Tyler Glasnow got his second start of the Arizona Fall League on Monday night. His results weren’t good in his first game, but the scouting reports from that game had a lot of great things to say about him. His second game obviously went much better with three scoreless innings. He allowed two hits, a walk and hit a batter, while striking out three. Scottsdale defeated Mesa 2-1 to move to 4-2 on the season.
The game didn’t start well for Glasnow. On the second pitch of the game, he gave up a double. His next pitch hit the second batter and then Mesa pulled off a double steal, putting runners on second and third with no outs. It took Glasnow eight pitches to get two strikeouts and a ground out to end the inning with no runs allowed. After being pulled in his first game due to his pitch count(29 pitches), he needed just 11 pitches to get through the first inning on Monday night.
Glasnow had an easy second inning, retiring the side in order on 11 pitches. Through two innings, he threw 14 of his 22 pitches for strikes.
In the third inning, Glasnow got a ground ball to Josh Bell from the first batter. He then walked the next guy on four pitches and that was followed by a single to right field. The fourth batter of the inning struck out swinging and with the runners going on the pitch, Elias Diaz threw the lead runner out at third to end the inning. Glasnow needed 17 pitches in the third and just eight went for strikes. That inning ended his night.
Josh Bell hit fifth and he was back at first base after not playing the previous two games. Bell went 1-for-9 in his first three games. He came up in the second inning batting right-handed and grounded back to the pitcher on the first pitch. In his second at-bat, Bell singled on a grounder up the middle, bringing home Scottsdale’s second run. He switched to the left side for his third at-bat and grounded back to the pitcher again, reaching on a fielding error. In the eighth inning, Bell hit a ground rule double to right-center field. He finished the game 2-for-4 with an RBI. Bell handled all eight chances in the field, included three ground balls to him, two of which he retired unassisted.
Elias Diaz caught his third game and he batted eighth. Just like Bell, Diaz grounded back to the pitcher in his first at-bat. He grounded out to third base in his second plate appearance, then leading off the eighth inning, Diaz decided to try the second baseman with his third ground out of the game.
In a small bit of AFL new, Jeff Banister has decided not to manage Scottsdale as originally planned. He is up for the Texas Rangers job and said that he didn’t want it to be a distraction to the team. Frank Kremblas is now managing the team. He has held numerous jobs in the Pirates’ system since being hired in 2008.
Scottsdale plays an afternoon game on Tuesday. Joely Rodriguez will make his second start of the season. He allowed one run on four hits and a walk in 2.1 innings during his debut.