AFL Mesa at Surprise 10.28.15

Notable Performances:

— Alex Reyes was as advertised. The right-hander entered the Arizona Fall League as the top prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals and came through with another strong start Wednesday.

Reyes threw four shutout innings, allowed four hits and hit 100 MPH with his fastball. His curveball was clocked at 76 MPH and he threw 47 of his 80 pitches for strikes.

— Cubs No. 9 prospect Mark Zagunis hit the decisive three-run homer, which was his first homer in the AFL this year. He had an RBI single earlier in the day, which extended his hitting streak to four games, and was his first RBI of the AFL season. Read more about Zagunis and today’s crazy game on MLBpipeline.com.

Best Play:

— Rangers prospect Lewis Brinson and Yankees prospect Dustin Fowler each made diving catches in the outfield. Brinson made his in the first and although it was a nice play, he only had to dive because he initially broke back on the ball. Fowler, on the other hand, made a nice diving play breaking in on a ball in the sixth and in doing so kept a runner at third base.

Best At-Bats:

— A’s No. 6 prospect Renato Nunez jumpstarted the scoring for Mesa with a solo homer to left field.

— Yankees prospect Tyler Wade came through with a two-run go-ahead triple off the right field wall.

— Jurickson Profar continues to hit in the Arizona Fall League and drove in a pair with a double off the right center field wall in the 6th.

— Brinson also hit a solo homer in the seventh.

— The Cubs’ Jeimer Candelario highlighted a five-run eighth with a two-run double. Candelario has hit extremely well in the AFL with Wednesday being the latest example.

Worth Mentioning:

— Yankees prospect Gary Sanchez continues to rake. The catcher had another good day offensively and showed off some speed in the process. Sanchez stole second base in the first inning and was clocked at 19 MPH on the base paths. Then, in the third he tripled off the centerfield wall and topped out at 18 MPH.

Odd occurrence of the day:

— During the top of the 6th, an emergency alarm went off and while it startled everyone initially, it didn’t appear as it there was any real danger so play continued – despite the alarm. Thankfully it only lasted a couple batters, but I can now check “cover a game with an alarm on in the background” off the career bucket list.

It was later revealed that one of the cooks burnt lunch in the clubhouse and set off the fire alarms.

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