Evan Longoria surprises Rangers with bunt, single sequence reminiscent of World Series 4 decades ago

ARLINGTON, Texas — In the fall of 1980, long before the Arizona Diamondbacks existed, Mike Schmidt was baseball’s most dangerous hitter. He belted a career-high 48 home runs that season, plus two more in the World Series. But two bunts mattered just as much.

Schmidt’s Philadelphia Phillies lost twice in that World Series, in the third and fourth games in Kansas City. In both games, Schmidt bunted. When he led off the ninth inning of Game 5, trailing by a run, his only thought was driving the ball. But the Royals remembered those bunts.

“When I came up, (Royals manager) Jim Frey came out of the dugout and was screaming at George Brett: ‘Move up, move up, he might bunt,’” Schmidt told me a few years ago, for a book I wrote on the history of the World Series. “So I hit a groundball to Brett’s left, which was just out of the reach of his glove. He would have made the play easily had he been playing back.”

Schmidt’s sharp grounder went for a single and started a go-ahead rally. The threat of a bunt made the big hit happen.

Evan Longoria in 2023 is not Mike Schmidt in 1980. They’re in the team photo among the two dozen or so greatest third basemen in baseball history, but Longoria won’t be making All-Star teams and earning MVP votes anymore. He’s 38 years old and hanging on to a spot in the majors.

“I am hitting eighth for a reason,” Longoria said Saturday night, after the Diamondbacks evened this World Series with a 9-1 victory over the Texas Rangers in Game 2. “We’re trying to turn the lineup over. This postseason has been kind of The Corbin and Marty Show.”

Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte are the engines of the Diamondbacks’ rat-a-tat-tat offense — slashing hits, stealing bases, scrambling opposing defenses. Longoria has been quiet this postseason, hitting just .163, consistent with his career-low .223 average in the regular season. He was willing to try something different and radical in Game 2.

Longoria came to bat in the third inning, with no score, after Alek Thomas’ leadoff walk. He knew that Jordan Montgomery, the Rangers’ 6-foot-6 starter, is not a nimble fielder. Since he was struggling for hits, Longoria thought, why not bunt?

Here’s why: Longoria never bunts. Not in games, not in spring training, not even a courtesy bunt or two at the start of his batting practice rounds. In 8,395 previous plate appearances, postseason included, Longoria had exactly one sacrifice bunt, for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2014. And yet …

“I bunted so much in college; we just had to do it every day,” said Longoria, who played for Long Beach State. “So even if I hadn’t done it in forever, I feel like it’s a part of my toolbag.”

Longoria was bunting for a hit, he explained, and he didn’t get it. But he moved Thomas to second and got credit for a sacrifice. And when he came to bat in the seventh, after Thomas’ leadoff double, the Rangers remembered.

Third baseman Josh Jung moved up on Longoria, positioning himself on the edge of the dirt and the turf. He acknowledged that the third-inning bunt was on his mind.

“Yeah, just in case,” Jung said. “In hindsight, probably shouldn’t be up there. But that’s baseball. It happens.”

It happened in 1980, and it happened again on Saturday: Longoria smashed a single off Jung’s glove to bring Thomas home, pushing Arizona’s lead to 3-1. The hit chased Montgomery, and the Diamondbacks soon singled and bunted their way to six more runs.

Longoria was on the bench by the end; he’s been taken out at some point in 10 of the Diamondbacks’ 14 postseason games. But his presence is critical to manager Torey Lovullo.

“He’s already had a snapshot of everything we’re trying to get to, and I like his ability to slow it down and get the job done,” Lovullo said. “I would look out there in some anxious playoff moments and think, ‘That feels nice that he’s out there.’”

Evan Longoria high-fives manager Torey Lovullo after scoring a run in the seventh inning. (Jerome Miron / USA Today)

Longoria reached the World Series as a rookie in 2008, when his Rays lost in five games to the Phillies. He stayed with Tampa Bay for a decade and now has a statue outside Tropicana Field, his arms thrust skyward after a playoff-clinching homer in 2011. He’s the franchise leader in games, homers, RBIs and total bases.

Yet in all that time — plus five seasons with the San Francisco Giants — Longoria never returned to the World Series.

“I was spoiled,” he said. “You’re kind of young and dumb and not understanding how difficult it is to get to this spot. So these first couple of games and the experience surrounding the World Series have been completely different for me. I’ve soaked it in and enjoyed every moment of it. That’s one of the things — probably the only thing — that I’ve said to a lot of our younger guys: ‘Try not to take any moment for granted. It doesn’t come easy.’”

Longoria has joined three Hall of Famers on a fun little list, unearthed by MLB’s Sarah Langs: only Willie Mays, Pee Wee Reese, Eddie Murray and Longoria have gotten hits in the World Series at age 23 or younger and age 38 or older.

All of those players won championships along the way, a pursuit that motivates Longoria to keep playing. The Diamondbacks were coming off a 74-88 season when he signed as a free agent in January, but Longoria might have had more faith than the front office.

“We Zoomed with him when we were trying to sign him, and he’s like, ‘Look, man, I’m at the stage of my career where I just want to win, I don’t care,’” general manager Mike Hazen said. “And at the time, I felt like we were up and coming, and last year in the second half we were good, but I was like, ‘I don’t know exactly where we’re going to be on that spectrum. You’re not joining a perennial playoff team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, right? You’re joining the D-Backs.’

“But it’s been such a good fit, and honestly it’s one of the things that I think about — I’m so glad that he ended up joining us and we were able to fulfill that end of the bargain. It didn’t end up that we traded him at the deadline to a contender. He’s with us, and we ended up with a deep run in October.”

Their run, officially now, will extend beyond October. Saturday’s runaway victory meant that this World Series will stretch at least to Game 5 on Wednesday, the first of November. It also made good on the slogan Longoria wore on his T-shirt in the clubhouse:

Snakes Alive.

— The Athletic’s Levi Weaver contributed to this report.

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(Top photo of Evan Longoria bunting in the third inning: Jerome Miron / USA Today)