D-backs top Phillies in Game 7, make 1st World Series since '01 - ESPN

PHILADELPHIA — Doubted and dismissed when baseball's postseason began, the Arizona Diamondbacks have spent October embodying the words of their manager, Torey Lovullo.

«Anything can happen,» he likes to tell them.

What happened Tuesday night set up perhaps the most improbable World Series in baseball history: The Diamondbacks stunned the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies with a 4-2 victory in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. For the second consecutive night, they sauntered into Citizens Bank Park, a hellscape for visiting teams that had gone winless during the first six games here this postseason, and beat the Phillies twice.

In doing so, the 84-win Diamondbacks, who finished 16 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West division, will face the Texas Rangers in their first World Series since 2001. That year, just their fourth since joining in 1998 as an expansion franchise, the Diamondbacks ended the New York Yankees' dynasty with Luis Gonzalez's dramatic walk-off single off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of Game 7.

Arizona entered the season with 125-1 odds to make the World Series and Texas at 50-1. Both teams barely snuck into the postseason as wild cards. And both needed to win Game 7s to get to Game 1, which will take place at Texas' Globe Life Field on Friday at 8 p.m.

The Diamondbacks' Game 7 win proved far more stomach-churning than the Rangers' 11-4 blowout of the Houston Astros. Arizona rode a tour-de-force game from rookie outfielder Corbin Carroll, who went 3-for-4, drove in two runs, scored two more and stole two bases after spending much of the series struggling. Following a solid four-inning start from rookie Brandon Pfaadt, the Diamondbacks' bullpen, long ineffective