Columbus (Indians) 6, Norfolk Tides 3
The up 'til now excellent Tides starter Michael Bowden had his first real rough outing in this game, giving up five runs on six hits in less than two innings of work. One of the runs was unearned due to an Audry Perez passed ball, but that doesn't make it a whole lot better. Ben Rowen followed, giving up only one run in 3.1 innings of work. The side-armer has a 2.79 ERA in six games since joining the Tides.
Norfolk's hitters collected 11 hits in the game, and every starting position player had a hit. However, they didn't score any runs until the ninth inning of the game. Dariel Alvarez hit a two-run home run, his ninth of the season, one of two hits he had on the day. Fellow Cuban Henry Urrutia also had two hits and drove in a run.
New Britain (Rockies) 13, Bowie Baysox 4 (7 innings)
You have to be having a good bit of pitching struggle to give up 13 runs in a seven inning game. This was part of a doubleheader, which in the minors are scheduled for only seven. Baysox starter Tim Berry wore most of the damage on his sleeve, giving up seven runs on nine hits in only 2.1 innings of work. Berry gave up two home runs and also uncorked a wild pitch. That's a tough one.
For Bowie at the plate, the recently-promoted first baseman Trey Mancini continued to be the dude who does awesome stuff. He had two hits in the game, a double and a triple, and drove in two of Bowie's runs. He's now played in ten games at Double-A and is batting .368/.390/.711. I don't know how much that will avail him, because he's never walked much, but this kind of performance is better than the opposite.
Bowie Baysox 1, New Britain (Rockies) 0 (7 innings)
There's probably not a whole lot fun about a 1-0 game that only went seven innings, but hey, Bowie won. Speedy outfielder Glynn Davis had three of the Baysox's six hits in the game, and also stole a base, his 13th of the season. Mike Yastrzemski drove in Davis for the game's only run.
Dennis Torres, who began the year in Frederick's bullpen and got bumped up to Bowie about three weeks ago, made the spot start, going four scoreless innings of one hit ball. He also walked four batters. Mychal Givens pitched the next two innings, striking out four batters. Givens has struck out 54 in 39.1 innings out of the Bowie 'pen.
Carolina (Braves) 9, Frederick Keys 3
In this game, the Keys committed three errors, which cost them a total of six unearned runs. That is also the margin by which they lost, so that's a tough day. Third baseman Tucker Nathans hit his seventh home run of the year for Frederick, while catching prospect Chance Sisco threw out one of three would-be base stealers and also had a multi-hit day. Sisco has a .768 OPS in his 24 games for Frederick.
Delmarva Shorebirds 5, Lakewood (Phillies) 4
The Shorebirds made the most of eight hits, getting five runs in the process. It probably helped that they walked a combined seven times in the game. That's a lot of walks! Who knew that was even allowed? Jay Gonzalez had a 2-3 game and also walked twice. He stole his 22nd base of the season as well. The guy's batting over .300, has an OBP over .400, and is stealing a lot of bases. Get this man to Frederick!
Also, Conor Bierfeldt, world RBI leader, drove in another couple of runs. He has now driven in 55 runs this season.
Thursday's Probable Pitchers
Norfolk: Zach Davies
Bowie: Parker Bridwell
Frederick: Mikey "Chief" O'Brien (his nickname is not actually Chief)
Delmarva: Josh Walker
The Aberdeen Ironbirds held their first team workout on Wednesday. Their season begins on Friday night. That's short-season A-ball in the New York-Penn League. The Gulf Coast League Orioles, which is rookie-level ball, begin their season on Monday.
You can find complete box scores for all of Wednesday's games, including the adventures of the Dominican Summer League Orioles teams (there's two of them!) here.