PHOENIX — It had all the prospects of being a perfect Arizona Fall League day for Bay Area baseball fans.

The Scottsdale Scorpions, with six young San Francisco Giants on their roster, were in Phoenix to play the Desert Dogs, whose roster includes seven hopefuls from the Oakland Athletics. A real preview of coming attractions. At least, that’s the way it shaped up until the starting lineups were announced.

On this balmy Friday afternoon, there was only one player in the orange and black and one in the green and gold.

The rest of the boys from around the bay would take the day off, with the exception of a small handful of pitchers who would make brief appearances.

Thomas Neal, a 22-year-old from Riverside, who had been picked by the Giants in the 37th round of the 2005 draft, was at first base for the Scorpions. It was Neal’s 13th AFL game.

Neal’s doing well this fall. He has collected 13 hits in 43 at-bats, including two doubles and one home run. That’s good enough for a .302 batting average. However, when you throw in his eight walks, he has been on base 42 percent of the time. While on base, he has stolen seven times, tying him for second in the league.

All but one of Neal’s other AFL games have been in the outfield — the position for which he was signed four years ago. In 2006, however, he had a shoulder injury, missed all of the 2007 season and played first base most of 2008.

One of Neal’s claims to fame is that in two of his three professional seasons, he has been a member of a league championship team. In 2006 he was in the outfield for Salem-Keizer,  the Northwest League champion. In 2008, he was at first base for Augusta when they won the South Atlantic League championship.

He spent all of last year with the Giants’ Single-A San Jose team in the California League. Neal appeared in 128 games, hit safely 158 times in 470 trips to the plate for a .336 batting average. His hits included 41 doubles, four triples and 22 home runs.

Before the afternoon was over, Neal bounced a double to the centerfield wall in the third and singled in the eighth. His two hits bumped his AFL batting average to .313.

Grant Desme was the only Oakland hopeful in the Dogs’ starting lineup. Before coming to the AFL in October, Desme had spent all of the 2009 season in Single-A, half the year in Kane County and the other half in Stockton.

His numbers were impressive with 140 hits, 31 home runs, 89 runs batted in and 40 stolen bases. However, it turns out that the season in Kane County and Stockton was just a warm-up for his performance since arriving in Arizona.

Every day the AFL publishes cumulative notes for the media and scouts that summarize player performances to date. Here’s what the notes had to say about Desme before the game on Friday: “Grant Desme (OAK) went 1-for-5 (yesterday) with 1 double, 1 walk and 2 runs scored….leads the league with 10 home runs, 23 runs, .827 slugging percentage and 14 extra-base hits…tied for the league lead with 23 RBIs…second in hits (28)…sixth in average (.373)…hit .511 with 10 homers and 22 RBI’s during an 11-game hitting streak from Oct. 14-28…homered in eight of 10 games, October 15-28…sits only four home runs shy of the Arizona Fall League record of 14.”

Not bad for a 23-year-old from Bakersfield. He was signed by the Athletics after being drafted in the second round of the June 2007 draft out of  Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. He played a bit for Vancouver in 2007 but missed most of 2008 with injuries. So far this fall, Desme has not missed a start in the Desert Dogs’ outfield and has more at-bats than any of his teammates.

As you might imagine, I was ready to see the phenom from Single-A do his stuff. Oh well, it wasn’t going to happen today. 0-fer it’s called – no hits in four at-bats. He struck out three times and bounced one to short. Maybe next time.

Actually, there was a small parade of Bay Boys from both bullpens as the game wound down.

Two pitchers in their San Francisco grays shut the Dogs down completely in the 7th and 8th.

Danny Turpin who appeared in 46 games at San Jose in 2009, pitched a perfect seventh. Turpin was born in Corvallis, Ore., and attended Oregon State where he was signed by the Giants in the eighth round of the 2007 draft.

Steve Edlefsen took care of the eighth with equal aplomb. Edlefsen finished the regular season at Triple-A Fresno. He is from Minneapolis, Minn., and attended University of Nebraska where he was drafted by the Giants in the 16th round of the 2007 draft.

Two young A’s pitched the last two innings allowing three hits and one run between them. Justin Friend worked the seventh allowing two hits and one run. Sam Demel pitched the eighth.

Friend was born in Tracy. He was attending Oklahoma State when the Athletics picked him in the 13th round of the 2007 draft. He spent most of 2009 at Single-A Stockton with late season trips to Midland and Sacramento. 

Demel was chosen in the third round of the June 2007 draft. At the time he was attending Texas Christian University. He was born in Channelview, Texas. He split 2009 between Double-A Midland and Triple-A Sacramento.

The game was never seriously in doubt with Scottsdale (and the Giants) in control from the second inning on. Phoenix (and the A’s) got close in the fifth with a minor outburst off a young pitcher from Japan, but had no offense for the rest of the game.

The final score was 8-4 before a typical AFL crowd of 517.

There are 10 more days on this year’s regular schedule with a championship game set for Nov. 21.

Before Friday’s game, Phoenix was leading Scottsdale by 4.5 games in the league’s Eastern Division. But, as they say, there’s a lot of time left and anything can happen.

Harrell Miller can be reached via e-mail at harrell.jan.miller@gmail.com