In the Arizona Fall League on Tuesday afternoon, the Surprise Saguaros lost 1-0 to Glendale on a day they could have clinched their division.
Two Pirates were in the starting lineup. Connor Joe was in left field and batted second. Eric Wood batted fourth and he was the designated hitter.
Joe grounded out to third base in the first inning. He walked to lead-off the fourth inning, then flew out to center field to end the fifth inning. Joe grounded out to third base again in the eighth. That left him 0-for-3 with a walk. He is 0-for-8 with four walks in his last three games.
Wood grounded out to second base to end the first inning, then singled with one out and Connor Joe on first base in the fourth inning. This was the first hit of the day for Surprise. Wood struck out swinging in the sixth inning, then grounded out to shortstop to end the eighth inning. He finished 1-for-4, giving him a .346 average.
Alex McRae came on to pitch the eighth inning. He got a ground out to second base on his first pitch, a 91 MPH fastball. The next batter also grounded out to second base, this time on a slider. That was followed by a seven-pitch walk. McRae got the third out on a fly ball to center field. He threw 15 pitches (nine for strikes), topping out at 93.2 MPH.
McRae started the ninth just like the eighth, picking up an out on the first pitch. Also just like in the eighth, the second out in the ninth was a grounder to second base. McRae ended a very quick inning with another grounder to second base. This was a five-pitch inning, all fastballs in the 90-92 MPH range. We posted yesterday that McRae has been working on a new changeup in the AFL, though he didn’t get to use it this outing. He has thrown six scoreless innings over his last three appearances.
Surprise has an afternoon contest in Peoria on Wednesday. Tanner Anderson will be on the mound make his seventh (and final) start of the fall. If Surprise wins, they will clinch the division. They currently hold a 1.5 game lead over Glendale and a two game lead over Peoria with two games left to the season.
