SCOTTSDALE, AZ—Spring Training is rolling along, and the Arizona Diamondbacks are working their way into form and having lots of success on the field and on the mound. Today, they face the lowly Chicago White Sox, a team coming off one of the worst seasons in baseball history, losing a record 121 games.
Of course, this is a new season with a newly shaped roster. The Dbacks are looking to get back into the conversation of playing for a World Series again and are grinding their way through the Spring, making strides toward that end.
The game featured the fourth start for newly acquired pitcher Corbin Burns, who looks to round into form for the closely approaching season. Corbin has pitched very well leading into today, and the Dbacks were hoping to see him in a more stressful situation to see how he handles it, like pitching with no outs and runners in scoring position on multiple bases.
Burns did not disappoint. He got into that situation today, giving up four hits, four strikeouts, and one earned run in only four innings. His ERA (1.35) is still elite, and he did not get rocky as the situation got worse.
Burns punched out his first three batters much like he has been doing all Spring. The second inning was the same, blowing through the side with no damage on the bases. But in the third inning, he ran into just a little hiccup, giving up two doubles in the side, one to right to Narvaez and the other to Baldwin, which allowed a run to tie the game at that point 1-1.
The inning continued, as Burns got out of the jam and got Meidroth to line into a double play to get out of the inning, only giving up the one run in the third. Then he went back to not allowing a base runner in the fourth, getting two of the three batters to ground out and the other to line-out, leaving a clean inning to recover from the only adversity he has faced in the Spring thus far.
Then the fifth inning came around, and the first batter, Jankowski, singled to left. Torey then pulled the plug on the former Cy Young winner for the day, replacing him with John Curtiss, who was able to get three straight batters to fly out with popups and get out of the inning unscathed.
At this point in the game, the Dbacks were leading 2-1, getting the lead from a bomb home run from new first basemen Josh Naylor (393 ft), whom everyone is watching closely as he replaces last year’s fan-favored Christian Walker.
The Snakes offense began to flex its muscles a little in the fifth inning. Getting things off to a good start was a single to center from the reliable Perdomo, which set up Gurriel Jr. getting on with Marte being hit by a pitch. The inning was blown open with a Randall Grichuk double, and the Dbacks were ahead 6-1. The fans that filled up the Salt River fields were ecstatic.
Then came the 8th inning, and relief pitcher Kyle Nelson, with an ERA over 7.0, gave up the Diamondback lead, giving up four runs off three hits. The Snakes’ lead was gone, and the White Sox positioned themselves to steal a victory at Salt River Fields, leading 8-7 with one inning remaining.
Reliever Juan Morillo came on to keep the top of the 9th inning clean. The score remained 8-7, and the Dbacks were now down to their final three outs to win or lose this game.
There is nothing like the excitement of a one-run game in the final three outs. Vargas grounded out and walked, followed by a strikeout swinging by Lawlar. Then, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, just like it was drawn up by a little kid growing up loving the game at that moment, backup first baseman Trey Mancini delivered the home run every kid dreams of, with a two-run blast (423 feet) to center for the walk-off to win the game 9-8.
That is why Spring training baseball is so exciting, because you never know who will be the hero in a game and showcase skills in the clutch and perhaps keep thoughts close in the managers mind that they could be a good piece of the regular season puzzle.
He has a newly signed minor league deal with the club. Mancini, coming off a fight with colon cancer, will be in the 2020 season. he was a major league player for seven years and is only 32 years of age, showing he has plenty of good baseball left in him.
The best feel-good story so far in Spring Training 2025, and the crowd at Salt River Fields showed their appreciation and love to a guy fighting the odds and winning. They still do exist in real life and not just movies.
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