Outlaws fall in Salem
After the first month of the season saw the Flagstaff Outlaws spend more time on the road than home, Flagstaff started the second month on the road as well, venturing to Salem to take on the vaunted Cowtippers.
Game 1: Wacha v. Strasburg – Michael Wacha gets into immediate trouble in his first inning of work, loading the bases with one out. With Mitch Moreland at the plate, Wacha unloads a pitched that Andrew Knapp can’t handle, letting Jose Ramirez scamper home. Moreland then grounded out, scoring a second run. Later in the inning, Evan Gattis doubled down the third base line, scoring two more run and giving the Cowtippers a 4-0 lead.
That would really be all that Stephen Strasburg would need. He’d cruise through seven innings, striking out nine and giving a lone earned run in the sixth on a George Springer RBI single.
Salem 6, Flagstaff 2.
W: Strasburg (2-1)
L: Wacha (2-4)
Sv: None
HRs: FLG – none; SAL – none.
Game 2: Chirinos v. Pena – For the second straight game, the Flagstaff offense would falter, racking up just seven hits while being shutout by Felix Pena and company in a 6-0 whitewashing by Salem.
Salem got the go-ahead run in the second with Moreland homered, his first of the season. Justin Turner and Enrique Hernandez added RBIs in the third inning. Then Andrew Benintendi got going, homering in the fifth and doubling in two in the seventh.
W: Pena (1-2)
L: Chirinos (1-3)
Sv: None
HRs: FLG – none; SAL – Benintendi (5).
Game 3: Johnson v. J. Gray – For the first time in the series, Flagstaff takes a lead on a second inning bomb by Aaron Judge.
Brian Johnson works around some traffic in the first three innings, but in the fourth, the wheels fell off of him. With one out, Danny Valencia and Hernandez hit back-to-back homers to give Salem the lead. Then an error by Jonathan Villar gets traffic on the bases which turns into a two-out runners on second and third situation. Trea Turner singles in two, steals second, and then scores on Justin Turner’s double, giving Salem a 5-1 advantage.
The score stands at 6-1 in the seventh when Jonathan Gray starts to tire. After getting the first out, Gray allows consecutive singles putting runners on the corners and forcing Salem to bring on Jonathan Holder to relieve. Denard Span hits a sac fly to score one run and Paul Goldschmidt follows with a 2-run homer which cuts Salem’s lead to two runs.
Holder gives up a single to start the eighth, bring Rich Rodriguez on to pitch. A walk and a wild pitch ensues. Eduardo Nunez hits a deep fly to center that scores J.P. Crawford from third, but puts the first out on the board. Kevin Plawecki grounds out. Taylor Rogers comes on and gets Jordan Luplow for the final out, preserving the razor-thin margin for Salem.
In the ninth, Pedro Strop easily mows down the Outlaws in order and Salem holds on for the 6-5 victory.
W: J. Gray (1-0)
L: Johnson (2-3)
Sv: Strop (2)
HRs: FLG – Judge (7); SAL – Valencia (4, 5), Hernandez (3).
Game 4: Romero v. S. Gray – Needing to stave off a sweep, Flagstaff turns to Fernando Romero, who answers the call limiting the ‘Tippers to just two hits and one walk over six innings of work. Sonny Gray also kept the Outlaws scoreless over the five innings he’d throw.
In the seventh, the Outlaws get on the board when Andrelton Simmons homers off Shohei Ontani. In the ninth, Flagstaff gets another home run from Judge, a two-run shot that extends the Outlaw lead to 3-0.
Ryan Pressly, who got the final two outs of the eighth with the tying run in scoring position, ended up loading the bases with no one out. Odubel Herrera grounded to Simmons at third who throws home to force Justin Turner for the first out. Valencia struck out for out #2. Trea Turner drew a walk that got Salem on the board, but Francisco Cervelli comes off the bench and strikes out to end the threat and Flagstaff gets a 3-1 decision, preventing a sweep.
W: Romero (4-1)
L: Ohtani (1-2)
Sv: Pressly (12)
HRs: FLG – Simmons (3), Judge (8); SAL – none.