Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Yankees) 2, Norfolk Tides 0
You can't particularly blame Tides starter Joe "The Gunk" Gunkel for this loss, what with him managing to hold the RailRiders to six baserunners in six innings - five hits and a walk. He also struck out six batters. That will work.
Unfortunately, the Tides offense had little to do with the game. They mustered only three base hits over the course of the contest, and only drew two walks. Can't do much when that's all you get on base. Trey Mancini picked up two of the three hits.
Altoona (Pirates) 5, Bowie Baysox 3
A tough welcome to the Double-A level for the newly-promoted lefty starter John Means, who coughed up four runs in 5.1 innings of work and had people on base every time he turned around. The Curve got eight hits and drew three walks against Means. Better luck next time, John.
All three Baysox runs scored from solo home runs. As none of them were hit by Chance Sisco, that doesn't make any of them too interesting from a prospect standpoint. The Curve had two steals off of Sisco in the game.
Frederick Keys 4, Carolina (Braves) 1
Tucked in to the same night of the Brian Matusz salary dump, the Orioles also offloaded a couple of international bonus slots they weren't going to use anyway to the Reds for a High-A pitcher, Franderlin Romero. He made his O's organization debut in this game.
It was a good one for Romero, who limited the Mudcats to just four hits and a walk in six innings of work, while striking out five batters in the process. They picked up one run against Romero. An auspicious beginning.
Josh Hart, often looked down upon in this space, was the Keys performer of the night with three hits including two doubles in the game. He will need many more games like that to get himself back in the prospect conversation.
Delmarva Shorebirds 7, Lakewood (Phillies) 1
At 28-20, the Shorebirds have the best record among the Orioles affiliates. Games like tonight are why. Francisco Jimenez had a better start than the big league Jimenez, holding the BlueClaws to a run on only three hits in 5.2 innings of work.
Maryland's own Ryan Meisinger picked things up from there with 2.1 scoreless innings. Meisinger now has a 0.38 ERA on the season.
D.J. Stewart hit a home run, his fourth of the year. Hit us some more home runs, D.J.! He also walked and stole a base - the tenth steal for Stewart of the season. How does Stewart have more stolen bases than the entire Orioles MLB team?
Baltimore's own Alex Murphy also had a home run in the game, his sixth of the season. Of interest as well was the return of Ryan Mountcastle after a short injury break - he went 1-3 and drew a walk in his return to action.
Today's Scheduled Games
Norfolk: vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 1:05. Starter: T.J. McFarland
Bowie: vs. Altoona, 2:05. Starter: Brandon Barker
Frederick: at Carolina, 6:00. Starter: Matthew Grimes
Delmarva: vs. Lakewood, 2:05. Starter: TBD
For complete box scores from Saturday's games, check out here.