Bowie was the lone Orioles affiliate to play and win on Saturday.
Triple-A: Nashville (Brewers) @ Norfolk Tides
The game was postponed due to poor field conditions after rain. They still had the scheduled post-”game” fireworks show. Minor league baseball! They’ll be playing a doubleheader today.
Double-A: Bowie Baysox 3, Hartford (Rockies) 0
Three pitchers combined for a four-hitter for Bowie, which is some nice dominance. The bulk of the work was done by Alex Pham and Cameron Weston, who each tossed four innings. Coming out of the break, the O’s have not pushed starting pitchers hard anywhere in the minors. Pham struck out six and did not walk anyone across his part of the game. Weston also didn’t walk anybody and allowed just one hit in his four innings. The 8th round pick from 2022 has a 2.94 ERA with Bowie this season.
Two of the three Baysox runs scored without even needing a base hit. Samuel Basallo got them on the board with an RBI groundout. Basallo was 1-4 in the game. Later on, a wild pitch brought a runner home from third. Catcher Silas Ardoin plated the third run with a single, one of two hits that he had in the game.
Outfielder Jud Fabian also had a two-hit game and added a walk on top of that. Fellow outfielder Dylan Beavers was on base twice thanks to a single and a walk. Less good for Beavers is that he was caught stealing once and picked off once.
High-A: Wilmington (Nationals) 8, Aberdeen IronBirds 5 – 10 innings
In another one for the “it’s the minor leagues and some things don’t matter” files, Aberdeen played this game as the Decoys, rather than their usual IronBirds. The Decoy name did not bring them any good fortune.
This one got away from Aberdeen late, as they took a 5-4 lead into the eighth inning and then coughed up the three runs in extra innings. Of course, the zombie runner helped get that started, but the two other runs scoring? Come on. The O’s minor leaguers out-hit the competition 11-9. Their pitchers handed out nine walks while their batters picked up none. That was certainly part of the difference in this one.
Starting pitcher Michael Forret, a modest overslot signing from last year’s draft, allowed three hits and two walks over a 2.2 inning outing. Forret’s defense had some problems behind him, or one at least, with an error contributing to two unearned runs, though he allowed one earned all on his own.
Among the hitting prospects of note with Aberdeen, Enrique Bradfield Jr. did some more good things, picking up two hits in five at-bats, and stealing another pair of bases – giving him 48 for the season. On the flip side, Mac Horvath and Reed Trimble each took an 0-5.
Low-A: Down East (Rangers) 5, Delmarva Shorebirds 3
The Shorebirds scored first in this one but the lead didn’t last long, with starting pitcher Braxton Bragg surrendering three runs in the third inning. Bragg did not complete the third. He has a 4.83 ERA this season.
Delmarva batters had nine hits in the game and drew six walks, so there was no shortage of traffic. All nine hits were singles, though, making it difficult to put up more than one run in an inning. Switch-hitting infielder Aron Estrada was one of three Shorebirds batters with two hits in the game, and he drew a walk too.
Estrada, 19, is OPSing .801 for the season, a very good number for this league this year. He might be the most interesting prospect you probably never thought about before this season. Aneudis Mordán was also in the two-hit club.
Sunday’s Scheduled Games
- Norfolk: vs. Nashville, doubleheader starting 2:05. Starters: Bruce Zimmermann, TBD
- Bowie: vs. Hartford, 1:05. Starter: Trace Bright
- Aberdeen: vs. Wilmington, 2:05. Starter: Jackson Baumeister
- Delmarva: vs. Down East, 5:05. Starter: Nestor German