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AFL: Joely Rodriguez Takes On Mark Appel

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Scottsdale took on first place Salt River on Friday afternoon with Joely Rodriguez on the mound going up against Mark Appel, the Pittsburgh Pirates first round draft pick from 2012, who decided not to sign and returned to Stanford for his senior season. Rodriguez was named the Arizona Fall League Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday and coming into the game, he had a 1.35 ERA in 13.1 innings, with 13 strikeouts and a .234 BAA. Rodriguez has been the Pirates best pitcher in the AFL, thanks in part to the poor performance from Tyler Glasnow on Thursday.

This game was played with the new “Pace of Game” rules in effect, designed to speed up the games and let MLB test out some ideas that they may use in regular season games. For a summary of the rules, check out this link. Rodriguez struck out the first batter he faced, throwing six pitches in the at-bat. He got a second out quickly with a grounder to third base, before allowing a double. With two outs and a man in scoring position, he got a ground ball to second base to end the inning.

In the second inning, Rodriguez struck out the lead-off hitter. He gave up a bunt single that turned into a runner on second  when he threw the ball away. That runner was erased when he tried to steal third base. A miscue by Scottsdale’s third baseman, put the next runner on first. A single, then a walk, loaded the bases with two outs. Things that got out of hand quickly for Rodriguez, who gave up back-to-back singles, which ended his afternoon. He threw eight pitches to the last batter, running his total up to 45 in 1.2 innings. Rodriguez gave up three runs on five hits and a walk, though all the runs were unearned due to the two errors.

There were no Pirates players in the lineup on Friday facing Appel. Early word from the game was that he was sitting mid-90’s, hitting 98 MPH with his fastball and he made quick work of Scottsdale in the first two innings. In the third inning, things fell apart for Appel and he allowed three runs on two hits and two walks. He retired the side in order in the fourth, then put the first three runners on in the fifth before being taken out. Appel gave up a total of five hits, three walks and six runs, five runs were earned.

Scottsdale lost the game 8-6 and moved to 10-12 on the season. They trail Salt River by 5.5 games in the standings with ten games left on the schedule.

The AFL takes off from their regularly scheduled Saturday games to hold their Fall-Stars game. Josh Bell, Elias Diaz and Adrian Sampson will represent the Pirates in the game, which will be shown live on MLB Network at 8:00 PM EST.

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John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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