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Emaus homers, Loewen and Jimenez continue to impress
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Week two of the Arizona Fall League got underway Monday and continued on Tuesday with the Phoenix Desert Dogs splitting two games against the Peo Saguaros. On Monday, with Adam Loewen and Brad Emaus taking the field, the Dogs won 6-2. Tuesday the Desert Dogs lost 8-11 with all five Blue Jays players taking part in the game, including another start by Robert Ray. That leaves manager Gary Cathcart's squad 5-2 with a one game lead over Scottsdale for first place in the division headed into Wednesday's games.
We noted last week that Brad Emaus had a successful 2 for 4 showing while being aggressive at the plate. On Monday Emaus took a much more patient approach seeing a whopping 27 pitches in 5 plate appearances. The outcome was an 0 for 4 day although he did collect a walk and drove in a run with an RBI groundout in the third inning that scored Josh Bell. Tuesday, Emaus went back to being more aggressive and it paid off again jumping on the first pitch to him in the seventh and hitting it out of the park for a two run homer. That was his only hit as he finished the day 1 for 5 seeing 15 pitches in 5 plate appearances. Emaus is struggling to get it going so far hitting .222 with a .263 OBP but has a done a good job putting the ball in play striking out just once in 18 at-bats.
Adam Loewen continued his patient approach at the plate on Monday and Tuesday working 43 pitches in 10 plate appearances between the two days. On Monday Loewen hit his first homer of the AFL, a three run round trip to left field in the top of the 6th with one out on an 0-1 count. He also drew another walk and struckout twice. He went hitless in 4 at-bats Tuesday while drawing a walk, striking out two more times and scoring a run on Emaus' homer. He also stole second in the fourth inning. Loewen's patience at the plate has him tied for the league lead with 7 walks and a .429 OBP despite hitting just .250 so far.
Another day, another hit for catcher AJ Jimenez who went 1 for 3 on Tuesday and got a chance to catch Blue Jays' pitchers Robert Ray and Reidlier Gonzalez. In addition to his single he drew his second walk of season finishing the day with a .273 average and a .385 OBP. He's still striking out at a decent rate with 4 in 11 at-bats but has shown good patience including 5.25 P/PA on Tuesday. Behind the plate he caught one of three runners attempting to steal, leaving him 2 for 5 thus far on the season.
Robert Ray and Reidlier Gonzalez paired up again on Tuesday pitching the first 6 innings with Ray going the first three and Gonzalez following him up with three more. They both allowed one earned run a piece and both struggled to get ahead on the first pitch. Through two appearances they've both gone 6 innings with identical 3.00 ERAs and 1.50 WHIPs(Walks+Hits/Innings).
Ray's first two innings were impressive facing seven batters he hit one, struckout one and didn't allow any hits. He struggled in the third after getting the first batter he allowed a single to Jose Vallejo who then stole second and scored on a double by Cedric Hunter. He then walked the next two batters to load the bases before escaping further damage by getting Yonder Alonso to ground into an inning ending double play.
Ray threw a first pitch strike to 6 of 12 batters compared to 8 of 11 last week. His control overall wasn't as sharp as last week throwing 29 of 52 pitches for strikes(56%). However, he did continue to generate groundballs getting 6 groundouts to 2 flyouts.
Gonzalez gave up three runs in his three innings of work but only one was earned as the Desert Dogs committed one error in each inning Reidlier pitched. In the fourth he got the first two batters on groundouts before allowing a pair of singles to Carlos Rivero and Mitch Canham. Rivero took second on his single after a fielding error by Loewen in left field and then came around to score on Canham's single. Gonzalez got Vallejo to flyout to center to end the inning. He gave up his only earned run in the fifth after Brandon Hicks walked and came around to score on a double by Chris Heisey. Like Ray, Gonzalez got out of his last inning of work by inducing a double play ground ball.
Gonzalez's control was also off throwing 27 of his 47 pitches for strikes including just 5 first pitch strikes to 13 batters. Both Gonzalez and Ray have faired well so far in a league that is usually dominated by the hitters and has many high scoring affairs.
We'll be back Friday with more coverage of the Arizona Fall League including an update on David Cooper who should be active and in the lineup today for the Mesa Solar Sox.
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