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Salt River Rafters 11, Glendale Desert Dogs 10
Gavin Sheets (1b) 2-for-5, 2 R, RBI (4), 2 K (.225 BA, .562 OPS)
Blake Rutherford (lf) 0-for-6, R, K (.175 BA, .708 OPS)
OK, you’re just not going to get a weirder game than this one. Salt River jumped out to a 10-0 lead after two innings, and we can all be happy no White Sox prospects pitched in the game.
Glendale then ran off its own stretch of 10 straight runs, tying the game 10-10 in the seventh (it had rallied to within 10-9 by the end of the fourth). A single from Sheets scored Rutherford (who reached on an error) to make the game 10-7, and later Sheets came around to score the ninth run of the game for Glendale.
Gavin Sheets drives in Rutherford (reached on an error) with two outs to make it a 10-7 game in the 4th. Sheets is 2-3 at the plate tonight #WhiteSox pic.twitter.com/C9Gw1T9VWE
— Sean Williams (@Sean_W10) October 9, 2019
After Salt River scored their “runner on second” in the top of the 10th off of a sacrifice fly, Glendale was shaping up for same, putting runners on first and third with one out. Then Omar Estevez and Rutherford struck out to end the game, and very likely the nuttiest game of this AFL season was over. Just 264 lucky fans witnessed it, and it was over in a tidy 3:38.
Earlier in the day, Tyler Johnson was named to the AFL All-Star Game on Saturday. Rutherford, on the strength of ... his three triples? ... is one of three players eligible for a fan vote to get named to the team, as well.