On Friday afternoon in the Arizona Fall League, the Surprise Saguaros defeated Mesa by a 5-3 score.
Eric Wood was the only Pirate in the starting lineup. He batted third and played third base. Coming into this game, Wood was second in the league in average, third in homers (trailing first by one) and second in runs batted in, also trailing the league leader by one, giving him a shot at winning the AFL Triple Crown.
Wood started his Veterans Day off with a line drive single in the first inning. He flew out to left field in the third inning and then again in the fifth inning. In the seventh, he went the other way, lining out to right field. Wood finished the day 1-for-4, giving him a .368 average through 18 games.
Former Major League scout Bernie Pleskoff, who has been covering the AFL all season, had this to say about Wood.
One of the true under the radar guys here at #AFL16 is #Pirates Eric Wood. I've raved about him all fall. Not much buzz. Terrific bat IMO.
— Bernie Pleskoff (@BerniePleskoff) November 11, 2016
Alex McRae came in during the fourth inning with one out, a man on first base and Surprise holding on to a 2-0 lead. The first batter lined a single, then McRae picked up a strikeout for the second out. That was followed by a grounder that was ruled a fielder’s choice, but the runner from second base was thrown out trying to score on the play. PITCHf/x wasn’t available for this game, so no velocities or pitch types were listed. McRae threw 12 pitches in the inning, nine for strikes.
McRae started the fifth inning off by allowing a single on a sharp grounder up the middle. The next batter nearly did the same thing, but McRae snared the grounder and got the out at first base. The next batter singled to put runners on the corners with one out. McRae struck out the next two hitters to get out of the jam. He threw 17 pitches this frame, with 11 going for strikes.
That was the end of McRae’s day. He gave up three hits and struck out three batters over 1.2 scoreless inning. That set a new high for strikeouts in a game this fall. McRae now has a 3.86 ERA in 14 innings.
Surprise takes on Mesa again on Saturday afternoon, with the venue shifting to Surprise Stadium for that game. On a semi-related note, if you just want to watch some baseball, MLB Network is showing a game from the AFL tomorrow night featuring Peoria and Salt River in the Military Appreciation game. It’s an 8 PM EST start time. Peoria leads Surprise by a half game for the division title. Peoria plays Friday night, so they will either have a one game lead or a tie going into Saturday. There are only five regular season games left.
