PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks fans felt like they were watching a horror show as they spent Halloween at Chase Field. Game 4 of the World Series started off nightmarishly for the D-Backs, with the Texas Rangers jumping out to a 10-0 lead by the third inning. The Rangers dominated in an 11-7 win, pushing the Diamondbacks to the brink of elimination in Downtown Phoenix.
Arizona opting for a bullpen game proved to be costly as soon as Miguel Castro’s wild pitch allowed Josh Jung to score the first run for Texas in the second inning. Things got spooky for the D-Backs soon after. Marcus Semien’s two-RBI triple and Corey Seager’s two-run homer will surely haunt the 48,000 D-Backs fans that made their way to the ballpark for Arizona’s first World Series appearance in 22 years. The Rangers hit for the cycle as a team in the second inning and the D-Backs bullpen looked like a ghost of itself after managing to shut down the Philadelphia Phillies in Came 4 of the NLCS just 11 days ago.
Disaster struck for the Snakes in the third inning. A two-RBI double from Travis Jankowski in his World Series debut was immediately followed by a three-run blast from Semien and suddenly the home team was trying to crawl back from a 10-run deficit. In an instant, Chase Field went from celebrating the return of October baseball to a sobering silence. The Snakes started showing signs of life fourth inning when Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s sacrifice fly ended Arizona’s shutout but the D-Backs struggled at the dish for a majority of the game. The bright spot for Arizona continues to be Ketel Marte, who extended his MLB-record postseason hitting streak to 20 games.
But fans at Chase Field were not entertained. A fan ran onto the field in Downtown Phoenix for at least the second time this postseason. Fans in the upper levels started sailing paper planes and throwing objects onto the diamond by the eighth inning. Perhaps it was a way to distract from Jonah Heim’s solo shot extending Texas’s lead back to 10 runs.
The "Answerbacks" showed up and started to rally in the eighth and ninth innings, scoring six runs to trim Texas's lead. But Game 4 was far from a thriller and tomorrow is do-or-die for the D-Backs. The thought of watching the Texas Rangers celebrating in the Chase Field pool after Wednesday’s Game 5 could send chills down any die-hard Diamondbacks fan’s spine.