The Scottsdale game on Wednesday night was a slugfest early, with 17 runs scored in the first four innings. Scottsdale ended up losing 13-11 to drop to 5-3 on the season. Two Pittsburgh Pirates players were in the starting lineup. Josh Bell was at first base and batting fifth, while Elias Diaz was behind the plate and batting eighth.
We announced the other day that Nick Kingham isn’t going to participate in the AFL despite being on the initial list for the league. On Tuesday, the Pirates replaced him with right-handed pitcher Angel Sanchez, who pitched six games for Altoona after being picked up off waivers from the White Sox in late July. Sanchez made his AFL debut on Wednesday.
In the first inning, Bell lined out to left field on the first pitch he saw. With two outs and two men on in the second inning, Bell grounded out to second base to end the inning. In the fourth, he reached first base on a fielder’s choice/throwing error from the pitcher. Bell doubled in the seventh inning, his third straight game with a double. He lined out to second base in the eighth inning. Bell finished 1-for-5 with a run scored and he is now hitting .261 through 23 at-bats. On defense, Bell made his first error at first base. In came on a ground ball hit to him in the second inning, which followed a hard hit ball three batters earlier in the inning, that deflected off his glove and was ruled a hit.
Elias Diaz led off the second inning with a ground out to third base. In the following frame, he singled to right field. Diaz then struck out and grounded out to second base in his next two at-bats. In the ninth inning, Diaz lined out to right field. He is 2-for-15 so far. He was 1-for-3 in throwing out runners.
Angel Sanchez made his debut in the sixth inning and picked up three strikeouts, though it wasn’t an easy inning. He walked one batter and another reached on an error. He needed 18 pitches to get out of the inning and it was his only inning of work. Two of his strikeouts were swinging strikeouts.
