Jamboree continue mastery over Outlaws, limit to six runs in series victory
It’s hard to win a series when your offense takes a nap for an entire series. In fact, the Flagstaff Outlaw pitching staff did all they could to help keep their teammates in the games, playing in three one-run games and a fourth that was a one-game until late. But the Bear Country Jamboree win another series against the Outlaws, pushing their season record to 6-2 and climbing within four games of first place.
Game 1: Sale v. Santana – There is an old saying that sometimes the first team to score wins. The opener in this series personified that as Matt Adams led off the bottom of the 15th innings with a solo homer off of Pedro Baez to give the Jamboree a walk-off 1-0 victory.
Adams’s hit was only the third of the night for Bear Country, but fortunately, the Jamboree pitching staff was able to limit the damage despite Flagstaff banging out four doubles and seven hits total.
Chris Sale struck out 12 batters and had a no-hitter through seven. But Christian Vazquez double on Sale’s 112th offering to break it up. The only other blemish’s on Sale’s account were two walks to Jon Jay, who also reached on an error in the 6th as well.
Ervin Santana wasn’t as good, but still matched Sale’s zeroes through seven. He allowed four hits and a walk, striking out eight.
Each bullpen tallied just five combined hits over their fourteen collective innings of work. Both teams combined to strike out 45 batters, 22 by Outlaw pitchers, 23 by Jamboree hurlers.
W: Lyons (2-0)
L: Baez (0-1)
Sv: None
HRs: FLG – none; BCJ – Adams (5).
Game 2: Greinke v. Castillo – With both bullpens gassed after the marathon the night before, each team needed its starter to go deep. Zack Greinke did that going seven. However, Luis Castillo came up lame at the worst possible time, leaving in the third inning with back spasms.
Down 2-1 when Castillo left, Flagstaff gets a charge when Travis Shaw homers in the fifth off of Tyler Lyons. In the seventh, the Outlaws add on with a RBI double from Khris Davis and Flagstaff holds a 4-2 lead when Greinke’s day is done.
In the eighth, Daniel Murphy gets the hometown Jamboree closer with a two-out solo homer off of Ryan Buchter. Ryan Zimmerman follows with a double, but Wilson Contreras strikes out to end the threat.
In the ninth, Jake McGee is tasked with the save since Blake Parker threw 37 pitches over three innings the night before. McGee needs all of six pitches to get all three outs and Flagstaff events the series with a 4-3 victory.
W: Greinke (5-1)
L: Lyons (2-1)
Sv: McGee (1)
HRs: FLG – Shaw (7); BCJ – Murphy (10).
Game 3: Wood v. Faria – Two teams trades run early as Paul Goldschmidt homers in the first while Chase Headley doubles in Andrelton Simmons in the second.
From there, the pitching would take over once again. Bear Country would limit Flagstaff to just one more hit while Bear Country would strand a ton of baserunners, but we stand at 1-1 going into the ninth.
Aroldis Chapman strikes out all three Outlaws in his half of the frame. Bear Country starts their half with Simmons getting hit by Buchter. Headley tries to move the runner over, but strikes out bunting. Vazquez singles Simmons over to third. Delino DeShields draws a walk off of McGee. Then Pillar crushes a ball into the right-field gap to walk off the Jamboree, 2-1.
W: Chapman (1-2)
L: Buchter (0-1)
Sv: None
HRs: FLG – Goldschmidt (5); BCJ – none.
Game 4: Ramirez v. Paxton – Flagstaff gets on the board first when Enrique Hernandez singles in Judge, who had tripled in the fourth. However, Simmons triples in a run in the bottom of the end to tie the game back up.
In the fifth, Zimmerman comes through with a big double to plate Jay as the go-ahead run. In the seventh, a tired Outlaw bullpen finally cracks as Sam Tuivailala serves up a three-run bomb to Jesus Aguilar and Bear Country wins the series with a 5-1 win.
W: Paxton (3-3)
L: Ramirez (2-1)
Sv: None
HRs: FLG – none; BCJ – Aguilar (1).