Gwinnett (Braves) 5, Norfolk Tides 4 (11 innings)
The starting pitcher for Gwinnett in this game was named Sugar Ray Marimon, which is kind of awesome, although he's probably grown tired of people asking him if he just wants to fly. It was the Tides who scored a seventh inning run to tie things up at 4-4, which held until the 11th, when things started going wrong after reliever Pat McCoy issued a leadoff walk to Ryan Lavarnway. That does not sound like an ideal outcome at all.
There were some good things in the game for Norfolk, especially on the hitting side. Tides batters had 12 hits in the game, including a three-hit effort by Dariel Alvarez, and multi-hit games from Michael Almanzar and Derrik Gibson. The second baseman Gibson has three two-hit games out of his last four and is batting .323/.364/.452 in 10 games since being promoted to Norfolk.
Pedro Beato had a strong game in long relief for the Tides, tossing three innings in which he didn't give up any hits or walks.
Bowie Baysox 9, Binghamton (Mets) 4
If you score four runs in the second inning and four runs in the third inning, you darn well better win a particular baseball game - although Bowie, despite taking the 4-0 lead, promptly allowed Binghamton to tie things back up in the top of the third inning. The Mets runs scored against Baysox starter Tim Berry, who didn't allow any other runs outside of that inning, but isn't that always the way? Six innings and four earned runs allowed on eight hits isn't a great day.
The Baysox offense, however, had a great day, with every batter reaching base, most of them more than once. Jason Esposito had a two-run home run in the second inning, and all of Brandon Snyder, Trey Mancini, and Garabez Rosa had multi-hit games in the contest.
Mancini is the most prospect-y of those guys. He was named the Carolina League Player of the Month for May. You'll note he is no longer in the Carolina League because he was so awesome as to get promoted. He's only played in five games since the promotion to Double-A. They were a good five games - a .300/.330/.550 batting line.
Myrtle Beach (Cubs) 9, Frederick Keys 6 (11 innings)
This was a wild game. The Keys were trailing 3-2 when the ninth inning began. They gave up three runs in the top of the inning to fall behind 6-2, then scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie things up and send the game into extra innings. Unfortunately, once it got into the 11th, they gave up another three runs, which was more than they could overcome a second time.
Keys starter David Hess gave up three runs on nine hits in six innings. He walked none and struck out two. The Keys were outhit 18-12 in the game. Chance Sisco and Josh Hart, two of the O's top picks from back in 2013, both had multi-hit games.
Delmarva Shorebirds 6, Hagerstown (Walgreens) 1
A good day for the big boy, Jomar Reyes, who had a double and triple and drove in three runs for Delmarva. He also walked! I like walks, unless Orioles pitchers are issuing them. Reyes is the best thing about following Delmarva's roster. His season batting line looks like this: .280/.341/.420. That's yet to unlock the monster power that can probably be found in that frame, but he's only 18 and, as they say, holding his own in a full season league, which is kind of a big deal.
If you'd like, you can find the complete box scores for all of the Orioles affiliates, including the two Dominican Summer League teams, here.
Thursday's Probable Pitchers
Norfolk: Chris Jones
Bowie: TBD
Frederick: Luis Gonzalez
Delmarva: Brian Gonzalez