Orioles minor league recap 5/4: Chayce McDermott leads Norfolk combined no-hitter

McDermott was perfect into the seventh and went 6.2 innings of the combined no-no

Triple-A: Norfolk Tides 2, Nashville (Brewers) 0

Combined no-hitter! Even better for our purposes, it was a combined no-hitter that was led by pitching prospect Chayce McDermott. This was a phenomenal outing, one in which McDermott even carried a perfect game into the seventh inning before finally walking a couple of batters. His pitch count having reached 96, McDermott was pulled after completing 6.2 no-hit innings, during which he notched a phenomenal 11 strikeouts in the game.

It’s a career high in the strikeout category for McDermott. Would be nice to see this K/BB ratio from him more often. MASN’s Steve Melewski noted that this is the first no-hitter of any kind for the Tides since Chris Tillman pitched one there in 2010.

Reliever Nolan Hoffman finished the seventh inning and pitched the eighth. Kaleb Ort closed the thing out with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

These guys needed to throw a no-no because they didn’t have much of a margin for error! Tides batters combined for just five hits across the whole game. Jackson Holliday, Connor Norby, and Kyle Stowers all had 1-4 nights. Coby Mayo took an 0-4. Holliday’s hit was an RBI double that gave the Tides a 2-0 lead.

Box score.

Double-A: Bowie Baysox 5, Erie (Tigers) 1

On Thursday, catching prospect Samuel Basallo was hit by a pitch and came out of the game immediately. I was worried it might end up being an injury that caused him to miss games. Basallo was back in the lineup the very next game and he did this:

That’s four homers in the last four games for Basallo. Jud Fabian and Anthony Servideo also homered in this game. These swings accounted for all five Baysox runs. Fabian’s homer, his fourth, was part of a multi-hit game that raised his season OPS to date up to .792. It’s probably going to take more than that for him to keep advancing in the system.

Bowie’s starting pitcher, Brandon Young, exited after 2.1 innings. I’m assuming some kind of injury was involved, although I don’t have any information. This led to Kyle Brnovich having to do some bulk work in relief. He was up to the task, tossing four no-hit innings while striking out eight batters. Brnovich did walk three batters across his four frames. Less than ideal, but hey, he made it work.

Box score.

High-A: Brooklyn (Mets) 2, Aberdeen IronBirds 0

Aberdeen was held to just one hit in this game. Mac Horvath, Matthew Etzel, Creed Williams, all hitless. Outfielder Douglas Hodo had the lone hit; his 1-4 night improved his average to .143 for the season. Etzel still managed to get on base twice thanks to walking a pair of times and he stole two bags – the dude has 12 steals so far this season.

The lack of offense made this game a tough luck loss for starting pitcher Zach Fruit. The 6’4” righty allowed only an unearned run (the error was his own pickoff throw) over five innings in which he gave up three hits and struck out seven batters. It took Fruit just 66 pitches to get through five.

Box score.

Low-A: Delmarva Shorebirds 5, Fayetteville (Astros) 1

Hey, a game where the Shorebirds got some offense! These are rare so far this season. Delmarva’s guys helped themselves a lot by stealing a ton of bases after they reached. Six different players stole a total of ten bases. That was important to help them score some runs since none of the team’s eight hits went for extra bases. Third baseman Anderson De Los Santos, a 20-year-old, had two hits and drew a walk along with scoring two runs.

This was a well-pitched game for Delmarva too. Starting pitcher Michael Forret struck out seven batters over a four inning start, with one hit and one walk allowed. Forret, who received a modest overslot bonus as a 14th round pick a year ago, has now struck out 28 batters in 18.2 innings with a 2.41 ERA. Fellow 2023 draftee Riley Cooper, a 13th rounder, followed with 3.1 innings in which he allowed just a solo homer, striking out five batters.

Box score.

**

Saturday’s Scheduled Games

• Norfolk: at Nashville, 7:35. Starter: Garrett Stallings
• Bowie: vs. Erie, 6:35. Starter: Seth Johnson
• Aberdeen: at Brooklyn, 2:00. Starter: Edgar Portes
• Delmarva: vs. Fayetteville, 7:05. Starter: Nestor German

Saturday will also mark the beginning of the Florida Complex League season. That’s a 10am game in Sarasota for the rookie-level squad.