Opening Day!
The 2018 BDBL Season got underway in earnest as Flagstaff opened a brutal April schedule with a home-and-home series against the Ravenswood Infidels.
Game 1: Sale v. Garcia – In what was one of the biggest offseason moves in the league, the Flagstaff Outlaws paid a heavy price to land ace lefty Chris Sale, who got the Opening Day nod.
Sale immediately played dividends by no-hitting Ravenswood for six innings and knocking in the first run of the season with a bases-loaded single in the second inning.
While Sale did walk three in that first six innings, by the time Sale would give up his first run, a leadoff triple by J.T. Realmuto, Flagstaff already held a 4-0 lead. Realmuto would score, ending Sale’s outing after 6 1/3 innings.
The Infidels would tighten things up when Kyle Seager hit a two-run homer off of Nick Goody in the eighth inning, but Jake McGee and Blake Parker would get the final five outs to give the Outlaws a 4-3 Opening Day victory.
W: Sale (1-0)
L: Garcia (0-1)
Sv: Parker (1)
HRs: FLG – Davis (1); RAV – Seager (1).
Game 2: Greinke v. Junis – Aaron Judge homered to lead off the fourth inning to break the scoreless tie. Manny Pina would overthrow Paul Goldschmidt on Nick Markakis’s grounder for a two-base error and Jake Junis would single him in to help his own cause and tying the game after five frames.
Junis would give up another solo blast, this time to George Springer, in the seventh to put the Outlaws back on top. In the ninth, Khris Davis hits his second homer, coming off the bench to do it, to give Flagstaff a 3-1 lead.
Parker strikes out the first two batters in his half of the 9th, but Brandon Phillips gets some revenge on his former team, but hitting his own solo bomb to get the Ravenswood fans on their feet. But Chris Gimenez would strike out to end the game. Flagstaff 3, Ravenswood 2.
W: Greinke (1-0)
L: Junis (0-1)
Sv: Parker (2)
HRs: FLG – Judge (1), Springer (1), Davis (2); RAV – Phillips (1).
Game 3: Romano v. Wood – As the series moves to Flagstaff, a rowdy Outlaw crowd fills Purina Park to capacity to cheer for their squad. The Outlaws would reward the faithful early and often as they scored twice each in the first two innings and Flagstaff cruised to a 9-2 victory.
Joe Panik led the way, going 3-for-3 scoring twice and driving in two. Alex Wood pitched five frames of one-run ball to get the victory.
W: Wood (1-0)
L: Romano (0-1)
Sv: None
HRs: RAV – none; FLG – Panik (1), Andrus (1).
Game 4: Despaigne v. Ramirez – J.C. Ramirez dominates the Infidel lineup, going seven innings and allowing just two hits. Throw in a couple of timely double plays that helped mitigate five walks and Ramirez completes the Flagstaff sweep with a 4-0 shutout.
Flagstaff got on the board with a solo homer from Caleb Joseph in the fifth. Goldschmidt added a two-run triple in the sixth and scored on Travis Shaw’s single.
W: Ramirez (1-0)
L: Despaigne (0-1)
Sv: None
HRs: RAV – none; FLG – Joseph (1).