Three of the four affiliates were winners on Friday
Triple-A: Syracuse Mets 1, Norfolk Tides 0
There was a lot of traffic on the bases as lefty pitching prospect Drew Rom allowed eight hits and two walks in a 5.2 inning start. The Mets only scored on him once, though, stringing together a single, a walk, and a single in the fifth inning for the game’s only run. Rom struck out five batters and lowered his ERA for the season to 3.40.
Norfolk’s hitters had many fewer opportunities – batters combined for six hits and did not draw a walk, and only one of their hits was for extra bases. A tough way to win. Each of Connor Norby and Jordan Westburg went 1-4. Westburg’s OPS has fallen below 1.000, for now. Recently-demoted Kyle Stowers took an 0-4 with three strikeouts. Colton Cowser remains out of the lineup with quad soreness.
Rehabbing big leaguer Dillon Tate followed up a recent disastrous outing with 1.1 scoreless innings in relief of Rom. He entered with a man on base and did not allow that guy to score. Tate allowed one hit, and hit a batter, over his outing.
Double-A: Bowie Baysox 4, Altoona (Pirates) 0
Three Baysox pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter against the Curve! Excellent work. Prospect Chayce McDermott from last year’s Trey Mancini trade got the party started with five hitless innings. Walks continue to be a problem for him, as he handed out four free passes, but no hits and no runs, so hey, that works. Relievers Nolan Hoffman and Easton Lucas each added two more hitless innings to complete the no-hitter.
Bowie hitters weren’t exactly a powerhouse, picking up just eight hits overall. They struck out eleven times combined. Billy Cook struck a two-run homer in the second inning to give the only runs the Baysox needed. Heston Kjerstad added another three hits (one double) to his season tally; his OPS is 1.019. It remains exciting to see him doing well. César Prieto went 2-4 out of the leadoff spot. The guy’s hitting a lot this year, batting .387.
High-A: Aberdeen IronBirds 5, Winston-Salem (White Sox)
The IronBirds scored in the top of the first, added a run in the fifth, then scored three in the eighth to really put the game away. Kind of impressive they scored five runs considering they only had six hits, went 1-9 with RISP, and nobody homered.
The Max Wagner May revival continues. The third base prospect hit out of the leadoff spot in this one and got on base five times – a single, double, and three walks. Left fielder Jud Fabian also helped the on-base percentage with a 1-3 night and a pair of walks. Fabian stole four bases in the game. Fellow outfielder Dylan Beavers was 0-2 in his at-bats, but drove in a run twice with a sacrifice fly. Jackson Holliday did not play in this game. South Atlantic League pitchers need a break.
Kyle Virbitsky, the other pitcher in the Cole Irvin trade, pitched the final four innings of the game, striking out six batters while allowing just three hits. Virbitsky needs some more outings like that; his season ERA is 9.58 even after this outing.
Low-A: Delmarva Shorebirds 8, Charleston (Rays) 5
Delmarva took a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never trailed, but it got interesting in the end despite their scoring four runs in the ninth to take a five-run lead into the bottom of the inning there. They held on to win anyway.
The most interesting Shorebirds hitting prospect, Samuel Basallo, had a double in five at-bats. Providing the bulk of Delmarva’s offense was 2022 draftee Carter Young, who went 3-5 with three runs batted in, as well as recent international signee Anderson De Los Santos, who one-upped Young both ways with 4-5 hitting and four runs driven in.
Shorebirds starting pitcher Edgar Portes, a 20-year-old righty, pitched four innings on 60 pitches, striking out six batters while scattering three hits and two walks. Yaqui Rivera, 19, added a scoreless inning. The rest of the game belonged to Juan Nunez, from the Jorge López trade. Things didn’t go as well for Nunez, who allowed all five runs on seven hits and two walks. He did, at least, strike out eight in four innings. That’s a four-inning save.
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Saturday’s Scheduled Games
- Norfolk: vs. Syracuse, 6:35. Starter: Bruce Zimmermann
- Bowie: vs. Altoona, 6:35. Starter: Houston Roth
- Aberdeen: at Winston-Salem, 7:00. Starter: TBD
- Delmarva: at Charleston, 6:05. Starter: Moises Chace