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Mesa Solar Sox 6, Glendale Desert Dogs 4
Luis Robert (cleanup, RF): 1-for-4, HR (2), RBI (9), K, BB (.358)
Luis Basabe (leadoff, CF): 1-for-5 (.212)
Tanner Banks (starter): 1 2⁄3 IP, 5 ER, 5H, BB, 2 K, 2 HR, 13 game score, 52 pitches/31 strikes, L (2-1) (5.19)
Zach Thompson (fifth and sixth innings): 2 IP, H, 3 K, BB, 30 pitches/18 strikes (3.38)
Let’s just get this right out of the way:
Luis Robert's home run#WhiteSox #AFL18#GlendaleDesertDogs pic.twitter.com/TEuxiGyKzh
— Kim C (@Cu_As) November 8, 2018
#WhiteSox Luis Robert with an absolutely mammoth home run. Good lord. Nobody on the field moved. Make sure your volume is turned up. @MLBPipeline pic.twitter.com/OuukA6mfEV
— Mike Rosenbaum (@GoldenSombrero) November 8, 2018
Mike is right; turn up the goddang sound on this one.
The yowls of laughter are almost better than the redwood-collapsing crack of the bat. https://t.co/zz8UbD4uRH
— South Side Sox (@SouthSideSox) November 8, 2018
What the hell — one more angle:
Luis Robert just sent this one to the moon and it isn't coming back! It's his second HR of the AFL season and he now has a hit in all 13 games he's played in #WhiteSox pic.twitter.com/8FWNtU3r0d
— Sean Williams (@TLS_Sean) November 8, 2018
Thompson pitched well, Basabe led off and tapped one hit, and Banks, well, Banks struggled. But the story tonight was Robert’s absolute massacre of a ball in the sixth inning. Lord, he has been so much fun to watch this fall. The mind reels ...
But yeah, the Solar Sox rocked Tanner Banks, who started the game but got knocked out in the second inning, with the Desert Dogs trailing, 5-1, and unable to come back.
One of South Side Sox’s two new minors correspondents, Kim Contreras, tweeted a reasonable thought on his rough outing:
Tanner Banks has struggled tonight. But I'll say this: this is a LONG SEASON for these guys, especially for the pitchers. I know more than a few pitching coordinators who would prefer this fall league go away because teams ARE REQUIRED TO send a certain number of pitchers
— Kim C (@Cu_As) November 8, 2018
And a positive end note, from photographer Bill Mitchell, sitting next to Kim and audible in her Robert video:
Luis Robert just made me say Wow! Just Wow! A line drive HR to the very top of the LF berm at Sloan Park. If we had exit velocities tonight, I'm betting that one would have set a record. One more time - Wow! #WhiteSox
— Bill Mitchell (@billazbbphotog) November 8, 2018
The Desert Dogs have an off-day Thursday, before hosting the Scottsdale Scorpions on Friday.