Black Diamonds Month 1 Recap

As the bitter cold of winter turned into the fresh spring air, baseball returned to Chittenden County earlier this month.

Thousands of passionate, black-and-white clad fans packed into Boof Boog Ballpark on March 22 to see the new-look Diamonds take the field for the first time.

Let's take a look back at the month that was!

Week 1: Diamonds vs. Philadelphia - Series split 2-2

G1: Diamonds 4, Philadelphia 3

G2: Philadelphia 8, Diamonds 0

G3: Philadelphia 4, Diamonds 3

G4: Diamonds 9, Philadelphia 7

The Opening Day game saw the fans treated to a marquee pitching matchup between Philadelphia ace Jacob deGrom and Diamonds stud John Means. But while Means lived up to the hype, twirling six and a third of two-hit shutout ball despite only striking out two, deGrom struggled some, allowing 11 hits in his 6 inning outing, including a trio of RBI singles. New Diamonds closer Liam Hendriks made things interesting late by walking three straight batters, then surrounding a single to Alec Bohm and allowing a third run to score on a fielder's choice before slamming the door.

The second game of the season was all Philadelphia. The Birds of War assaulted Diamonds starter Zach Davies for five runs on nine hits in just two and two-thirds innings pitched before the young righty left the game with an injury. Clayton Kershaw, on the other hand, tied up the Diamonds something fierce, throwing eight shutout innings and striking out 10.

Margins are fine in baseball, and none saw that more than Game 3. After Christian Yelich put Philadelphia in the lead in the fourth with an RBI triple, Diamonds infielder Luis Guillorme's defensive mistake led to ex-Diamond shortstop Paul deJong tacking on an insurance run with a single. The hosts rallied late with an RBI double by rookie outfielder Shogo Akiyama and a solo home run by Raimel Tapia, but Trevor Rosenthal slammed the door in the 9th.

While a defensive mistake may have cost the Diamonds Game 3, defensive mistakes did give them a win in Game 4. Starter Sandy Alcantara was rocked in a 5-run third inning by the visitors, but come the sixth the Diamonds rallied in a big way. A defensive blunder by Starling Marte drove in a pair of runs for South Burlington, and a pair of wild pitches by Josh Hader gave them some additional insurance. Once again, Hendriks struggled in the 9th, giving up a pair of runs, but the Diamonds held on for a series split.

Week 2: Diamonds vs Quezon City - Series split 2-2

G1: Quezon City 7, Diamonds 1

G2: Diamonds 3, Quezon City 1

G3: Diamonds 8, Quezon City 6

G4: Quezon City 6, Diamonds 3

Game 1 was one the Diamonds would prefer to forget. The tone was set immediately by a leadoff home run by Questants first baseman Jared Walsh, and they never looked back, pulling away late against a tired Diamonds pen and aided by a Guillorme error.

The highlight of Game 2 was the pitching matchup between Means and Trevor Bauer. And like week 1, Means was dominant, while his foe struggled to keep runners off the basepaths, with Bauer giving up 10 baserunners over his six innings. A two-run single by Christian Vazquez in the sixth allowed the Diamonds to pull ahead, and the bullpen combo of Hendriks and Brad Hand slammed the door.

The series shifted to the Philippines, and the Luis Serra Ballpark, which is essentially the anti-Boog - a small bandbox where even a pop fly could go for a home run versus the cavernous lakeside park. The Diamonds pounced on Questants starter Steven Brault immediately, with a first inning three-run home run by outfielder Sam Haggerty and a two-run second inning single by Donovan Solano opening up an early 5-0 lead. However, the Questants pulled back in it as Davies started to run out of gas, including back-to-back home runs by Walsh and Jake Marisnick in the fifth. Once again, though, the Diamonds bullpen was able to settle things down, with Lucas Sims going two-and-a-third perfect, and Brad Hand closing it out.

But, especially at the homer-happy Serra, you can only hold the Questants' lineup (at mostly-full health) at bay for so long, and fly ball pitcher Elieser Hernandez learned that the hard way, surrendering three home runs in Game 4. Travis d'Arnaud added a fourth homer for Quezon City late in the game against Kyle Zimmer, giving the Questants some critical insurance.

Week 3: Diamonds at Tokyo - Series split 2-2

G1: Tokyo 6, Diamonds 3

G2: Tokyo 7, Diamonds 1

G3: Diamonds 9, Tokyo 5

G4: Diamonds 5, Tokyo 3

A much-anticipated divisional matchup saw the Diamonds fly north from Quezon City to Tokyo for a clash against the Kaiju.

Game 1 saw an early injury to Sandy Alcantara necessitate a call to the pen, and for much of his stint, Cody Ponce was able to keep the Diamonds in the game and bought time for the offense to tie it up via a two-run triple by Adam Engel. But he could only hold the Kaiju off the board for so long and Juan Soto made him pay with a two-run, two-out home run to give Tokyo a lead they would not relinquish. Soto added a key insurance run late, and while the Diamonds got two on with one out in the 9th against Darren O'Day, the Kaiju reliever struck out both Luis Guillorme and Donovan Solano.

On paper, Game 2 should've seen the Diamonds' lefty-heavy lineup rake against Alec Mills, who while shutdown against righties has issues with lefties. But they don't play games on paper, and Mills threw 5 innings of one-hit ball, walking only two, while the Kaiju hammered Diamonds opener Tyler Clippard for four in the first. Alex Verdugo drove in five runs and finished a triple shy of the cycle, and the hosts added more runs late after an error by Engel.

But the Diamonds were able to bounce back in a chaotic Game 3, where the pitcher duel between Means and Kaiju ace Shane Bieber never happened. Both pitchers gave up 5 runs on 7 hits, and Bieber did his best Stormtrooper impression with three wild pitches and plunking four, including Adam Engel three times, one of which knocked him out for 10 games. The Diamonds' pen pitched 3 quality innings between Zimmer and Hendriks, buying time for the offense to take advantage of some defensive shenanigans with the Kaiju and grab a huge win in a game that made no sense.

That shaky defense by the Kaiju, largely influenced by Soto's Game 3 injury, once again came back to bite them in Game 4. A two-out error by normally-reliable second baseman Cesar Hernandez gave the Diamonds an opening in the sixth, and Yandy Diaz made him pay immediately, smacking a game-tying RBI single. The bottom half of that inning saw the Kaiju load the bases with two outs, and the Diamonds called on Jake Diekman to get out of it. He did his job, inducing a groundout to end the inning, and a Trevor Story throwing error in the top of the 7th allowed Raimel Tapia to drive in the go-ahead run with a single over third baseman Bobby Dalbec. Orlando Arcia added some late padding with a two-run double, and Dalbec's consolation solo shot came too late.

Week 4: Diamonds vs Monterrey - Series split 2-2

G1: Monterrey 3, Diamonds 2

G2: Diamonds 9, Monterrey 5

G3: Monterrey 6, Diamonds 2

G4: Diamonds 5, Monterrey 2

Los Muertos de Monterrey are a tricky team to gameplan for. Their approach of burning the conventional wisdom of the pitching rotation to the ground has served them well, and deservedly has them atop Dinger Central. They brought a tough test for the Diamonds, especially for the first two games in Mexico.

Game 1 saw Hernandez face off against Monterrey's bullpen brigade, and for the most part the Venezuelan did well, only really giving up a solo shot to Wil Myers. Myers added another shot in the 7th off of Jonathan Loaisiga to extend the lead to 3-0, but the Diamonds fought back in the 8th after Pat Valaika's pinch-hit double and an error by injury replacement Chris Taylor. Back-to-back singles by Tapia and Vazquez cut the lead to 3-2, and a Vazquez swipe of second put runners on second and third and one out. But a lineout by Tommy La Stella and a sliding catch by Alex Dickerson to take an RBI hit away from Austin Slater ended the threat, and while the Diamonds got the leadoff man to scoring position in the 9th, Jesse Hahn struck out Solano and Akiyama and got Diaz to line out.

While the Diamonds waited too long to get the offense going in Game 1, they wasted no time in Game 2, hanging a four-spot on Los Muertos opener Julian Merryweather. To Monterrey's credit, they battled back, utilizing a lefty-heavy lineup to counter Diamonds starter Alcantara, and back-to-back home runs by Eric Hosmer and Dickerson and an RBI double by Ben Gamel cut the lead to three. A further homer by Dominic Smith sliced into the lead further, but a two-run single by Tapia in the 9th allowed the Diamonds to hold on.

Murphy's Law struck the Diamonds in Game 3. A three-run bomb by Josh Donaldson off of Tom Eshelman gave Los Muertos a lead, though the Diamonds struck back in the bottom half of the inning thanks to an RBI fielder's choice by Slater. But errors by Brett Gardner, filling in for the injured Engel, and Yandy Diaz along with four wild pitches from Zimmer allowed the visitors to pull away.

But in Game 4, everything that went wrong in Game 4 went right. Means threw a gem, allowing no hits in 7 innings of work, and was well-supported thanks to a second-inning two-run double by Solano and some defensive issues from the visitors. Grayson Greiner broke up the team's efforts for a no-hitter with a double, then a wild pitch moved him to third, and with the infield in Gamel lifted one that La Stella couldn't get to to break up the shutout as well. A home run in the 9th by Tyler Stephenson offered little consolation for the visitors.

Through one month, the Diamonds sit at .500, but in a fiercely competitive Beasts of the East division where every team is at least .500, anything can happen. Manager Val Pix hopes to find some more consistency from the starting pitchers that aren't John Means in this upcoming month, which sees South Burlington battle the São Paulo Parrots, Florida Flamingos, Denver Zephyr, and the Kaiju.