So it's come down to this--a fifth and deciding game tomorrow afternoon for the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks in what has become a humdinger of a a first-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Mr. Grand Slam, Ryan Roberts of the Arizona Diamondbacks

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mlb.com/dbacks

Paul Goldschmidt unleashes his pimp grand slam last night to help the Diamondbacks beat the Brewers.

And it was largely 'cause of the hitting heroics of Paul Goldschmidt. The rookie slugger provided two hits and five runs batted in, including the highlight of the night (and maybe the entire season): a grand-slam in the bottom of the fifth inning that blew open the game.

As a result, Arizona forced a Game Four in the NLDS against the Brewers, which takes place tonight at Chase Field.

Ryan Roberts

​Oddly, this one seems like a long time ago, what with the Diamondbacks about to take the field in a few hours to stave off playoff elimination at the hands of the suddenly mighty Milwaukee Brewers.

But when we have an opportunity to reflect on the 2011 season, Ryan Roberts' walk-off grand-slam homer in the bottom of the tenth to beat the LA Dodgers 7-6 long will raise a smile.

Paul Goldschmidt

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It happened to be one of the more exciting games of the year, and not just because of the momentous occasion of the icing on the home team's rags-to-riches story for 2011.

Big right-hander Matt Cain was dominating Arizona for much of the game as the disappointing Giants took a 1-0 lead off southpaw starter Joe Saunders.

Gerardo Parra

​The Diamondbacks went into a road series with the Los Angeles Dodgers with an eight-game cushion over the fading San Francisco Giants.

Ace pitcher Ian Kennedy got the start for Arizona, and scuffled at the start, giving up four runs in the first inning before settling down.

LA still led 4-3 going into the top of the seventh inning as D-Backs leftfielder Gerardo Parra stepped to the plate against hard-throwing Hong Chih-Kuo.

Arizona was playing poorly on this homestand, and against the team with the worst record in baseball, the lowly Houston Astros.

Just like that, the home boys fell behind 7-1, and the relatively small crowd at Chase Field (announced attendance was 17,814, but it seemed about half that to those of us who were there, unless the D-Backs were counting those with multiple personalities) was not happy.

In this instance, the unhappiness manifested itself with an almost-eerie silence that made our ballgame-viewing associate mutter something about a morgue.

Then, things turned.

The St. Louis Cardinals long have been an upper-echelon franchise with perhaps the greatest fan base in all of Major League Baseball.

For sure, they are a passionate bunch, as we found out one night some time ago when we almost found ourselves in a bar fight with Cards fan.

Okay, we started it.

A pal in our small group made a rather loud comment to no one in particular after the big-screen TV flashed to a section of St. Louis fans who were sitting out in the bleachers guzzling their big Buds.

The comment was something to do with hillbillies and inbreeding as we recall.

It was a sellout at Miller Park in Milwaukee (same as it was in the first two games of the ongoing National League playoffs) on a beautiful Fourth of July.

The Brewers were cruising, up 6-1 after the fourth inning.

But this was becoming a special D-Backs team.

Over the next several innings, Arizona chipped away at the big lead before finally tying it at 6 in the eighth and adding two runs in the ninth to shock the home team 8-6.

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But it ain't over yet--and, besides, it was a blast getting here.

Back on June 24, in a seesaw battle up in Detroit, the D-Backs somehow snuck past the Tigers by a score of 7-6. Actually, we know just how Arizona won the thing:

By this point in the season, it was beginning to become ever more clear to Arizona fans that this team might just be a little bit special.

Manager Kirk Gibson instilled some winning ways

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