The Glendale Desert Dogs came into Thursday’s game in third place in their division, trailing by four games with seven games left in the season. They were taking on second place Surprise today, with Logan Hill and Kevin Kramer in the lineup. Brandon Waddell would come into the game later, as Glendale won 6-2.
Kramer batted second on Thursday and walked in the first inning. In the second inning, he walked and scored a run. Kramer lined out to left field in the fourth inning, then struck out in the sixth. He struck out again in the eighth, leaving him 0-for-3 with two walks and a run scored. His average dropped to .196 due to his current 2-for-27 slump, which includes 12 strikeouts. Kramer had five chances in the field and handled all of them cleanly. He has not made an error in 14 games at shortstop this fall.
Logan Hill was batting seventh and playing right field. He flew out to center field in the second inning, then hit an RBI double in the third. It was his third double of the fall. He would later come around to score. Hill struck out swinging in the fifth inning, then grounded out in the seventh inning. He flew out to center field in the ninth, leaving him 1-for-5 on the day.
Brandon Waddell came into the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. The story of his fall season has been the incredible amount of strikes he has been throwing, but he didn’t have it in this game. Waddell, who had one walk in his first 12 innings this fall, loaded the bases with no outs on a walk, hit-by-pitch and another walk. While the control was off, he cleaned up his own mess by getting a strikeout and a double play for a scoreless inning. Waddell threw 26 pitches in this game, with 12 going for strikes. He now has a 1.38 ERA in 13 innings.
** Mitch Keller will start tomorrow’s game, his first start since pitching two innings in the Fall-Stars game on Saturday night.
