open the ball vs set out

open the ball

verb
  • To begin operations; to set things in motion. 

set out

verb
  • To start an activity with the intention of finishing it. 

  • To explain something, or give exact details, usually in writing. 

  • To go out, leave. 

  • To position, to put in a position 

How often have the words open the ball and set out occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )