Arizona Fall League roundup: A's arms dominating their competition

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The A's have four pitchers in the Arizona Fall League. How good have they been? With two weeks left, Trey Cochran-Gill's 2.89 ERA is the highest of the four. 

Ahead of Cochran-Gill are Frankie Montas (0.00 ERA), Sam Bragg (0.79 ERA) and Dylan Covey (2.65 ERA). 

The last time Covey and Montas stepped on the mound, the two put in eight innings of work for AFL history. Covey and Montas, along with Marlins farmhand Drew Steckenrider, combined to throw the third no-hitter in Arizona Fall League history Tuesday in the Mesa Solar Sox' 1-0 win over the Surprise Saguaros.

Montas for one, didn't even know history was on the line until after he came out of the game. "I didn't know until after I was done," Montas said to MLB.com about the no-hitter. "I just came in, tried to put zeros on the board and do my best.

"I feel like if you don't know, you don't put that much pressure on yourself."

Montas, aquired at this season's trade deadline from the Dodgers in which Rich Hill and Josh Reddick headed to LA, has been lights out in the AFL. Through 11.1 innings pitched in four appearances out of the bullpen, the big right-hander hasn't allowed an earned run and opposing hitters are batting just .114 against him. 

Another dominant bullpen arm for the A's in the AFL, is right-hander Sam Bragg. This past week, in two games out of the 'pen, Bragg was nearly unhittable, tossing 4.1 innings pitched and allowed three hits with no runs scored. In that time, Bragg struck out four and walked only one batter. 

For his performance so far in the AFL, Bragg was named to the Fall Stars Game.

In six games, only one earned run has crossed home plate against Bragg. The 23-year-old has recorded 11 strikeouts to only one walk in 11.1 innings pitched. 

As Covey tackled history with five innings of no-hit ball, his ERA dropped from 3.75 to 2.65 in 17 innings pitched. The start was the longest outing for Covey this fall. 

Cochran-Gill actually saw his ERA rise by 0.64 points after his last appearance. Throwing 1.1 innings on Halloween, he allowed two hits and one earned run against the Salt River Rafters. 

Between the four pitchers, the quartet has combined for 48.3 innings pitched in the AFL while only allowing nine earned runs.

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-- Montas is one of four pitchers on the Solar Sox who has not allowed an earned run yet. And he is also one of just six pitchers in all of the AFL to throw at least eight innings with no earned runs. 

-- Bragg owns the lowest ERA on the Solar Sox for pitchers that have allowed an earned run. Of those to see a run cross home plate, Bragg has the second lowest ERA in the AFL. 

-- Covey is tied for the team lead with innings pitched and has struck out the second-most batters on the team. 

-- Top prospect Franklin Barreto will join Bragg in the Fall Stars Game. Barreto, 20, is struggling at the plate. He is down to hitting .222/.232/.278 with 13 strikeouts in 13 games played after going 2-for-13 (.154) in his last three games.

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