AFL Update: Oct. 20, 2022
Despite just one Nats reliever appearing in the game, the Javelinas blew a 5-0 lead to the Saguaros to lose their fourth straight game, 7-5.
That one reliever was Orlando Ribalta, who worked around back-to-back singles to open the 7th to preserve his 0.00 ERA in five appearances (7⅓ IP, 5H, 0R, 5K).
Brady Lindsly was the sole position player in the Peoria lineup and gave Drew Millas the night off. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts while batting eighth, dropping his Fall line to .214/.294/.214 (3-14 with 2BB). There were no stolen-base attempts against him.
The Javelinas return home to host the Desert Dogs this afternoon.
Looking forward to getting another glimpse of Antuna some time soon. Overlooked so far isn’t the fact that he’s walked 7 times (and therefore sporting a .522 OBP), but rather he’s only struck out once in 23 plate appearances. His K% rocketed up to 30.3% in AA, after pretty consistently sitting at 21% in his career. So even though it’s an annoyingly small sample size, it’s still impressive to see him not struggle much against what should be relatively good pitchers.
With that said, the already offense-friendly AFL has been more extreme this year, or maybe the pitchers have just worse control. This year, the league is hitting .267/.377/.423, which is up slightly from last year’s .263/.369/.417, which was itself a HUGE increase on 2019 (.238/.323/.359).
Still, a 1:7 K:BB is good, even in the AFL