Arizona Fall League Fall Stars Game Recap

The Braves’ Isaac Gallegos had to wait until the ninth inning to make his appearance but looked good in limited work.

With just four games remaining in the Arizona Fall League some of the top performers played tonight in the Arizona Fall League Stars game. The Atlanta Braves had one representative, Isaac Gallegos, making the squad. Isaac has appeared in 6 games and has a 4.15 ERA across 8.2 innings of work. He has been striking out players at a dizzying pace (15.6 K/9), but also driving his managers a bit nuts (11.4 BB/9). Despite the strong season for Drake Baldwin (.377/.452/.491) in the AFL he was not named on the team.

The game got off to a crazy start with the NL taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a bases loaded sacrifice fly by Jonathan Long. The AL quickly responded with fie runs of their own in the top of the second highlighted by this absolute bomb by Blue Jays prospect Adrian Pinto pushing their lead to 5-1.

After a scoreless bottom of the second, the NL would respond themselves with really strong play by the games top rated catcher – Ethan Salas of the San Diego Padres. Salas would walk, steal second, execute a perfect double steal with Thomas Saggese, who would walk right after Ethan, and forced catcher Carter Jensen to throw errantly into left field allowing Salas to score and moving Saggese to third.

He wouldn’t stay at third long as he was then driven home via a ground out by Jonathan Long making the score 5-3. Robert Hassell III would drive in the NL’s fourth run with a double to left that scored Sammy Siani who had singled right before.

The two teams would then trade zeros in the fourth and fifth inning before the NL would tie the game at 5-5 when Moises Ballesteros drove in Zyhir Hope with a sacrifice fly. The game would remain tied until the ninth inning when Tigers #6 prospect Thayron Liranzo had this beautiful homer of his own to put the AL up 6-5.

With a runner on first and the AL now up, the NL turned to their final pitcher available – the Atlanta Braves’ Isaac Gallegos. Isaac would strike out the first hitter he saw, Brooks Bannon of the Red Sox and would then finish off the inning with a fly out. Isaac showcased his brilliant slider in both at bats to great success. The NL would threaten in the bottom of the ninth but ultimately fall 6-5.