Luis Morales strikes out two in Futures Game

Morales got five whiffs and topped out at 99 mph

Luis Morales

The lone Oakland Athletics representative in this game, Luis Morales got the ball in the fifth inning and came out firing. Morales had a bit of trouble settling in with his command, but oh boy did his stuff jump off the page. Morales had two strikeouts, and he tied Teodo with the most swing-and-misses by a pitcher from the game at five, doing so on two fewer swings. Morales topped out with his fastball at 99.1 mph, and all of his pitches showed fantastic movement. This was our first chance to get statcast data on Morales and he did not disappoint. His breaking balls averaged nearly 2900 rpm, maxing out at 2998 rpm. He issued a walk to his final batter, and in a weird moment was visited by the pitching coach, then soon after Adrian Beltre came out and pulled him due to his pitch count. Morales threw a couple of changeups but statcast had a little trouble with them and the one we do have data on was at 87.9 mph and 1767 rpm.

National League 6, American League 1

box score | statcast

The American League squad got a great start out of Emiliano Teodo, as he gave them two efficient innings and dominated the National league lineup. The hitters couldn’t take advantage of shaky innings from the NL staff, however, and the Angels Caden Dana gave up a leadoff home run to Cam Collier in the third inning to put the AL down a run early. Things would get ugly for the American Leaguers in the next inning, as White Sox prospect Noah Schultz ran into major trouble. Schultz had a run of three lefties, a seemingly favorable matchup, but all three reached base with relatively weak contact including an infield single from Ethan Salas. Schultz then walked a run home, bases still loaded with no outs. Another run came in as Salas hit a batter, ending his day with the AL trailing 3-0 and one out on the board. They escaped without major disaster with a sacrifice fly from Braves prospect Drake Baldwin being the only other run in the inning,

The game wasn’t over yet though, and the AL would get their lick back against Thomas White. White walked a couple of batters, setting it up for Jaison Chourio to bring home the first AL run of the game. White continued to pepper balls in there and walked a batter to load the bases, bringing up Max Clark in a pivotal moment. Clark though, was struck out looking and Cole Young popped out to spare the NL from a collapse. The AL would again put a runner in scoring position with one out in the next inning, but again missed an opportunity and headed into the sixth inning trailing 4-1. Baldwin would extend the lead for the NL in the next half inning with a solo home run, then Jeral Perez would make it 6-1 in the seventh as he singled, advanced on an error and wild pitch, then came in on a ground out. The AL would get runners on in the seventh inning, but couldn’t get anyone in as the National League closed out a 6-1 win.