Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson, potential Rookie of the Year candidates in their respective leagues, faced off against each other Friday night at Chase Field as the Arizona Diamondbacks (69-65) welcomed the AL East leading Baltimore Orioles (83-50) to Chase Field Friday night.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. got Arizona out to an early lead with a first-inning home run that scored Ketel Marte.
The two rookie phenoms had a moment in the fourth inning when the D-Backs had runners on the corners.
Nick Ahmed hit a towering pop that forced Henderson into short left field, allowing Carroll to tag up at third, but Henderson gunned him down at home.
Christian Walker was able to get Arizona some insurance runs in the sixth inning, when he hit his team leading 29th home run, driving in teammate Tommy Pham to make it a 4-1 contest.
Baltimore did not go away quietly. Henderson and Ryan O’Hearn hit back-to-back doubles in the top half of the eighth, slicing the lead in half, 4-2.
But, in the end, Paul Sewald was able to close out the game, earning his ninth save, while improving the D-backs record to 70-65.
Arizona has won 13 of their last 19 games and are now tied with the San Francisco Giants for the final Wild Card spot.
Zach Davies looked sharp in his second start back since coming off the IL. Navigating through a slug-happy Orioles lineup. He tossed clean six innings, striking out six, while giving up four hits and one earned run.
“Today for me was all about Zach Davies,” said Diamondback’s manager Torey Lovullo after the game. “He comes out and gives us six quality innings… gives up an early point… we erase that with a big home run from Gurriel. And then Zach took it over for the next five innings which I thought was fantastic—he had command of three pitches today.”
Today was the deadline for MLB teams to call up players within their organizations to expand current 26-man roster to the newest 28-man roster.
Lovullo announced earlier today that the Diamondbacks had chosen to activate 3B/1B Emmanuel Rivera, RF/1B Pavin Smith and RP Luis Frias from AAA Reno to the active roster, while optioning INF Buddy Kennedy to Reno.
“Pavin and Frias were two guys that we targeted,” Lovullo told reporters before the game. “The versatility of Pavin to maybe spell Walk at first base for a game or two… get Walk off his feet. Pavin’s been having quality at bats, he was very vulnerable the last time he came in just wasn’t feeling right.”
Lovullo went on to explain the situation.
“The last time we sent Frias out it may not have been the fairest option because we were just really thin in the pitching department. I’ve felt like over the past two call ups he’s been extremely close to staying here the rest of his career,” Lovullo said.
Like the call ups today, both Carroll and Henderson were brought up to the big leagues with the roster expansions that took place at this time last season.
Both were able turn heads quickly in just over a month of play last September.
Nothing has changed since the end of last season, as they have both been everyday players that have been key contributors to their teams, while at the same time running away with the AL and NL Rookie of the Year awards.
Coming into play on Friday, Carroll and Henderson’s statistics looked nearly identical, ranking them both at the top of a majority of rookie statistical hitting categories.
| 2023 Statistics | GP | BA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | OBP |
| Corbin Carroll | 129 | .279 | 128 | 25 | 8 | 25 | 65 | 51 | .361 |
| Gunnar Henderson | 122 | .252 | 110 | 21 | 6 | 22 | 65 | 50 | .331 |
Wins Above Replacement, otherwise known as WAR, is a statistic used to measure a player’s value based on how many more wins he’s worth than someone else that is replaceable at his position.
| 2023 WAR Statistics | WAR
(overall) |
oWAR (offense) | dWAR
(defense) |
| Corbin Carroll | 4.8 | 5.0 | -0.4 |
| Gunnar Henderson | 4.6 | 3.5 | 1.5 |
To say that both players add wins and value to their lineup is an understatement. Corbin Carroll (4.8) and Gunnar Henderson (4.6) lead the Diamondbacks and Orioles in the WAR category.
In simpler terms, they are arguably the most valuable players to each team’s driven success this season.
The D-Backs look to take game two of the series tomorrow night with Slade Cecconi (0-0 2.57 ERA) getting the nod for the Snakes and Kyle Braddish (9-6 3.03 ERA) going for Baltimore.
