The Arizona Fall League season opened up on Tuesday afternoon. Seven players from the Pittsburgh Pirates are in the league this season, playing on the Glendale Desert Dogs. You can view the AFL preview article here. On Tuesday, Austin Meadows was the only Pirate in the starting lineup, playing center field and batted sixth. Cody Dickson came in later to pitch. Glendale took an early lead, then lost it late before completing the comeback with a two-run single with one out in the bottom of the ninth.
Meadows came up in the second inning with no outs and a man on second base. He grounded out to second base in his first at-bat, moving the runner up to third base. That runner would score Glendale’s first run of the season one batter later on an infield single.
Next time up, Meadows led off the fourth inning with a pop out to third base on a 2-1 pitch.
In the sixth inning, he struck of swinging on a 2-2 pitch against Corey Black, a 24-year-old righty who spent the season in AA, where he had 101 strikeouts in 86 innings.
Two Glendale pitchers allowed six runs in the top of the eighth, putting the Desert Dogs down 7-5 late in the game. Meadows came up with one out and runners on the corners in the bottom of the eighth. He grounded out to second base, but the throw to second got away and the runner from third scored on the play, giving him an RBI. Meadows finished the day going 0-for-4, but he played a part in two of Glendale’s runs.
Cody Dickson came on in the sixth inning with his team holding a 4-1 lead. He had a battle with the first batter, ending the at-bat with a strikeout swinging on the eighth pitch. Dickson walked the next hitter on four pitches, then threw six straight strikes, getting a pop up to second base and a line out to center field, both on 0-2 pitches. In between those outs, Dickson balked the runner to second base. That was the end of his day. He threw 18 pitches, 11 for strikes.
The final score of the game was 8-7. Game two of the season will be tomorrow at 3:35 EST.
