2001 Arizona Diamondbacks season

The 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks season was the franchise's 4th season in Major League Baseball and their 4th season at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona, as members of the National League West.
They looked to improve on their 2000 season. They had to contend in what was a strong division.
Arizona had the best one-two pitching combination in the majors: Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, who combined for 43 victories. Outfielder Luis Gonzalez slugged 57 home runs. They finished the regular season with a record of 92–70, which was good enough for the division title.
In the playoffs, they won their NLDS matchup vs. St. Louis on a walk-off hit by Tony Womack. They defeated the Braves in five games in the NLCS. In the World Series, they won a dramatic seven-game series against the New York Yankees on a walk-off hit by Gonzalez, against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. The Diamondbacks became the fastest expansion franchise in Major League history to win a World Series title in just their fourth season. The championship remains the only one won by an Arizona-based sports team.

Offseason

November 2, 2000: Ken Huckaby was signed as a free agent with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
December 8, 2000: Mark Grace signed as a free agent with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
December 15, 2000: Midre Cummings was signed as a free agent with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
March 8, 2001: Mike Mohler was signed as a free agent with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Spring training

The 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks held their 4th spring training at Tucson Electric Park in Tucson, Arizona.

Regular season

Randy Johnson recorded 20 strikeouts in nine innings against the Cincinnati Reds on May 8, 2001. Johnson shares the record with Roger Clemens, Kerry Wood, and most recently Max Scherzer.
On July 19, 2001, Johnson set another record when the previous night's game against the San Diego Padres was delayed by two electrical explosions that knocked out a light tower in Qualcomm Stadium. When the game resumed the following day, Johnson replaced the original starter Curt Schilling in the top of the third inning. He pitched the next seven innings and struck out 16 Padres. Johnson set a new record for strikeouts in a relief appearance, a record that was set 88 years previously by Walter Johnson, who struck out 15 batters in 11 innings on July 25, 1913.
Johnson went on to win 20 games for the second time in his career while striking out over 300 hitters for the fourth consecutive year. On October 2, 2001, Randy Johnson earned his 200th career win.

Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

June 5, 2001: Dan Uggla was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 11th round of the 2001 amateur draft. Uggla signed June 6, 2001.
June 5, 2001: Ian Kinsler was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 26th round of the 2001 amateur draft, but did not sign.

Player stats

Batting

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average

Pos.	Player	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	Avg.
C	Damian Miller	123	380	103	13	47	.271
1B	Mark Grace	145	476	142	15	78	.298
2B	Jay Bell	129	428	106	13	46	.248
3B	Matt Williams	106	408	112	16	65	.275
SS	Tony Womack	125	481	128	3	30	.266
LF	Luis Gonzalez	162	609	198	57	142	.325
CF	Steve Finley	140	495	136	14	73	.275
RF	Reggie Sanders	126	441	116	33	90	.263

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; Avg. = Batting average

Player	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	Avg.
Craig Counsell	141	458	126	4	38	.275
Danny Bautista	100	222	67	5	26	.302
David Dellucci	115	217	60	10	40	.276
Erubiel Durazo	92	175	47	12	38	.269
Junior Spivey	72	163	42	5	21	.258
Rod Barajas	51	106	17	3	9	.160
Greg Colbrunn	59	97	28	4	18	.289
Chad Moeller	25	56	13	1	2	.232
Mike DiFelice	12	21	1	0	1	.048
Midre Cummings	20	20	6	0	1	.300
Alex Cintrón	8	7	2	0	0	.286
Jason Conti	5	4	1	0	0	.250
Ryan Christenson	19	4	1	0	1	.250
Jack Cust	3	2	1	0	0	.500
Lyle Overbay	2	2	1	0	0	.500
Juan Sosa	2	1	0	0	0	.000
Rob Ryan	1	1	0	0	0	.000
Ken Huckaby	1	1	0	0	0	.000

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Curt Schilling	35	256.2	22	6	2.98	293
Randy Johnson	35	249.2	21	6	2.49	372
Brian Anderson	29	133.1	4	9	5.20	55
Robert Ellis	19	92.0	6	5	5.77	41
Albie Lopez	13	81.0	4	7	4.00	69
Armando Reynoso	9	46.2	1	6	5.98	15
Nick Bierbrodt	5	23.0	2	2	8.22	17

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Miguel Batista	48	139.1	11	8	3.36	90
Bobby Witt	14	43.1	4	1	4.78	31
Eric Knott	3	4.2	0	1	1.93	4

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Byung-hyun Kim	78	98.0	5	6	19	2.94	113
Greg Swindell	64	53.2	2	6	2	4.53	42
Troy Brohawn	59	49.1	2	3	1	4.93	30
Bret Prinz	46	41.0	4	1	9	2.63	27
Erik Sabel	42	51.1	3	2	0	4.38	25
Mike Morgan	31	38.0	1	0	0	4.26	24
Russ Springer	18	17.2	0	0	1	7.13	12
Mike Mohler	13	13.2	0	0	0	7.24	7
Mike Koplove	9	10.0	0	1	0	3.60	14
Matt Mantei	8	7.0	0	0	2	2.57	12
Geraldo Guzmán	4	9.1	0	0	0	2.89	4
Steve Finley	1	1.0	0	0	0	0.00	0

Post season

NLDS

Arizona wins the series, 3-2

Game 1

October 27, 2001 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona

Game 2

October 28, 2001 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona

Game 3

October 30, 2001 at Yankee Stadium in New York

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/baseballs_best/mlb_bb_gamepage.jsp?story_page=bb_01ws_gm4_arinyy Game 4

October 31, 2001 at Yankee Stadium in New York City

Game 5

November 1, 2001 at Yankee Stadium in New York

Game 6

November 3, 2001 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona

https://web.archive.org/web/20011218000809/http://www.mlb.com/ws/homepage/ws_game7.html Game 7

November 4, 2001 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona

Game log

Notes:

Game times

Umpires

Awards and honors

Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, Pitchers, Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year
Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, Pitchers, World Series Most Valuable Player
Craig Counsell, National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player
Luis Gonzalez, National League Silver Slugger Award
Randy Johnson, National League Cy Young Award
Curt Schilling, Hutch Award
Curt Schilling, Pitcher, Roberto Clemente Award

'''2001 Major League Baseball All-Star Game'''

League leaders

Luis Gonzalez

#3 in NL in home runs
#3 in NL in RBI
#3 in NL in slugging percentage
#4 in NL in runs scored

Randy Johnson

Led MLB in ERA
Led MLB in strikeouts
#3 in NL in wins

Curt Schilling

Led MLB in wins
Led NL in complete games
#2 in NL in ERA
#2 in NL in strikeouts

Media

Local Radio

-Some 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks radio network games broadcast on alternate flagship station KKLT-FM because of broadcast conflict with the of the and the of the.