Another visit to the Arizona Fall League

This time, I was treated to a blowout.

MESA, Arizona — Once again Thursday, I headed to Sloan Park to see an Arizona Fall League game. This matchup was between the Mesa Solar Sox, on which prospects from the Cubs, Red Sox, A’s, Angels and Rays play, and the Salt River Rafters, who include prospects from the Yankees, Rockies, Nationals, Diamondbacks and Twins.

And once again, I was stymied in my attempt to see Moises Ballesteros play, as he didn’t in this game. If you’d like to read more about Ballesteros, check out Sara Sanchez’ BCB After Dark from earlier this morning, which is a long essay about the Cubs catching prospect.

There were some Cubs prospects in this game, though. The starting pitcher was Luis Rujano, a Venezuelan native who went to high school in Florida. Thus he was eligible for the Draft, and the Cubs selected him in the 13th round in 2022. He’s 21 and has played two seasons at Myrtle Beach.

Rujano got himself in trouble in the first inning. He hit the first batter, allowed a pair of hits and a walk, along with two stolen bases. He managed to wriggle out of that inning allowing just one run.

Then the Solar Sox offense exploded. They sent 15 men to the plate in the bottom of the first and scored 11 runs, with the big blow a two-run homer by Angels prospect Niko Kavadas. Kavadas homered twice in this game, went 4-for-5 and had six RBI. He played briefly for the Angels in August and September. Six of the 11 runs scored after a throwing error by Rafters shortstop Ben Ross (Twins prospect). That play, if made, would have ended the inning.

In that 11-run inning, Cubs prospect Ben Cowles wound up making two of the three outs. That’s not good, and Cowles went 0-for-4 with a pair of walks. He did look good in the field at second base, though.

A Cubs prospect who was not on the original list of players sent to the AFL also had a 4-for-5 day — catcher David Avitia, who the Cubs signed as a non-drafted free agent in September 2022. In his two years in the Cubs system, Avitia has become known as a defense-first catcher. He’s been pretty good at throwing out runners (23 percent), but has batted just .150/.261/.207 in 66 games at Myrtle Beach and South Bend. He had never had four hits in a game in his professional career — until Thursday.

Here are Avitia’s four hits [VIDEO].

Here’s how Avitia wound up on the Solar Sox roster:

That’s it for the Cubs prospects in this game. The Solar Sox won 17-4 and the game lasted two hours, 51 minutes, which isn’t bad considering the first inning alone ran 50 minutes, and 83 pitches were thrown in that inning. The average number of pitches for a nine-inning MLB game is about 250, so in this one, almost a third of that were thrown in just one inning.

Here’s the entire game if you’re interested. Scroll in to the 59 minute mark for the start of the action.

I’ll probably be at another AFL game or two before the season ends and will report from there. Hopefully, I’ll get to see Ballesteros play next time.