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2003 season

November 2, 2003

Week five of the AFL season was highlighted by the three simultaneous offensive barrages last Tuesday afternoon. 75 runs were scored by the six AFL teams, with two of the games decided by a single run. The Rafters defeated the Desert Dogs, 10-9, in the lowest scoring game of the day, while the Scorpions edged the Javelinas, 15-14. The third contest was a romp, as the Saguaros steamrolled the league-leading Solar Sox, 19-8.

New homerun leader and other hitting highlights :

The race is on between Solar Sox teammates Jonny Gomes (Devil Rays - OF) and Jason Dubois (Cubs - OF) for the league homerun race. Dubois, who was AFL Player of the Week in week four, smacked homers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to move into the lead with eight. Gomes, who returned to the AFL after a two-game tryout with Team USA, failed to go yard this week, leaving him in second place with seven long bombs.  He came close in three plate appearances on Saturday, instead finishing the day with a triple and a pair of doubles. Gomes even went into his homerun trot on one of his shots, barely making it to second base after realizing the ball was still in play ... Delmon Young (Devil Rays - OF) hit his first professional homerun this week, and is batting .458 in his first eight AFL games ...

Luke Scott hit a pair of homeruns, his 3rd & 4th of the season, this week

Kelly Johnson (Braves - SS) continued his punishment of AFL pitchers by knocking a grand slam, his fifth homer of the year, on Thursday. The left-handed hitter is batting .328 with 11 extra-base hits in 64 at bats ... Johnson's Atlanta organization-mate, Richard Lewis (Braves - 2B), jumped back on top of the league batting race, finishing the week with a .415 average ... Luke Scott (Indians - OF) went deep twice on Tuesday, giving him four homeruns in 54 at bats. He is hitting .333 ... Dan Johnson (Athletics - 1B) refuses to slow down, as the left-handed hitter had three multiple hit games this week, including his third homer, to boost his average to .372. "DJ" leads the league with a .481 on-base average ... Brad Nelson (Brewers - OF) finally broke out of his season-long slump with a four-hit game, and another game with three hits, to get his average over the Mendoza line and up to .267 ... Colin Porter (Astros - OF) collected four hits on Thursday for the Scorpions ... Casey Kotchman (Angels - 1B) hit his first homerun of the Fall season, just before shutting it down for the year with a nagging hamstring problem.

Mound marvels:

One of the joys of this year's AFL season is to perch right behind the home plate screen and watch Ben Hendrickson's awesome, knee-buckling curve ball. The Milwaukee Brewer right-hander was dominating against the Scorpions Wednesday night with five scoreless innings, giving up only three hits and no walks while recording seven K's ... The Saguaros' Nick Regilio (Rangers - P) pulled his ERA under 3.00 with a strong performance this week, pitching five innings and giving up only two hits and one run, while striking out seven batters ... The underrated Greg Powell (Astros - P) had another good start, going six innings (a long outing by AFL standards) and giving up only an unearned run.  Here's a statistic to savor; Powell has walked only one batter in 25.2 IPs this Fall, while fanning 16 ... Ramon Ramirez (Yankees - P) just keeps on rolling along. The Dominican right-hander pitched five scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 1.80 ... Kyle Evans (Indians - P) is quietly putting together a nice season. This week's scoreless, one-hit five-inning outing lowered his ERA to 1.80 ... Yesterday's matchup at Scottsdale Stadium between the Solar Sox's Dewon Brazelton (Devil Rays - P) and the Rafters' Boof Bonser (Giants - P) looked like a good one on paper, but both right-handers got knocked around, and the Solar Sox outlasted the home team, 9-7, on a chilly, overcast afternoon.

The week ahead:

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, both Mesa teams lead their respective divisions. The Solar Sox hold a three-game advantage over the Peoria Saguaros in the American Division, while the Desert Dogs, at 13-12, are two games ahead of the Grand Canyon Rafters in the National Division. The Desert Dogs visit the Scorpions on Wednesday in this week's only night game.

--- Bill Mitchell

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All photos on the Arizona Fall League Report are credited to Bill Mitchell, unless noted otherwise, and are not to be used for any other purpose without express permission.