Cardinals prospect Brycen Mautz delivered his second consecutive scoreless relief outing of the Arizona Fall League when he completed 1 2/3 scoreless innings and struck out two batters on Thursday in the Glendale Desert Dogs’ 7-1 loss to the Surprise Saguaros.
With the outing, Mautz, 23, has totaled four innings of relief across three fall league appearances. The lefty has allowed one run and struck out six batters while walking two for the Desert Dogs.
Mautz entered Thursday’s game with runners on second and third base and one out in the fifth inning. After going from an 0-2 count to a 3-2 count against right-handed hitting Astros prospect Collin Price, Mautz allowed a sacrifice fly that plated one run. Mautz kept the second runner he inherited stranded on second base to end the inning by striking out left-handed hitting Orioles prospect Creed Willems.
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In the sixth inning, Mautz struck out one batter, walked one, and induced two groundouts for a scoreless inning. The 23-year-old lefty’s lone strikeout in the sixth inning was a swinging strikeout against Astros prospect Austin Deming, a right-handed hitter.
Across 10 encounters against right-handed hitters this fall, Mautz has allowed two hits and struck out four. The early ability to limit righties comes after Mautz allowed a .287 batting average and a .890 on-base plus slugging percentage to right-handed batters during the regular season while with Class High-A Peoria.
Along with Mautz’s scoreless relief outing, Cardinals prospects Thomas Saggese and Leonardo Bernal appeared in Thursday’s game.
Saggese, 22, started at second base and batted third for the Desert Dogs. The infielder went one-for-three with one walk and a strikeout. Saggese’s single had an exit velocity of 103 mph, per Statcast. Saggese added a stolen base to his night on a double steal attempt in the fourth inning after he walked. The infield prospect has a .364 batting average in six AFL games.
Bernal, 20, started at catcher and batted eighth. Bernal went hitless in four at-bats and struck out twice. He caught all nine innings and thwarted one of the two stolen base attempts against him. The switch-hitting catching prospect has three hits in 15 at-bats (.200 average) in four AFL games.