![]() Jeff Suppan came back out for the 6th and despite getting Barry Bonds out to start the inning, Suppan gave up 3 straight hits forcing Buck Showalter to bring in Clint Sodowsky. Unlike the quick strike mashing Dante Bichette and Larry Walker did to unravel Diamondback games in the prior days, a walk, 2 singles, and a double gave the Giants a 3-1 lead. ![]() Unfortunately, the 2nd and 3rd time around the lineup wasn’t as kind to Suppan. Suppan had a perfect game through 3 and gave up just 2 singles in the 4th. The Diamondbacks had a 1-0 lead after 4 innings with Jeff Suppan throwing well. Jeff Suppan got the start for the Diamondbacks against the Giants’ Mark Gardner. The Giants took 2 out of 3 against the National League Houston Astros in their prior series to begin their. The Rockies swept the Diamondbacks in the inaugural series and the struggles continued against the Giants. DiPoto earned a career high 19 saves in 1998. Jerry DiPoto earned the save in this one for the Rockies. The Diamondbacks released Diaz after 1999, after which Diaz signed with the Rangers and played 3 more seasons in the minors before retiring. Despite being the 1998 inaugural Opening Day starting 2nd baseman, Diaz played in just 7 MLB games finishing 2-12 with a RBI. It makes me happy to see that Diaz did receive his first MLB hit considering he never made it back to the MLB after 1999. 311 with 11 homers in AAA earning a couple more cups of coffee appearing in 4 games over the course of 2 different call ups. After that game, he was sent down to AAA Tucson and did not appear in the majors again in 1998. Edwin Diaz started the season 0-6 at the plate in those first 2 starts and didn’t play again until April 5th where he grounded out to first base in his only at bat. Batista took the starting job in game 3 and ran with it. 202 with the A’s, but did have a strong rookie year in 96′ batting. Tony Batista struggled mightily in 1997 batting. The full expansion draft will most likely get its own article down the road since it’s the origin of several Diamondback players, but for now you can view the full draft results here. Opening Day 2nd baseman Edwin Diaz went 11th overall and this game’s starter, Brian Anderson, was the Diamondbacks first pick (2nd overall). Here is quick explanation of how that expansion draft worked. The Diamondbacks acquired Tony Batista with the 27th pick from the Oakland Athletics in the D-Backs/Devil Rays Expansion Draft. As most people know, Tony Batista is most famous for his batting stance seen here: PC- Bleacher Report After Edwin Diaz started the first 2 games at 2B, Batista received the game 3 start and thrived. Matt Williams and Jay Bell, the 2-4 sandwich that supported Travis Lee (who through 2 games is still my pick for greatest Diamondback ever) finally got their first hits in this game. The score stayed at 5-4 until the 9th inning when Rockies’ Neifi Perez tripled and Perez actually scored via a Felix Rodriguez balk next batter. PC- Baseball ReferenceĮntering the inning with a 81% win probability, Burks got on base with a walk, Walker doubled, and Bo Bichette’s dad strikes again with a homer increasing the win probability to 64%. Starting pitcher Brian Anderson came back out for the 6th with a low pitch count, but again the middle of the Rockies lineup wrecked havoc. The Diamondbacks had a lead heading into the 6th after Jay Bell and Matt Williams both homered in the 5th. Encouragingly, game 3 went a little better for the Diamondbacks. The Rockies spoiled Opening Day and game 2, beating the Diamondbacks by a combined 15-2 score. Most of those firsts can be seen here but this section of the 1998 is largely about their first losing streak. In the first week of Diamondbacks baseball, obviously there was a ton of firsts. ![]()
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