As I rifle through the White Sox farm system's box scores each evening, the Arizona Fall League started making me double-check the line score, because even though rainouts in the desert as ultra-rare, more and more games are shortened to seven innings without any rhyme or reason.
Or maybe just rhyme, because as Josh Norris of Baseball America writes, there are more and more reasons to limit games to seven innings now that the complex league seasons start in May instead of June.
Managers decide before the game whether it'll be seven or nine innings, and teams only used to request the shorter game if a cluster of injuries or a long game the previous day cut into a team's pitching depth. Now there are two new sources for shortages:
For the first time, the ACL and FCL both started their seasons on May 4, more than a month earlier than last season’s Opening Day.
The sport is also in the first year of the collectively-bargained 165-player domestic roster cap, so there are fewer players to go around than ever before. Smaller rosters plus an earlier start date means less pitching, so it’s only natural that the seven-inning games would happen almost immediately, which has been the case in the early going.
While teams could count on reinforcing their ACL or FCL staffs with recently drafted players making gentle transitions into professional life, the season now ends nine days after the draft, so available pitchers need to be rationed out a little more.
The White Sox played a seven-inning game against the Dodgers on Friday, but not because there was a shortage of arms. In fact, 2023 second-round pick Grant Taylor and Rule 5 draftee Shane Drohan were each able to make their organizational debuts in a win over the Dodgers. Taylor is coming back from Tommy John surgery, while Drohan is recovering from nerve decompression surgery in his left shoulder.
Gwinnett 4, Charlotte 2
- Colson Montgomery went 2-for-4 with a triple and a double.
- Dominic Fletcher was 2-for-4 with two doubles.
- Zach DeLoach and Adam Hackenberg both were 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Jonathan Cannon: 4.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
- Prelander Berroa: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K
Pensacola 3, Birmingham 0
- Brooks Baldwin went 0-for-2 with two walks.
- Edgar Quero, 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Wilfred Veras was 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Tim Elko wore the collar and silver sombrero.
- Jacob Burke was 1-for-3 with a strikeout and a stolen base.
- Mason Adams: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, 1 WP, 59 of 88 pitches for strikes.
Winston-Salem 3, Asheville 0
- Loidel Chapelli went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
- Jacob Gonzalez was 0-for-4.
- DJ Gladney, 2-for-4 with a homer, double and strikeout.
- Wes Kath was 0-for-1 with a sac fly, two HBPs and strikeout.
- Juan Carela's best start of the season: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP, 50 of 78 pitches for strikes.
Delmarva 6, Kannapolis 2
- Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-2 with a double and two walks.
- Eddie Park, 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Ronny Hernandez broke out of his slump by going 2-for-4.
- Seth Keener: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
ACL White Sox 5, ACL Dodgers 3 (7 innings)
- Ryan Burrowes went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts and a stolen base.
- George Wolkow singled and struck out twice.
- Javier Mogollon flipped the script, homering for his first stateside hit while going 1-for-3 with a K. He also stole a base.
- Angelo Hernandez was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Adrian Gil was 3-for-3, but was caught stealing.
- Stiven Flores, 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
- D'Angelo Tejada singled and struck out twice.
- Erick Hernandez was 1-for-3 with a double before Abraham Nunez replaced him.
- Grant Taylor's professional debut: 3.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 HR
- Shane Drohan's organizational debut: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
