[jg2977]

“On a crisp October afternoon in Cleveland — the kind that makes the breath visible and the gloves a little stiffer — the Arizona Diamondbacks turned back the clock and leaned on experience. And in doing so, they inched two steps closer to a title.”
Final score: Arizona 9, Cleveland 2.
The Diamondbacks lead the World Series, two games to none.
And fittingly, it was the old man — 43-year-old right-hander Eric Hoelzle, from Hanford, California — who set the tone.
In an age when so many rely on velocity, Hoelzle offered something more timeless: command, guile, and an unflappable sense of calm.
Nine innings. Eight hits. Two runs, only one earned. No walks.
A complete game, the kind you don’t often see anymore — particularly on a World Series stage.
“It’s about execution,” Hoelzle said quietly afterward. “I just wanted to give us a chance.”
He gave them far more than that.
In truth, this was a night that belonged to both the veteran’s poise and the relentless Diamondbacks offense, which continues to write its own October story.
They struck first in the opening inning, traded runs early, then broke the game open with a four-run fifth that silenced a crowd of more than 36,000 at Jacobs Field.
That decisive rally was capped by Tony Flores, the steady third baseman from San Antonio, who launched a towering three-run homer deep into the left-field seats.
It wasn’t just a home run — it was a punctuation mark.
Flores circled the bases with quiet purpose, as if aware of the history he was inching toward.
And in the same inning, Jason Gonzalez — Arizona’s breakout star of this postseason — added yet another home run, his seventh of October.
In the span of minutes, a 2–2 game had become 5–2, and the defending champion Indians never recovered.
Behind the Diamondbacks’ offense was the unrelenting G. Orlando, who collected four hits and drove in a run, and C. Grissett, whose two-out triple in the eighth plated two more. Arizona simply kept the line moving, applying pressure inning after inning.
For Cleveland, it was an uncharacteristic night — not of collapse, but of fatigue.
Their pitching faltered, their bats quieted, and the sharpness that carried them through a year of dominance was dulled by a team playing with rhythm and purpose.
Still, the Indians are not strangers to adversity.
They were down early in last year’s World Series, too — and rallied to claim the championship.
But now, as the series shifts west to the desert, the challenge has grown steeper.
Arizona returns home with a commanding 2–0 series lead, its confidence rising, its veterans steady, and its stars performing on cue.
And somewhere beneath the desert sky that awaits, perhaps Eric Hoelzle — the 43-year-old journeyman who once might have wondered if this moment would ever come again — will sit quietly and appreciate it all.
Because this, after all, is what baseball offers like no other game:
A second act. A final chapter.
And sometimes, on a clear October afternoon, the perfect story told by an old right arm.
Diamondbacks 9, Indians 2.
Arizona leads the World Series, two games to none.