After playing two night games to open the season against Salt River, the Scottsdale Scorpions moved on to Peoria for a day game Thursday. Scottsdale dropped their second straight game, losing 6-3 today. 
Alen Hanson was the only Pittsburgh Pirates player in the starting lineup. He batted lead-off and played shortstop. Hanson struck out in his first AB, then reached on an error in the second inning. He would steal second and third, giving him three stolen bases on the young season. In the fourth, Hanson went down swinging again. In his fourth at-bat, he flew out to left field. In the ninth, Hanson went down swinging for the third time, this time on three pitches. After two games, he is 2-for-9, with two singles. Hanson handled all four chances in the field cleanly.
Matt Benedict came on to pitch the third inning for Scottsdale. He retired the side in order, getting two ground outs and a soft liner to center field. Benedict had an easy fourth inning, getting a strikeout, a fly out and a ground out. In the fifth, he made it eight outs in a row, before giving up a double on a grounder down the first base line. That was the end of his day. He threw a total of 37 pitches, 25 went for strikes.
Peoria has Pitch F/X available, unlike most of the other parks in the AFL. Benedict threw 20 fastballs, 12 change-ups and five sliders. He was sitting 88-91 MPH with the fastball, topping out at 92 twice. His off-speed pitches were 83-85 MPH. You can check out the full chart at mlbfarm.com.
Zack Thornton came on in relief of Benedict and finished off the fifth inning with a groundball to second base. He had an easy sixth, though one batter reached via error, which was charged to Thornton. In the seventh, he ran into trouble, allowing two runs on three hits and another error, again from himself. Both runs ended up being earned.
Thornton had nearly an identical pitch count as Benedict, throwing one more pitch and the same number of strikes. Thornton threw 23 fastballs, all in the 88-90 MPH range. He mixed in a change-up in the low-80’s and a curveball in the 77-79 MPH range. His full chart can be viewed here.
