Fans who got to the game early might have feared that Jose Lima’s rendition of the national anthem might be the most memorable part of the evening (especially if they saw Friday’s Armada loss to Yuma), but the home bats came alive in a 12-2 pounding of the Scorpions that improved starting pitcher Hideki Irabu’s record to 2-0 on the season.  Irabu struck out nine Scorpions and no-hit Yuma through four innings, while being supported brilliantly—almost excessively—by his teammates, who ripped Yuma for 18 hits, scoring at least one run in each of the first four frames (and five in the bottom of the first).  The Armada improve to 9-6 on the season.

With the Armada up big already, Irabu gave up two runs later in the game, the lone earned run coming off Carlos Pupo’s solo jack in the fifth.  He allowed two hits in his seven innings of work.  The Fleet’s bullpen was brilliant once again as Sean Buller and Ryan Tacker threw two scoreless innings to finish the game, striking out three Scorpions.

Leading the offensive onslaught were Omar Bramasco (with four hits) and Andy Bouchie (with three hits and three RBIs, with three extra-bases hits).  The Armada have evened the series against Yuma, and will try to take the series Sunday night—their biggest challenge may not be the Scorpions, but rather trying to draw a third-straight 2,000+ crowd while competing against the Lakers game.  Ben Fox will take the bump for Long Beach—the game will start at 5:05pm.