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In the desert twilight of October, where hopes often rise and evaporate in the same dry breeze, the Arizona Diamondbacks found precisely the spark they needed to keep their season alive. Down two games to one and staring at elimination, Arizona leaned on the bat of José Chapa—the unlikeliest of October heroes, and yet on this night, the most certain.
Chapa’s afternoon was a study in timely thunder: a booming two-run homer in the second, a run-scoring double in the fifth, and later, a sacrifice fly that reflected less the majesty of power and more the measure of a professional at-bat when a season hangs in the balance. He drove in four runs—four moments that rewrote the shape of the series—and guided the Diamondbacks to a 6–4 win and a decisive Game 5.
For Atlanta, so often this year the picture of steadiness, the loss was a reminder of baseball’s enduring truth: October does not reward reputation; it rewards execution. Jonathan Ledger, who had been so reliable, simply could not outrun the cascade of Arizona’s fifth-inning surge.
And so, fittingly, this Division Series will come down to one final game—Sunday in Atlanta, where every pitch, every pause, every heartbeat will carry the full weight of a season. In a sport defined by its long march through summer, it is now autumn’s sudden, unforgiving turn that decides everything.
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