Outlaws and Undertakers fight to a draw
Flagstaff has had their way with Los Altos for the first time in forever, but Los Altos was determine to continue their quest to finishing at or above .500 and getting to stick it to rival Flagstaff would be a nice bonus.
Game 1: Archer v. Sale – For the third straight start, Chris Sale gets ambushed. Nick Hundley hits into a fielder choice to plate a run in the top of the first immediately followed by a Jesus Aguilar RBI single. In the fourth, Craig Gentry triples, scoring Matt Kemp and staking the Undertakers to a 3-0 lead.
Chris Archer keeps the Outlaws off the board, throwing 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball, allowing just four hits and striking out eight.
In the eighth, Flagstaff puts together their only real threat. Brad Boxberger gets the first out, but a walk and a double puts Los Altos on their heels. Paul Goldschmidt hits a deep sac fly to center to break the drought. Aaron Judge singles to score a second run.
At this point, the Undertakers have enough off Boxberger and brings in Sean Doolittle whole not only strikes out Enrique Hernandez to end the eighth, he pitches a perfect ninth to secure a Los Altos 3-2 victory.
W: Archer (12-18)
L: Sale (24-4)
Sv: Doolittle (6)
HRs: LAU – none; FLG – none.
Game 2: Santiago v. Greinke – Los Altos once against strikes first blood on a Eric Thames RBI double. But Paul Goldschmidt gets that right back with an RBI single.
But from there, the wheels fall off for Hector Santiago. The first four batters of the record hits, with Joe Panik’s three-run shot being the final nail of the rally and Flagstaff now holds a 5-1 lead.
Then Travis Shaw gets pissed. He connects on two-run homers in the third and fourth and then score blossoms to 10-1.
Zach Greinke manages to get through six innings on three hits, but walking five batters and seeing his pitch count climb past 110 pitches. But he manages to wiggle out of every jam and notches his 21st win.
W: Greinke (21-6)
L: Santiago (0-1)
Sv: Baez (2)
HRs: LAU – none; FLG – Panik (6), Shaw 2 (19, 20).
Game 3: Roark v. Wood – Los Altos waits until the third inning to draw first blood, but they score three times on RBI knocks from Arenado, Aguilar and Kemp.
Travis Shaw continues his personal vendetta against Los Altos, hitting another homer and an RBI single and help get the Outlaws back in the game, drawing with a run at 4-3.
But the normally reliable Outlaw bullpen falters as Nick Goody serves up solo jobs to Aguilar and Shin-Soo Choo to let Los Altos extend their lead.
Those two homers would provide just enough insurance and Flagstaff rallies for a pair of runs in the ninth, but Jeremy Jeffress comes into a two-out bases loaded situation, but coaxes Andrew Knapp into a groundout to help Los Altos escape, 6-5.
W: Roark (17-8)
L: Wood (15-5)
Sv: Jeffress (1)
HRs: LAU -Aguilar (9), Choo (17); FLG – Shaw (21).
Game 4: Cole v. McHugh – For the fourth time, Los Altos scores first and often on homers from Choo and Arenado to build a 3-0 lead off of Colin McHugh.
The Outlaws rally back to tie the game after two innings before McHugh comes up lame starting the third. J.C. Ramirez is forced into long relief.
Flagstaff responds with a five-spot in the bottom of the third seemingly taking control of this bout, but Los Altos comes back with three of their own in the next half inning to close within 8-6..
Flagstaff is able to extend their lead back to 11-6 only to see the Undertakers rally off the steady back end of the Outlaw bullpen to tie the game at 11-11.
But in the bottom of the 11th, after a depleted bullpen is forced to go to starter Michael Wacha for two innings of work, Aaron Judge is able to walk off the game with a solo blast off of Alex Cobb. Flagstaff 12, Los Altos 11.
W: Wacha (12-4)
L: Cobb (13-11)
Sv: None
HRs: LAU – Choo (18), Arenado (21), Thames (27); FLG – Springer (38), Goldschmidt (31), Judge (45).