Engel sparks offense in Fall League victory

PEORIA, Ariz. -- After roughly a month off from baseball, Adam Engel didn't get off to a blazing start in the first week of the Arizona Fall League, but he's off to a much better start in the second week of play.

Engel, the White Sox No. 17 prospect, entered Monday's game with just one hit in his first seven Arizona Fall League at-bats, but got back on track with a 2-for-3 performance in Glendale's 4-2 win over Peoria.

"I was just looking for something over the plate to hit," Engel said. "The first guy was trying to locate and he did pretty well for the most part. He just threw me a fastball that was a little bit up. Then that last guy, I had two strikes and he left a breaking ball up. They made a couple mistakes and I was able to capitalize."

While Engel and the offense did their part, Glendale's pitching staff performed well too.

Led by Philadelphia's Yacksel Rios, Glendale held Peoria to just two runs on three hits.

"It seemed like he got ahead early and when good pitchers do that, it's pretty hard to come back as an offense," Engel said of Rios. "I thought all of our pitchers did well tonight; they only gave up two runs. That's a pretty solid outing."

In fact, the Glendale pitching staff had a combined no-hitter through the first six innings.

Rios started the game with a pair of strikeouts in three no-hit innings and Cody Dickson, Keegan Yuhl and J.B. Wendelken each followed with a no-hit frame of their own.

Nick Torres, San Diego's No. 21 prospect, broke up the no-hit bid with a single up the middle to start a two-run seventh, but that was all the offense Peoria could muster.

"As a fielder you always try to play good defense but when there's a no-hitter on the line you lock in even more," Engel said. "Everybody's aware. You look up at the scoreboard to check the situation almost every other pitch to make sure you're thinking the right things and you notice the zero in the hit column."

Engel reached base in three of his four plate appearances and was one the move once he got on base.

The speedster is coming off a season in which he stole a career-high 65 bases in 76 attempts for Class A Advanced Winston-Salem. After reaching base to start to game he tried to swipe second, but was thrown out.

"I thought I was in there honestly, but as a basestealer you always think you're safe," Engel said. "It helps later in the game when you want to steal again. It keeps you aggressive."

And that aggressive mindset paid off.

After singling and advancing to second in the eighth, Engel stole third base and scored the game's final run on a sacrifice fly.