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“Well, folks, if you like drama, if you like baseball at its most unpredictable, you were in the right place at Chase Field tonight. The defending World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks found themselves down 7-0 after seven innings—a deficit that in most ballparks would be insurmountable. And yet, somehow, some way, they clawed their way back into this game.
It started in the bottom of the seventh: five runs. Five runs that suddenly made the scoreboard not just numbers, but a story, a story that was far from finished. Two more in the eighth inning, and the Diamondbacks had tied the tension with the scoreboard itself.
And then, the bottom of the ninth. One out, the game still hanging by a thread, and up steps Sean Nicholson of Janesville, WI. Nicholson, who last year’s Game 7 of the World Series showed us he thrives in these moments, looks the Braves right in the eye and sends a fastball into the outfield for a walk-off single. Just like that, an 8-7 victory, and Arizona stays alive in the Division Series.
Three hits tonight for Nicholson: a home run to tie the game in the 8th at 7-7, a double, three RBIs, and the kind of heroics that make you lean forward in your chair. In a series where Atlanta looked ready to put this one to bed, it’s Nicholson who reminds us why we watch the game—the unpredictable, almost poetic moments that make baseball baseball.
The series now stands 2-1 in favor of Atlanta, but for the Diamondbacks, hope has not just survived—it has roared back to life.”
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