisa Cárdenas and Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports
Photo: Felisa Cárdenas/Arizona Sports