This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SEATTLE -- Friday night’s matchup was a road game for the D-backs, but for outfielder Corbin Carroll, it was a homecoming.

It was the Seattle native's first regular-season game at T-Mobile Park, a place that he grew up coming to with his parents. Carroll's first opportunity to play here came during last year’s All-Star Game when he was elected as a starter for the National League.

“The guys keep like asking me like, ‘Oh, like how far did you grow up from here?’” Carroll said. “And it's pretty cool telling them that I could walk to this ballpark. And to be back here playing real Major League games, it’s just such an honor.”

The Mariners have a passionate and loyal fan base, but there were also a large number of Carroll fans in the stands Friday, starting with his parents and sister, who have a group of 80 coming, and continuing through to both of the Little Leagues he played in and a group from his high school.

To Carroll, he represents not only the D-backs, but also the place where he came from.

“I think Northwest players, there is kind of a shared bond there,” Carroll said. “Just because there aren't necessarily as many professional baseball players and Major League baseball players that come out of this part of the country. And so I think there's kind of a shared pride in that, that we're the ones that get to do this and get to represent this part of the country. Hopefully it’s just some more inspiration for the younger kids growing up in the Seattle and the Pacific Northwest that they might want to do this someday.”

One of Carroll’s most memorable moment from his All-Star experience last year came when he was introduced after walking the red carpet.

“We were waiting out there in the outfield and just hearing them [announce], ‘Welcome home Corbin,’ and to hear the crowd's reaction. I just felt that Seattle pride. I don't think it gets the respect as a sports city that it deserves, so to kind of feel a little bit of that and feel like I did something to help make Seattle proud like that. That meant a lot.”

While Carroll got to play here last year in the All-Star Game, he still laments the missed opportunity that he had several years before.

As a sophomore in high school, his team made it all the way to the State Semifinals, and had they won that game, they would have gotten to play at T-Mobile.

“We were pretty close,” Carroll said. “We had an 8-0 lead in the game to get to play and didn't end up closing that one out. So we tasted it, but didn't quite get there.”

Safe to say now that Carroll has arrived.