Arizona Diamondbacks on Memorial Day: A look back at the good and the bad
May 25, 2015, 6:00 AM | Updated: 6:00 am
Baseball and Memorial Day.
The two go hand-in-hand.
Monday, the Arizona Diamondbacks will play their 18th Memorial Day game when they face the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in the opener of a three-game series.
Since the team’s inception in 1998, the D-backs have experienced plenty of memorable Memorial Day moments — both good and bad.
The First Memorial Day Game
D-backs 3…..Padres 2 – May 25, 1998 – Arizona opened up a three-game series against the first-place (and eventual NL champion) San Diego Padres, winning 3-2. A pitcher’s duel between Omar Daal of the D-backs and Andy Ashby stood at 2-2 in the 8th, when David Dellucci scored on a wild pitch. The interesting thing about that was that Dellucci was dead to rights on a pick-off attempt by Ashby, but the pitcher’s throw got by first baseman Eddie Williams and allowed Dellucci to advance all the way to third base. Gregg Olson came in and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the win for the D-backs.
The Best Memorial Day Game
D-backs 2…..Giants 1 (12 innings) – May 28, 2001 – Another classic duel, this time between Randy Johnson and San Francisco’s Mark Gardner. The game was scoreless all the way into the 10th inning. The D-backs pushed across a run in the top half of the frame when Erubiel Durazo’s RBI single plated Luis Gonzalez. Reliever Brett Prinz came on to try and close things out, but allowed a lead-off home run to Felipe Crespo in the bottom of the 10th. Prinz would work out of a jam when he struck out Russ Davis with the winning run at third base. The game wore on. Mark Grace led off the 12th with a home run off of Giants reliever Tim Worrell to give Arizona a 2-1 lead. Miguel Batista retired San Francisco in order in the bottom of the 12th to give the D-backs a win that took four hours and 17 minutes. Note: The next day, Arizona won 1-0 in an 18-inning affair that took five hours and 53 minutes.
The Good Walk-Offs
D-backs 5…..Rangers 4 – May 27, 2013 – What’s better than a home game on Memorial Day? A doubleheader on Memorial Day, of course. Cliff Pennington closed out the twin bill with an RBI single that scored Miguel Montero with the winning run. The D-backs trailed 4-2 in the eighth, but Didi Gregorius tied things up with two-run homer off of Texas starter Yu Darvish.