The Arizona Diamondbacks opened the season on a high note, defeating the Colorado Rockies 16-1 on Opening Day on Thursday night thanks to 14 runs scored in the third inning.
Since 1900, no team has scored as many runs in an opening day inning as the 14 that the club did.
The defending National League champions, Arizona, were ahead 2-1 entering the bottom of the third inning, but they put 18 hitters on base, scoring 13 runs, walking two and obtaining a sacrifice fly.
“I joked at one point ‘Hey, I want to play,'” said Zac Gallen, the starting quarterback for the D-backs. “When people back you that much, it makes our job as pitchers much simpler. I’d rather them just finish it in ten minutes the next time. Those men were prepared to have fun.”
Most improbably maybe, Arizona failed to hit a home run in the inning. Geraldo Perdomo, Gabriel Moreno, Christian Walker, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Ketel Marte each had two hits. Corbin Carroll took two steps. Blaze Alexander scored the 14th run with a single up the middle, his first major league hit.
inning. The Rockies needed thirty-four minutes to get three outs. After three innings, the D-backs were ahead 16-1.
“It was the situational hitting, taking walks when you’re supposed to, it was an all-field approach,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo explained. “We were a good hitting team today.”
Lefty Kyle Freeland (0-1) of Colorado took the lion’s share of the damage in the third inning, giving up 10 earned runs on 10 hits and a walk in 2⅓ of innings.
According to Freeland, “everything was left middle and up.” “I wasn’t hitting my spots well at all. I wasn’t executing well at all. And a team like that, which has good bats all the way through, took advantage of every single mistake.”
For the Rockies, it was Freeland’s third Opening Day start. He now shares the franchise record for most starts with German Marquez.
