Diamondbacks' World Series Game 5 loss was beautiful, agonizing baseball. And great TV

The jinx is real.

The first rule of no-hitters is that you don’t talk about no-hitters.

Joe Davis talked about no-hitters.

You can guess how that turned out for the Arizona Diamondbacks in their 5-0 loss to the Texas Rangers, losing the World Series 4 games to 1. That may sound like it wasn't much of a game.

It was. It really was. A great game, in fact. If it was ultimately a kick in the shins for the Diamondbacks, it was fantastic baseball (not that anyone is watching).

Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen pitched a brilliant game, dominating Rangers hitters, and Davis, the Fox Sports play-by-play announcer, made note of it as the game wore on. “First pitcher facing elimination in World Series history to take a no-hitter into the 7th inning,” he said.

Heartbreaking: Diamondbacks' season ends as Rangers win Game 5, capture 1st World Series

'Of course it's Corey Seager! It's always Corey Seager!'

And Corey Seager, who has punished the Diamondbacks throughout the series, promptly got a hit.

“Of course it’s Corey Seager!” Davis said. “It’s always Corey Seager!”

This was followed by two more hits, scoring a run.

“The dam breaks here in the 7th!” Davis said.

One of the traditions of baseball is that when a pitcher has a no-hitter going in late innings, his team doesn’t talk about it. Usually they don’t even talk to him. It’s a superstition in a game filled with them.

To be fair, Davis is an announcer, not a player. In a game in which Arizona was facing elimination, Gallen not giving up any hits was a massive story and something he couldn’t ignore. But boy, just throwing it out there like that was tempting the baseball gods. It’s like saying a kicker hasn’t missed an extra point all season while he’s lining up to kick. You know what’s going to happen. It was the jinx of all time.

Davis is not opposed to them. When relief pitcher Kevin Ginkel seemed about to get out of a tight spot in the top of the 8th, Davis said so. Again, it’s tempting fate. But Ginkel avoided disaster, in what felt like a miracle.

The whole game was a miracle, really, despite the lopsided final score. It was some sort of elegant torture, like eating chicken wings you ordered just a shade or two too spicy. You’re so into the moment you don’t realize until later how painful it was. By then, it’s too late.

Zac Gallen was brilliant, but the DBacks couldn't buy a run

After getting pummeled 11-7 in Game 4 Tuesday (the score makes it sound closer than it really was), the Diamondbacks could have folded. But Gallen was great. The game was so tight throughout you couldn’t breathe.

Want a literary reference? It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Despite Gallen’s mastery, the Diamondbacks couldn’t buy a run. They had plenty of chances, stranding more baserunners than you could fit into most SUVs. It was agonizing, and then just kind of irritating.

Want another literary reference? Arizona’s offense was all sound and fury, signifying nothing. And scoring no one. (Apologies to Charles Dickens and William Faulkner.)

Then the Rangers started scoring, and that was that.

“No stress for the first six innings, and the last three have been big-time stress for the Diamondbacks,” Fox analyst John Smoltz said. “It’s flipped.”

To its credit, the Fox crew didn’t bring a funereal atmosphere to the game, despite Arizona facing elimination. “They call them the Answerbacks for a reason,” Alex Rodriguez said in the pregame show.

They do. Or they did. The unbelievable run is over, but man, it was fun while it lasted.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X, formerly known as Twitter: @goodyk.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Who won the World Series? Not Arizona. But what a ride. And great TV