Team Australia upset Arizona Diamondbacks

Team Australia upset Arizona Diamondbacks

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Team Australia has put baseball on the map Down Under after shocking Major League Baseball club Arizona Diamondbacks on the eve of their series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Australians, who narrowly went down 4-2 to the Dodgers at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday night, pulled off an incredible 5-0 victory that will go down as one of the country's biggest upset wins.

While it was only an exhibition game, the $110 million Diamondbacks were humbled by an Australian team which collectively earns just over a million dollars.

In what will prove as a giant wake-up call for Arizona, and an even bigger shock for their home fans when they wake up to the news of the defeat just a night out from the first of two opening series clashes against their National League West rivals.

But the night belonged to Team Australia - from start to finish. In front of 16,987 fans on Friday night, outfielder Mitch Dening capitalised on a misfield from Diamondbacks third baseman to scamper home for the first run of the night in the first inning.

The roof on top of the Members stand then took a battering when AJ Pollock, who believed there were ashes of former cricketers scattered around the sacred ground, hit a foul that just missed the famous clock on top of the stand.

With bases loaded in the third, a hit to the outfield saw another Australian home, before outfielder Tim Kennelly etched his name into the record books hitting Archie Bradley out of the ball park to register Australia's first home run on the SCG and give his side a 3-0 lead after the fourth innings.

Kennelly was contracted to Philadelphia for eight years, but never played MLB, and is now on the comeback trail from injury.

Infielder Stefan Welch then made it home in the fifth innings before Australia picked up a second run of the innings to take a 5-0 advantage. "It was pretty amazing to do it in front of your own fans," infielder Luke Hughes said.

"It was a fantastic opportunity to transform this field into a baseball field. I was lucky enough to [play in the MLB] in the States, but to do it in your own country with your fellow Aussies is a dream come true."

Starting pitcher for the Diamondbacks' first game against the Dodgers on Saturday night, Wade Miley, admitted he almost never made it on the plane to Sydney because of a fear of flying long distances.

"When they first asked my thoughts about going, I was honest with them but when it came down to it I had to go," Miley said.

"There was nothing wrong with Sydney, Australia, it was just 'is there not a train that runs around here or anything?'. Now I'm starting to get nervous about the flight back, I'd rather stay here. There's zero avoiding it playing baseball so when it's time to fly, you've got to go.

"After the last game of the season, I get in my vehicle and drive 22 hours across the United States home and i don't leave again until it's time for spring training. I'm getting more used to it, I remember thinking when I was a kid 'I'll never fly', I just don't feel safe. Obviously playing baseball, you don't have a choice, you can't leave three days early and take a train to New York."

Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson only told Miley he would join the team when Patrick Corbin was ruled out just two days before the team was due to fly out of the United States. "Wade and I had a long discussion at my ranch last fall about flying," Gibson said.

"I filled him in several facts about it and I think he's far more relaxed about it than he was. I think he realises that flying is safer than a lot of things that he does every day.

"I called him on the bus when Patrick [Corbin] got hurt, and I'd been fooling around with him for a couple of days and he thought I was fooling around but I said 'I'm serious'."

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/

Field of dreams: Diamondbacks, Dodgers to fill more than 80,000 seats

The welcome mat is an immaculate diamond of orange dirt. The new Bradman-Noble Stand is more finished than it was for the Ashes. The centre wicket square is harder and faster than the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks are used to, making the outfielders wary, but they should consider themselves lucky that this is not the old SCG: it will not take turn.

There has been a genuine warmth in Sydney's embrace of the Major League Baseball visit and a curiosity that will have filled more than 80,000 seats by Sunday. The organisers have been quick to remind the public of what this weekend's two games are not. They are not an exhibition - they are the real thing, albeit the first two steps in a 162-game regular season.

MLB has taken its opening day to the world before, to Mexico and Japan. Australia is being rewarded for its strong history of baseball participation - there have been 30 participants in the top American competition since Craig Shipley made his debut for the Dodgers in 1986. Australia has the second-most Little League teams in the world behind the US. The NSW government offered an undisclosed incentive to MLB to stage a baseball festival that it forecast would generate more than $12 million for the state's economy.

Shipley, now an assistant manager at the Diamondbacks, said: ''For the baseball community, and the community in general, MLB going to play an opening series outside of the country is a big deal. This one will be very special.''

At least nobody asked Shipley, on arrival, what he thinks of Australia. Nor was it a question for Ryan Rowland-Smith, an Arizona pitcher who comes from Newcastle.

''To play in front of a sell-out crowd in Sydney [is something] I never would have imagined,'' Rowland-Smith said.

The Dodgers are one of the glamour teams of MLB, though the last of their six World Series wins was in 1988. The Diamondbacks are one of the league's newest franchises, having been founded in 1998, but they won a World Series in their only appearance in 2001.

Dodgers' catcher Tim Federowicz said he would be happy if he could just see a koala or a kangaroo on his visit. His wish came true for the Dodgers' superstar pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who was able to cuddle a joey this week.

''There's been a lot of enthusiasm around the city - you can tell,'' Kershaw said. ''There are plenty of banners all over the place. ''You can feel that it's a big deal for the people here.''

Opening day of the season is traditionally played with festive trimmings but there is to be no light-heartedness on the diamond.

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks have a recent history of another baseball tradition, the on-field all-in brawl.

The occasion has been deemed serious enough for it to be overseen by the league's commissioner, Bud Selig, who told a lunch in Sydney on Thursday: ''It is our hope that the opening series will allow you a better glimpse into the American sporting soul.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/field-of...#ixzz2weZcppzZ

Just got back from watching Game 1 of LA Dodgers vs Arizona Diamondbacks at a bar in HK. :)

I love this game