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Arizona Fall League play has reached the halfway point. It was a big week for the Glendale Desert Dogs, who are no longer the single worst team in the league, but now in a two-way tie for the bottom spot with the Surprise Saguaros. Some of their Yankee participants showed signs of improvement this week too! Let’s get into the update.
Position Players
Finally, some good news to report on the position players. Although Estevan Florial is still having a rough AFL overall (.163/.268/.286), he showed signs of life over the last week of play. He picked up five hits across three consecutive games, including two doubles and a triple. The outfielder knocked five RBI and drew three walks during that period, too. Steven Sensley didn’t get much playing time over the past week, but he was 3-for-12 with two RBI and a walk.
The best update, however, is about Thairo Estrada. He is in the midst of a seven-game hitting streak, and is 8-for-19 over the last week with a double, four RBI, two walks, and just three strikeouts. He’s now batting .269/.321/.288. It seems safe to say that he is healthy!
Pitchers
There was basically nowhere to go but up for Kyle Zurak after his first two weeks in Arizona, and he did have some better outings over the past seven days. For one thing, he tossed two scoreless innings. However, he also walked two batters and gave up a run through an inning of work. That was enough to lower (yes, lower) his ERA down to 17.36. His nine earned runs through 4.2 innings still look awful, but it’s still such a small sample size that it should balance out of he can string together some decent outings.
Jordan Foley only made one appearance in the last seven days, and for good reason. He followed up last week’s five run appearance by giving up...five more earned runs. That brings him to 13 earned runs over 8.1 innings pitched. He has only surrendered one home run, but issued eight walks to go with 14 strikeouts. Opponents are now batting .314 against him. Fellow reliever Hobie Harris also made it into just one game this week, and was tagged for three runs off four hits through 1.1 innings.
Matt Wivinis is the lone Yankees pitcher who hasn’t had any disastrous outings. In fact, he is pitching quite well. The right-hander owns at 0.96 ERA across 9.1 innings. He has given up just four hits, walked six batters, and has 11 strikeouts.