Diamondbacks Game 4 starter: LHP Joe Mantiply

If Ryan Thompson didn’t know better, he might have thought he’d been transported back in time. This was Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Chase Field, but it felt familiar and disconcerting. It felt like the 2020 World Series in Arlington, Texas.

“I’m still scarred by that,” Thompson said, smiling by his locker after the Diamondbacks’ first victory of this series, a 2-1 thriller over the Philadelphia Phillies. “You can’t help but think about it.”

Thompson was part of the Tampa Bay bullpen three years ago, in the neutral-site World Series, when Rays manager Kevin Cash lifted Blake Snell in the sixth inning of a shutout against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Globe Life Field. The leadoff man, Mookie Betts, was coming to bat, and though Snell had fanned him twice, Cash wanted a different look. The Dodgers did, too, and they came back against the Rays bullpen to clinch the title.

So it was on Thursday: shutout, sixth inning, leadoff man coming up after striking out twice. Torey Lovullo, the Diamondbacks’ manager, removed his pitcher, Brandon Pfaadt, from a dazzling outing, trusting the rest of the game to the bullpen.

“Am I an idiot if I take him out of the game with nine strikeouts at five and two-thirds?” Lovullo said he asked his coaches — and he wasn’t the only one.

“Pfaadt was spectacular,” said Thompson, who signed with Arizona in August after being released by the Rays. “I think it’s the best postseason outing I’ve seen this year from anybody, from any team. He was unhittable. So it’s in the back of your mind, you’re like, ‘Dude, just let this guy go nine. He’s going to dominate all game!’

“But the same reason the Rays did it, I’m assuming, is why we did it. The third time hitters see you, the analytics change a little bit. And we won the game – so good for Torey.”

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