Three of four Orioles affiliates allowed eight runs on Sunday, and those three teams lost.
Triple-A: Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (MIA) 8, Norfolk Tides 2
Norfolk lost badly, the Tides managing only three hits and a run in six innings against Jacksonville’s Jeff Lindgren, a late-rounder in 2019. But Jordan Westburg (No. 6) and Colton Cowser (No. 5) both reached base three times anyway. Westburg homered and walked on a 2-for-3 day, and Cowser singled and walked twice to bolster a .477 OBP. Daz Cameron, Anthony Bemboom and Shayne Fontana (double) had a hit apiece.
Two hopeful contributors to the Baltimore staff, Bruce Zimmermann and Drew Rom, had forgettable days. Zimm allowed four runs on eight hits including a solo home run while whiffing two over five innings. Rom also allowed four runs, this time on four hits in two and two-thirds innings, though his five strikeouts were nice.
Double-A: Harrisburg Senators (WAS) 8, Bowie Baysox 0
Not … a lot … nice to say about this one. The Baysox managed just two hits on the day, which also involved six innings of shutout ball by the Nationals’ No. 11 prospect and 2019 first-rounder Jackson Rutledge. Kudos, anyway, to Coby Mayo (No. 8), who had one of them, a double, and also walked. Outfielder John Rhodes singled.
The Baysox’s Braylin Tavera (3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 0 K) got slapped with the loss, though it’s not like he had much run support. Nolan Hoffman pitched the fourth, allowing a run on a trio of singles. Houston Roth gave up a grand slam in the sixth. Oof. Xavier Moore pitched a scoreless eighth, but he did sprinkle in three walks to go with two K’s.
High-A: Hudson Valley Renegades (NYY) 8, Aberdeen IronBirds 3
A disappointing Sunday result obscured several great individual IronBirds hitting performances. Jud Fabian (No. 13) drove in two-thirds of his team’s runs with a second-inning home run. Max Wagner (No. 16) homered and singled. Jackson Holliday (No. 3) went 1-for-2 and walked twice to pad an .940 High-A OPS.
The final result also obscured another strong performance from Jean Pinto, strikeout machine. Pinto allowed a single run over four innings, walked one, and whiffed eight. The Ironbirds were actually leading, 2-1, after four innings when they turned over the game to Graham Firoved, and it went pretty disastrously: Firoved allowed three runs in the fifth, then let two batters reach in the sixth, both of whom came around to score against Aberdeen’s Ignacio Feliz. A clean eighth and ninth were pitched by Keagan Gillies and Nick Richmond, however, each of whom has an 0.00 ERA in eight-plus High-A innings thus far.
Low-A: Delmarva Shorebirds 5, Down East Wood Ducks (TEX) 4
Delmarva was the only Orioles affiliate winner on Sunday, eking out a close victory over the Down East Wood Ducks, though they never trailed. Elio Prado put the Shorebirds up with a home run. They’d score three in the seventh inning on an Anderson de los Santos double, a Douglas Hodo two-bagger, and an Adam Crampton single. De los Santos also homered in the ninth.
A trifecta of Alfred Vega, Moises Chace and Hugo Beltrán combined for four runs and the win. Vega threw four scoreless. Chace was extremely wild, walking five batters in 2.2 innings. Beltrán had the best outing of the three, striking out five Wood Ducks in 2.1 innings.
Tuesday’s Games
- Norfolk vs. Syracuse, 6:35 pm. Starter: TBD
- Bowie vs. Altoona, 6:35 pm. Starter: TBD
- Aberdeen @ Winston-Salem, 7:00 pm. Starter: TBD
- Delmarva @ Charleston, 7:05 pm. Starter: TBD