Arizona Fall League: Game 1 Eyewitness Recap

Intrepid reporter Wallee Wright weighs in with his Salt River Rafters Game 1 thoughts ~

Your Astros&Friends, the Salt River Rafters, opened their 2014 Arizona Fall League schedule by gift-wrapping a 7-4 victory for their crosstown rival Scottsdale Scorpions in a game that had very little that went according to form. The highly-touted Rafter pitching, with the exception of your Astros, was hit hard and the much-heralded, and frankly feared, Pace of Game Initiative rule changes and 20-second clock were non-factors … only the umpiring crew and the new ‘Timekeeper’ seemed to have difficulty with the new rules. In fact, the only thing that went as we suspected it might was the seemingly interminable delay for the two play reviews shuffled off to New York.

Archie Bradley, Arizona’s highly-touted top prospect led a Diamondback-heavy starting line-up that featured only a single Astro, Rio Ruiz batting second at DH … and in very forgettable top-of-the-first the non-Astro contingent in the field demonstrated how to make a bad pitching situation even worse by committing three errors on playable balls leading to three runs. Ruiz, who went hitless on the evening with a strikeout, walk and run scored, got on base in the bottom half of the inning on a fielder’s choice but then committed one of two Rafter TOOTBLANs in the inning by getting thrown out at third trying to take an extra base … Colorado’s Ryan Casteel repeated the base-running error later in the inning and cost the Rafters a second run by getting thrown out at third before the catcher running ahead of him could score. Jason Adam of the Minnesota Twinkies proved very hittable, giving up three more in the fifth … only sound defensive work saved him from further damage.

The Astros’ Mitch Lambson came on in the sixth and was nearly perfect in the inning … an infield single aided and abetted by a range-challenged Brandon Drury at third base being the only blemish – and the runner was quickly erased with a very nice pickoff move. Lambson’s fast ball was really popping for strikes but he had a little difficulty spotting his off-speed stuff … and in the seventh it appeared to be a slower, breaking, offering that was blasted just short of Elko, Nevada by DH and Yankee prospect Greg Bird. All-in-all a very quick and authoritative two innings of work with just the one run given up to go with two strikeouts and no walks … even more encouraging was that Mitch, a lefty, had no apparent difficulty with right-handed batters which bodes well for a potential call-up next season.

The Rafters then called upon the Astros’ Tyson Perez to close out the game and he was absolutely dominant, striking out two each in the eighth and ninth innings … the only two hits were a grounder past first, just fair and into the bullpen for a ground-rule double in the eighth and a blooper behind second in the ninth. The Scottsdale hitters did not seem to be able to catch up with Tyson’s offerings and he finished with a 2-hits, no runs, no walks and four strikeouts … a very impressive outing for the big right-hander, proving his 4-0 record with 11 saves at Corpus Christi this season was no fluke – and hopefully the absence of walks is showing the improved control he’ll need to move up to The Show.

On the offensive side for the Rafters four players accumulated their eight hits: C Peter O’Brien, formerly of the Yanks and now a D-back, was 2/4 with a seventh inning dinger and two RBI; 2B Austin Nola of the Marlins, was 2/4 with a three-bagger that was kicked around in the right-field corner; SS Trevor Story of the Rox was also 2/4 with a double; and, the Twins Eddie Rosario had the other two hits and an RBI.

Salt River Fields was the only venue to have a 20-second clock on opening day … the other venues simply focused on keeping the batter in the box and aggressively calling for the next pitch. Where the clock was in play the home plate umpire still insisted upon calling for the next pitch which had the effect of delaying the start of the clock … no matter, even when the clock expired, as it will when there are runners on the bases, the umpires ignored it and play continued uninterrupted. The Timekeepers were similarly challenged, seemingly unable to remember to reset the clock between pitches, or for that matter to restart it after a reset … all-in-all, simply a nuisance that had the opposite effect of its intent – the two venues without the clock completed their games in 2:30 and change, while our game barely cracked 3 hours. And one of the other contests was a slugfest, so the numbers of hits, runs, and pitching changes had nothing to do with the outcome in terms of elapsed time … the lesson to be gained from opening night is very simple: no amount of gadgets will improve the speed of the game, it is all up to the home plate umpire.

~ Wallee Wright ~