Glendale came into Friday’s action in the Arizona Fall League with a 5-4 record after three straight losses. Through nine games, the league was as tight as possible in the standings. Three teams had 5-4 records and three teams had 4-5 records. Friday’s game was at home against Salt River and both Mitchell Tolman and Logan Hill were in the lineup. Taylor Hearn would come in to the game and have a rough outing in the 10-4 loss.
Mitchell Tolman batted second and played second base. He has made one start at third base during the AFL, otherwise all of his other games were at second base. Tolman walked in the first inning and scored a run. He walked again in the second inning, then flew out to left field in both the fourth and seventh innings. Tolman struck out in the ninth, leaving him 0-for-3 with two walks and a run scored. On defense, he committed his first error, a wild throw in the third inning, which didn’t hurt the team.
Logan Hill played left field in this game. He has been moving between the two corner outfield spots in the AFL. He came up with two runners on in the first inning and popped out to shortstop. In the third, he popped out to third base on the first pitch of the inning. Hill walked in the fifth inning, then lined out to right field in the seventh. He lined out to left field in the ninth, leaving him 0-for-4 with a walk.
Glendale had a tough fourth inning on the pitching side and Taylor Hearn was called on earlier than expected, coming in as the third pitcher of the inning. In his first two outings combined, he gave up one hit over three shutout innings. Hearn got the ball with two men on, two outs, and his team down 4-3. He got a ground out right back to him to end the inning and strand the runners.
Hearn was back out for the fifth inning and the first batter reached on an error by center fielder Tito Polo. That was followed by a line drive single to left field to put runners on the corners, then a line drive to third base for the first out. Hearn then allowed back-to-back-to-back-to-back RBI hits, giving up a double, single, single and a single to make it an 8-3 game. That ended his day with five hits allowed while recording just two outs. Hearn got bailed out by his reliever, who stranded both runners, leaving him with four runs (three earned) allowed. He threw 31 pitches, with 24 going for strikes.
** Glendale now has the weekend off. Saturday night is the annual Bowman Hitting Challenge, which will likely include someone from the team, but no participants have been announced yet. On Monday, we will begin our live coverage for four days, which will be followed by features on all seven Pirates in the league.
