Earlier this month we highlighted the eight Baby Bombers taking part in the Arizona Fall League. We’re keeping you up to date on the latest news coming out of the AFL because, let’s be honest, what else do we have to do with no playoffs?
[Thursday, October 29, 2015]
Gary Sanchez earned himself AFL Hitter of the Week for his week two tear through the league. In that stretch he hit .421 with 9 RBIs and leads the AFL with 5 homers, 15 RBIs, 17 hits and a .900 slugging percentage. He has gotten at least one hit in every game hes played in and has at least two hits in all but two games. He continued the hot hitting on Wednesday going 1-5 with a triple and a stolen base.
Dustin Fowler hit leadoff, going 2-6 with an RBI, a run and stole 2 bags.
Tyler Austin had himself a nice day. He went 2-4 with a walk, a homer, an RBI and three runs scored.
Tyler Wade went 1-5 with a double, 2 RBIs and a run scored.
Domingo Acevedo pitched 1 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on a single hit, which left the yard, and hit a batter.
[Tuesday, October 27, 2015]
Another game, another Gary Sanchez home run. I feel like a broken record. The young backstop was hitting in the three hole for Monday’s action and went 2-5 with his league leading fifth homer and 15th RBI. His pitchers only gave up one run the entire game.
Tyler Austin, perhaps sick of all the talk being about Sanchez, hit a dinger of his own. It was his first of the the season and the only hit in his four at bats.
Tyler Wade hit ninth and went 1-3 with an RBI.
[Monday, October 26, 2015]
The Surprise Saguaros played two games this weekend and the future Yanks didn’t disappoint. In Saturday’s game, Gary Sanchez went 2-5 with a double, homer, a walk and run scored. He brought in four of the team’s 18 runs scored while batting in the cleanup spot. He leads the league in home runs (4) and RBIs (14).
Dustin Fowler was in left field batting ninth, going 1-4 with a walk and a run scored.
Ian Clarkin was the starting pitcher for that game, going four innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and three walks. Chaz Hebert came in for him and threw three shutout innings to get Clarkin his first win of the AFL season.
Sunday was the day of the Tyler. Tyler Austin, Tyler Wade, and Tyler Webb saw action in a 9-6 loss. Austin was at first and went 1-4 with a double and two RBIs. Wade played short going 0-4 and Webb threw a shutout inning giving up one hit.
[Friday, October 23, 2015]
Another game, another stand out performance by Gary Sanchez. He added three more hits to his AFL resume, bringing his total on the season to a league leading 12 to go along with 10 RBIs and 3 homers. This brought his batting average up to .480 on the season, good for fourth highest in the league.
Tyler Wade made an appearance as a pinch runner in the 10th and came around to score the winning run.
Domingo Acevedo made a 1 inning relief appearance coming on in the fifth. He had to work out of a jam after he hit a batter, allowed a stolen base and gave up a single. He got out of the inning with a pop up, K and fly out to keep his ERA at 0.00.
[Thursday, October 22, 2015]
Wednesday brought Sanchez’s third homer of the season and ties him for the league lead. He has at least one hit in all five of his games for the Surprise Saguaros, batting .474 with an AFL leading nine RBIs.
“I’ve just been going out there with a gameplan and trying to make good contact, but I’m also trying to be aggressive early in the count.”
Sanchez had a respectable 2014 with Trenton, hitting .270 with 13 homers and 65 RBIs in 110 games. A .795 OPS, 12 homers and 14 doubles earned him a promotion to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in July of this year. He was shutdown in late August with a hamstring injury, but managed to hit .295 with six homers, nine doubles and 26 RBIs in 35 games. The Bigs came calling in September and on October 3 he made his debut. He only had two at bats, going 0-2 with a K.
“It was a great experience. At Double-A and Triple-A, I was working on everything, defensively and offensively, to make my dream come true, and I did it.
While he continues to wreak havoc on the young pitchers of the AFL, he has one thing on his mind:
“My goal is to get back there. Come out in Spring Training and do my best to get there again next year.”
Outfield prospect Dustin Fowler went 2-5 with a stolen base and two runs scored hitting leadoff for the Saguaros.
