Another day, more good things to say about Samuel Basallo and Matthew Etzel.
Triple-A: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Yankees) 10, Norfolk Tides 0
There have been a number of games this year where Tides pitchers have gotten their collective butts kicked pretty hard and this was another one of them. Starting pitcher Justin Armbruester absorbed most of the damage, giving up six runs in only 2.1 innings of work. Armbruester now sports a 10.40 ERA – this outing was a failure of the Matusz Test and he’s up at the point where that’s an impressive feat.
Also contributing to the struggle was reliever Wandisson Charles. At the start of the season, there were hopes that he might be the next unexpected Orioles reliever find. Charles gave up three runs in an inning of work, surrendering two home runs. It’s a 6.75 ERA for the 2024 campaign.
Norfolk’s hitters also were not very good. Jackson Holliday took an 0-4. Heston Kjerstad was 0-3, drawing a walk. Possible future super-utility player Billy Cook was likewise 0-4. Tides hitters got just five hits, none of which went for extra bases, on the way to the shutout loss.
Double-A:
This was essentially the only highlight of the game for the Baysox:
Tape measure shot from Basallo pic.twitter.com/lmi8p5N9Le
— Bowie Baysox (@BowieBaysox) June 8, 2024
That was the tenth home run of the season for catching prospect Samuel Basallo, scoring the only two Bowie runs of the game. The 19-year-old accounted for two of the five Baysox hits and added a walk. He’s OPSing .818 for this season thanks to a hot start to the month of June. Jud Fabian was 0-3, drawing a walk, while Frederick Bencosme was 0-4 out of the leadoff spot.
Baysox starting pitcher Trace Bright struck out six batters over a four inning start where he gave up two runs. This was enough for him to take a loss; he’s 0-5 this season, rough luck for a guy with a 3.67 ERA, but then, he hasn’t pitched at least five innings since April, so that’s a hard way to get wins. This is not a question of being inefficient in getting outs because he’s not thrown more than 84 pitches in a game this season. In Friday’s outing, he threw 76 pitches over four innings.
Nearly old friend alert: Former Orioles draft pick Nolan McLean, a two-way player who did not sign with the team in 2022, was in the Rumble Ponies lineup for this game. He was 0-4.
High-A: Brooklyn (Mets) 13, Aberdeen IronBirds 7
This was a tough night for a couple of guys who began their season with Delmarva and earned promotions to Aberdeen. Starting pitcher Luis De León, a young lefty with some things that make him interesting, struck out five batters in three innings but was hit around a bunch, giving up five runs, all earned, thanks to six hits and three walks. De León also dropped a couple of wild pitches and had a balk.
More problems happened with Michael Forret on the mound later in the game. Called upon for long relief in his High-A debut, Forret delivered 3.1 innings, but he also gave up seven runs (five earned) while allowing eight hits and two walks in that time. Just not great for either one of these guys. Hopefully the next one goes better.
It’s a shame that the pitchers struggled so much because IronBirds hitters were locked in. Aberdeen scored its seven runs on 12 hits, with one of this year’s surprising prospects, 10th round pick Matthew Etzel, involved in a lot of the good things once again. Etzel drove in two runs with two hits in five at-bats, and also stole his 31st base. That was one of four successful steals for IronBirds runners. Former University of Maryland standout Maxwell Costes went 4-4 at the plate, including his first homer of the season.
Low-A: Lynchburg (Guardians) 6, Delmarva Shorebirds 2
The Shorebirds were on their way to a shutout loss until they got their two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning with back-to-back solo homers to get that inning started. They got no closer. The dinger hitters were Anderson De Los Santos, one of three hits he had in this contest, and Aneudis Mordán. This was Mordán’s ninth homer; there might be something interesting going on with this 19-year-old catching prospect.
**
Saturday’s Scheduled Games
- Norfolk: at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:05. Starter: Chayce McDermott
- Bowie: vs. Binghamton, 6:35. Starter: Kyle Brnovich
- Aberdeen: at Brooklyn, 6:00. Starter: Jackson Baumeister
- Delmarva: vs. Lynchburg, 7:05. Starter: Blake Money