Minor League Ball Gameday, Oct 30: Arizona Fall League Action

Good afternoon prospecteers. We had the second tie of the fall along with a lot of power on display, with Glendale and Surprise going 11 innings but finished tied 5-5. One of the league rules is no game can last longer than 11 innings, hence the reason for the tie. Lets take a look at the rest of the action.

League Standings

TEAM	WIN	LOSS	TIE	GB
AFL EAST
Mesa Solar Sox	10	7	1	-
Salt River Rafters	9	9		1.5
Scottsdale Scorpions	7	11		3.5
AFL WEST
Surprise Saguaros	11	6	1	-
Glendale Desert Dogs	8	8	2	2.5
Peoria Javelinas	7	11		4.5

Game Recaps

Peoria 3 - Scottsdale 2

Clean up hitter Cameron Rupp came up huge for Peoria, knocking a solo home run in the 8th innings to send the Javelinas ahead for good. They got three scoreless innings out of starter Keyvius Sampson who allowed three hits and a walk with two punch outs. Andrew Robinson threw a pair of innings after, allowing a run on two hits and walks with a wild pitch and three strike outs. Malcom Culver, Angel Baez, and Austin Wright each threw a scoreless frame with Culver striking out one with a hit allowed, Baez struck out one and earned the win and Wright sent two back to pine with strike outs. Dominic Leone finished with his third save, allowing a run on a home run to Peter O'Brien with a walk and a strike out. First baseman Tommy Medica was 2-3 with a double, run scored, walk and strike out. Lead off man Cory Spangenberg was 0-3 with an RBI, walk, strike out and his seventh steal of the fall. Delino DeShields got his sixth steal going 0-2 with a walk and a strike out. Left fielder and Fall Stars participant Stefen Romero turned in a 1-4 performance with a double, run scored and strike out. Patrick Kivlehan drove in a run with a single in four at bats with a strike out and a throwing error from the hot corner. It was his first error of the fall for him.

Short stop Alen Hanson and catcher Peter O'Brien did all they could, with Hanson going 2-4 with a double, stolen base and a sacrifice out of the top spot in the line up and O'Brien going yard for a solo shot in the 9th. O'Brien also made a throwing error and struck out once. Center fielder Jarrett Parker put together a two hit performance with a walk and strike out in four trips. Addison Maruszak made his AFL debut going 1-4 with an RBI and strike out playing first. Gift Ngoepe, he of the .103 batting average in the AFL, went 1-3 with a walk, run scored and pair of strike outs. Right fielder Alex Dickerson was 1-4 with his first stolen base and two strike outs. Hansel Robles got the start and went four solid innings, allowing a run on three hits, a hit by pitch and a walk with five strike outs. Kyle Crick followed with a pair of near-perfect frames, only giving up a walk with a strike out.  Jeurys Familia took the loss, allowing a run on one hit, a walk and two strike outs. Cody Satterwhite followed up with an inning where he allowed a run on a homer with a strike out and a walk.

Glendale 5 - Surprise 5 (11 innings)

Glendale jumped on the board first with Byron Buxton hitting a two-run homer, his fourth of the fall, driving in Brent Keys who doubled to start the bottom of the first. Buxton finished 2-5 with the home run, two runs scored, two RBI, and a strike out. Keys was 2-4 with a walk, double, stolen base, a run scored and was caught stealing. Short stop Corey Seager and right fielder Jared Mitchell both left the park as well, with Seager finishing 2-5 with the bomb, two RBI, a run scored and a strike out while Mitchell was 3-4 with a walk, the home run, a run scored, RBI, stolen base and a strike out. First baseman Travis Mattair was 1-5 with a throwing error and was gunned down at the plate trying to score the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. Starting pitcher Andrew Heaney threw four more scoreless innings, allowing three hits and a pair of walks with five punch outs. Zack Jones then gave up the lead, getting rocked in just 0.2 innings, allowing four runs on two walks, two hits (both home runs) and a strike out. Jarrett Martin finished the inning and took care of the next one as well, setting down all four batters in order. AJ Achter continued his scoreless streak, stretching it to seven innings, with a strike out. Edgar Olmos allowed a run on three hits in an inning of work with a pair of strike outs as well. Drew Hayes and Charlie Leesman finished off the game with three scoreless innings. One from Hayes where he allowed a hit and two from Leesman with a pair of strike outs.

Surprise was able to salvage the tie with Tyler Naquin throwing out Mattair at home. Naquin was 1-6 at the plate with a double and a strike out. Mookie Betts showed off his base stealing acumen, notching three steals on the night while going 1-5 with a walk and two strike outs. Henry Urrutia and Brett Nicholas both took Jones deep with two-run home runs in the 5th, with Urrutia finishing 1-4 with a walk and Nicholas 1-5 with two strike outs. Catcher Adam Weisenburger was 2-5 with an RBI and a punch out. Jason Rogers, Tony Wolters, and Dariel Alvarez all pitched in with a hit in five plate appearances. Rogers also walked, and scored a run, Wolters scored once and Alvarez also had a pair of strike outs. Will Roberts took the bump and went five innings, allowing three runs on on five hits with three strike outs and two home runs allowed. Right Nick McBride didn't fare well either, allowing two runs on two hits, a walk, a strike out and a home run allowed as well in an inning. The rest of the pen supplied five scoreless innings to hold the tie. Southpaw Jason Gurka and righty Keone Kela took two innings a piece with four baserunners allowed each. Gurka gave up four hits and Kela allowed two hits, walks and two strike outs. Kevin Shackelford took care of the 11th with a scoreless frame.

Salt River 7 - Mesa 3

Another game, another Kris Bryant home run. This time it wasn't enough as Salt River used a monster performance of its own from James Ramsey. The Rafters center fielder went 4-5 with three doubles, three runs scored, an RBI and a strike out. Second baseman Jacob Wilson drove in a pair in a 2-4 performance with a strike out. Left fielder Mike Freeman went 2-3 with a walk, stolen base, and a run scored. Nick Ahmed reached base three times by working a pair of walks, a double and a run scored in five trips. First baseman Kyle Parker went 1-4 with a run scored, RBI and strike out at the plate and his third error of the fall in the field on a bad throw. Their pitching held one the most powerful line up in the desert at bay for most of the game. Starter Grayson Garvin returned to form, throwing 4.2 shut out innings with four hits, one walk and four punch outs for the win. Dan Houston and Kraig Sitton followed with 2.1 innings, 1.1 from Houston with a walk and strike out and one inning from Sitton with a pair of walks. Merrill Kelly allowed the only blemish, giving up three runs on three hits, a walk, wild pitch, and a strike out and a home run allowed. Matt Ramsey struck out the only guy he faced and Matt Stites finished off the game with a scoreless 9th with a strike out.

Bryant homered for the second game in a row, stretching his league lead to six. It was his only hit in five at bats with two strike outs. Designated hitter CJ Cron and catcher Adrian Nieto registered multi-hit games, with Nieto ripping off a triple with an RBI and run scored. Cron was 2-3 with a walk and a run scored. Lead off man Albert Almora had a rough game in the field, making two throwing errors but went 1-4 with a walk at the plate. Second sacker Taylor Lindsey was the only other Solar Sock to get a hit. Starting pitcher Matt Purke was lit up after dominating for most of the fall so far. He allowed five runs on eight hits and two walks with a single strike out in three innings. He also balked runners into scoring position in the first. Matt Loosen followed with two excellent innings with a hit allowed and three strike outs. Lendy Castillo had absolutely no control, only registering a single out on a strike out with a run allowed on three walks, and a hit. Cam Bedrosian got them out of the jam Castillo started by striking out the only two batters he faced. Corey Knebel threw a shut out frame with a strike out and hit allowed. Robert Benincasa worked the 8th and gave up a run on two hits with a strike out.

Probable Starters

Mesa @ Scottsdale - 3:35 PM EST

Mesa - RHP Dallas Beeler (2-0, 10 IP, 13 H, 6 R/ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 1 HR)

Scottsdale - RHP Phil Irwin (0-1, 5.1 IP, 9 H, 6 R/ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR)

Peoria @ Glendale - 3:35 PM EST

Peoria - RHP Brandon Maurer (0-1, 9.2 IP, 9 H, 4 R/ER, 4 BB, 8 K)

Glendale - RHP Stephen McCray (2-0, 10.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R/ER, 4 BB, 5 K)

Salt River @ Surprise - 3:35 PM EST

Salt River - RHP Sam Gaviglio (1-0, 12.2 IP, 16 H, 10 R/ER, 4 BB, 9 K, 2 HR)

Surprise - LHP Will Lamb (0-1, 9.1 IP, 15 H, 13 R, 11 ER, 10 BB, 6 K)

Linkage

****The Player and Pitcher of the Week were announced, with Tyler Naquin and Matt Purke taking home the honors.

****The WWBA World Championships have concluded with the EvoShield Canes winning the 85-team tournament hosted by Perfect Game. The Canes featured the event's Most Valuable Pitcher Ryan Avidano (Starrs Mill High, GA) and Grant Holmes. All 22 players have Division 1 commitments.

****Jim Callis also went over the WWBA World Championships.

****Bill Ballew kicked off Baseball America's top prospect lists with the Atlanta Braves. Links follow behind the paywall with scouting reports and a chat with Ballew. No surprise, Lucas Sims comes in at number one.

****Aaron Fitt unveiled his Top 25 recruiting classes last week and now he is taking a look at how his 2009 list has taken shape. Most coaches believe you should wait four years before evaluating a class so they have time to play through the system.

****MLBPipeline debuted a series called Pipeline Perspectives where Jonthan Mayo and Jim Callis debate a topic. The first topic - which third baseman has more upside, Kris Bryant or Miguel Sano?

****The Gulf Coast League Nationals won the Best Team MiLBY, finishing 49-9 and winning the GCL.