PHOENIX -- Blaze Alexander laid out in left-center to somehow snag what seemed a certain gapper for Rowdy Tellez and snagged the ball for the final out of the sixth inning. The Chase Field crowd erupted as did the Arizona dugout.
Then everyone suddenly realized something was wrong. Really wrong.
Left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who had been running for the ball as well, was laying crumpled on the turf holding his right leg in obvious pain.
“I made the play and I had no idea what kind of happened behind me,” Alexander said following the D-backs' 7-5 loss to the Rangers in 10 innings on Monday night. “I made the play, I was kind of looking at the crowd, and started running in. I see [shortstop Geraldo] Perdomo running towards me. I was like, what's going on? Looked back and Gurriel was down.”
Judging by the television replays, Gurriel injured his right knee when he planted it to avoid running into the diving Alexander. The two did not make contact on the play.
Alexander waved out the trainers and Gurriel eventually got to his feet and was helped to a medical cart and taken off the field.
Manager Torey Lovullo said no diagnosis had been made yet on Gurriel and that the veteran will undergo an MRI on Tuesday, but early indications were not promising.
“Say some prayers for him tonight,” Lovullo said. “You know, it's a situation where we're gonna hope for the best. I don't think it looks great but before I'm gonna speculate, I'll just say park in neutral for 24 hours until I see you guys tomorrow, and hopefully we get the best news possible. But it doesn't look great.”
Any injury to Gurriel would be another big blow to the Diamondbacks, who find themselves barely hanging on to slim postseason hopes. Gurriel came into the game riding a hot streak at the plate with 32 RBIs since Aug. 1, second to only Kyle Schwarber’s 33 over that span.
The list of injuries the D-backs have sustained this year is massive and includes some of the players they were counting on to lead them to the postseason.
Both closers – A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez – have missed most of the year and undergone Tommy John surgery, as has ace Corbin Burnes, who was signed to a six-year, $210 million deal in the offseason.
Despite it all, the Diamondbacks are still mathematically alive after the Mets slumped in August. However trailing New York by 6 1/2 games with 23 games left, they have to go on an almost historic run at this point.
What they almost certainly cannot do is lose games like Monday, when they led 5-3 heading into the ninth only to watch the Rangers tie it and then win it in 10 innings.
“You play the entire game, you feel like you do so many things, right,” Lovullo said. “But you can't get that 27th out and you got to find a way to get it done. I rack my brains, trying to figure out why we've seen this take place, why we see it happen. I look up there, we give up four runs in the last two innings of the game and that's not a great recipe for success.”
Alexander has definitely been a bright spot for the Diamondbacks of late. After struggling defensively at shortstop last year, he has found a home at third base, playing excellent defense while coming into his own at the plate.
With top prospect Jordan Lawlar called up from Triple-A Reno, Lovullo gave Alexander his first taste of the outfield in the big leagues after a few games in the Minors. Alexander made a nice running catch and then an outstanding one on the play Gurriel got hurt on.
“I was waiting the whole game just to get a ball hit to me,” Alexander said. “It split the gap, made kind of diving play, left my feet and at a highest high. And then I look over and it's really a low point just kind of hearing Gurriel on the ground.”