Carson Kelly and Harrison Bader Shine in AFL Fall Stars Game

On Saturday night, the Arizona Fall League’s yearly Fall Stars Game took place at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona.

West 12, East 4

Carson Kelly (C): 1-2, SF, 2 RBIs, R, K

Harrison Bader (CF): 2-5, 2B, 2 R, 2 Ks

Paul DeJong (SS): 0-0, 2 HBP, R

Rowan Wick (RP): 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K

Some of baseball’s brightest young players put on a star-worthy show on Saturday night in the Arizona Fall League’s eleventh annual Fall Stars Game, an event in which the AFL West routed the AFL East by a 12-4 final score. The game was played at Surprise Stadium in beautiful Surprise, Arizona, where the Royals and Rangers play their spring training games.

The AFL West sent Brent Honeywell of the Rays’ organization to the mound to start the game, and he did not disappoint, whiffing five of the six batters he was assigned to retire. In 20 games and starts during the season, Honeywell managed a 2.34 earned run average and pitched to a crisp strikeout-to-walk ratio of 117:25 across 115 1/3 innings.

Honeywell’s counterpart, the AFL East’s Chris Stratton, a Giants farmhand, did not fare as well, as the West tagged Stratton for four runs, including one off the bat of Cardinals catcher Carson Kelly, who drove in teammate Harrison Bader and later scored as part of the West’s four-run second inning, their first of two four-run innings in the game and three crooked-number frames overall.

Michael Gettys, an outfielder in the Padres’ organization, plated three runs for the West, while infielder Willie Calhoun of the Dodgers went 3-for-3 with a homer and as many RBIs and Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers -- who homered 26 times in 117 games during the regular season -- went yard.

In addition to Kelly and Bader, two Cardinals -- infielder Paul DeJong and reliever Rowan Wick -- appeared in Saturday’s game. DeJong did not record an official at-bat, as he was hit by a pitch in both plate appearances and scored a run. Wick recorded the first two outs of the top of the eighth inning on four pitches.

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All AFL teams are off on Sunday and will continue play on Monday. The Glendale Desert Dogs will return to Camelback Ranch in Glendale to take on the Peoria Javelinas. The starting pitching matchup for the game has not be announced.