Mike Cisco went into the off season on a high note, going 4IP, H, 0ER, 2BB, K. He finally got that elusive W and ends his AFL career with a 1-2 record. The game was rolling along, when the Desert Dogs decided to make a top of the 9th rally cutting the lead to 1 run. With the bases loaded and 2 out, the “Ninja” Tooru Murata came in and let 2 of the 3 score on a single, but then proceeded to end the game on a great play by Chase D’Arnaud, stabbing a ball in the hole and gunning it to Murata covering 1B.

2 Games left to play…

Diamond Notes:

* Brandon Crawford gets the game ball today. He was money at the plate and in the field despite an error (explanation coming).

His first AB he got “parked” when he laced a bomb to right center only to have it fall in for a triple right by the 430ft sign to the right of the batter’s eye. Buster Posey knows about this little corner all too well. Long story short, it’s most likely a jack in any other park in the AFL, but in Scottsdale center field is 20ft deeper.

He followed it up with a single to right in his second AB and a sac fly which became the winning run in this contest.

In the field, he made a great diving play to his right to stop an automatic double and runs from scoring, but made an error on the throw to first…I know this all to well because I happened to be right in the line of the ball snapping shots of Neal. The ball came flying right to me on a bounce and luckily bounced off the padding and back into play( you can see the “out of focus, shield my mug” photos in the set).

* Which leads me to Thomas Neal. Neal was back at 1B today and made a heads up play on that Crawford error. Like I said it bounced back down the 1B line, Neal quickly grabbed it and gunned down the runner at home by a mile, inning over.

You never give up on a play and it’s for reasons like this.

He went 1-4, and got a robbed of a stolen base. No doubt, if Neal get’s on, he’s going to run. He’s the league leader, let’s keep it that way. However, he ran on a swinging third strike to Brandon Allen and to my eyes beat the throw. Ump saw differently, so he stays at 10 SB’s.

* I got in early to hopefully take some pics of Scorpions BP. I guess they also took it early so I only got the Desert Dogs. A consolation was that Strasburg was pitching in the outfield so I snapped a couple shots. When you take a look at them, check out his facial expressions, he probably has the best one’s in the league, and he’s not even in the bigs yet. The expressions alone may be worth the signing bonus….maybe.

AS ALWAYS, THE PHOTOS ARE RAW (UNCOLOR-CORRECTED, UNCROPPED, UNLEVELED)

CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR FULL GALLERY or here