The Tides’ long losing streak is over, while the Baysox won a walkoff and the IronBirds ran wild to a victory.
Triple-A: Norfolk Tides 4, Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins) 1
It’s over! It’s finally over. The Tides’ 10-game losing streak, which saw them plummet from the best team in minor league baseball into a sub-.500 straggler in the blink of an eye, came to an end at last. Prospects Cade Povich and Heston Kjerstad deserve the bulk of the accolades. Povich, the Orioles’ top pitching prospect, continued his stellar start to 2024 by tossing 5.1 shutout innings and racking up nine strikeouts. He did walk four, a season high, but when your season ERA is 0.83, that can be forgiven. Garrett Stallings and Kaleb Ort handled the rest of the mound duties with little trouble, with Jacksonville’s only run coming on a solo homer by Griffin Conine, son of former Oriole and Marlin Jeff.
Meanwhile, Kjerstad crushed two more home runs to inflate his season total to 10 and RBI total to 30. He’s played only 19 games! In almost any other organization he’d be finding everyday at-bats in the majors right now, but there’s no obvious spot for him in the O’s lineup at the moment. Connor Norby, another guy more than deserving of a major league call-up but currently blocked, contributed two hits out of the leadoff spot. The other two members of the now-Fab Four, Coby Mayo and Kyle Stowers, each went 0-for-4. Norfolk won despite going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Double-A: Bowie Baysox 5, Altoona Curve (Pirates) 4 — 10 innings
It was an exciting ending in Bowie, where the Baysox walked off with an extra-innings, come-from-behind victory. Before that, though, it was the Curve who came from behind, erasing a late Baysox lead with a tying run in the ninth, then going ahead in the top of the 10th before Bowie plated two in the bottom half. Three consecutive singles by Billy Cook, TT Bowens, and John Rhodes made the Baysox a winner.
Rhodes’s game-winning knock capped a three-hit night for him, something he very much needed after entering the game batting .133 for the season. On the opposite end of the spectrum was leadoff man Frederick Bencosme, who started the night with a blistering .395/.447/.628 line but took a rare 0-for-5 (and committed an error and got picked off). Samuel Basallo, the Orioles’ best prospect currently in the minors, did not start but struck out in a pinch-hit at-bat.
High-A: Aberdeen IronBirds 6, Hudson Valley Renegades (Yankees) 2
Check out the box score below. What jumps out at you? How about the IronBirds’ SEVEN stolen bases without being caught? This game was a track meet for Aberdeen, who ran wild on poor Renegades catcher Jesus Rodriguez. We all know Enrique Bradfield Jr. can fly, and indeed last year’s first round pick had two of the steals, but how about second baseman Tavian Josenberger? The 22-year-old, a third rounder last year, swiped three bags in this game and now has 11 this season.
While those guys were running wild, the beefy Creed Willems continued to do beefy things, smacking three doubles to increase his OPS to 1.191. The erstwhile catcher was playing first base in this game. Starting pitcher Jackson Baumeister, the Orioles’ highest-selected pitcher in the 2023 draft, gave up two runs and three walks in 3.1 innings and also uncorked three wild pitches. He was replaced by Carter Baumler, the Orioles’ highest-selected (and only) pitcher in the 2020 draft. Baumler worked 2.2 scoreless innings of relief.
Low-A: Down East Wood Ducks (Rangers) 9, Delmarva Shorebirds 1
An uncompetitive Shorebirds loss prevented an organizational sweep on this night. Delmarva managed only five hits, just one for extra bases, and every Shorebirds hitter struck out at least once. Down East hurlers Alejandro Rosario and Wilian Bormie each threw four scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.
If you thought the offense was bad, get a load of the defense. The Shorebirds committed four errors that led to six unearned runs. Left-hander Luis De León, the Orioles’ best international pitching prospect, ended up getting tagged with five runs in three innings even though only one was earned. In fairness, one of those errors was his own. With performances like this, it’s not a surprise that the Shorebirds now own a 1-12 record this season.
Saturday’s scheduled games
- Norfolk: at Jacksonville, 6:35 PM. Starter: TBD
- Bowie: vs. Altoona, 6:35 PM. Starter: Trace Bright (0-1, 3.12)
- Aberdeen: at Hudson Valley, 5:05 PM. Starter: Moisés Chace (1-0, 0.00)
- Delmarva: at Down East, 5:00 PM. Starter: Michael Forret (1-1, 5.63)