Toledo (Tigers) 6, Norfolk Tides 5
Norfolk has lost a whole lot this season. Their 37-62 record tells you a lot about what kind of help the Orioles can expect to get from this roster, which is to say none at all. Still, it doesn’t matter if David Hale had a bad game and a 5+ ERA.
More significant is the 3-5 night turned in by Trey Mancini. He drove in three runs. Mancini’s now batting .310 at the Triple-A level, with an impressive .857 OPS. Christian Walker added a 2-3 night, though Mike Yastrzemski took an 0-5. Yaz, a lefty, might have gotten the promotion over Julio Borbon if he was playing better, but he’s only batting .236/.303/.410.
Bowie Baysox 5, Erie (Tigers) 4
Bowie is 41-55, so, you know, they’re not a whole lot better as far as offering potential help to the big league club. Chance Sisco, the most likely future Bowie big leaguer, was 0-3 in the game, drawing one walk. Sisco’s batting line for the season: .321/.412/.409 - that’s good for a 21-year-old at Double-A.
Two players were freshly promoted from Frederick for this game. Outfielder Jay Gonzalez had a 1-3 Bowie debut and also drew a walk and stole a base. Tanner Scott, the lefty fireballing reliever, also got promoted, though he did not appear in this game.
Frederick Keys 10, Salem (Red Sox) 9
The Keys came through in the bottom of the ninth as the dude Jonah Heim hit a walkoff, two run home run. Yeah, take that! Heim, serving as the DH, saved his only hit for the best possible time there. It was Heim’s seventh homer of the season.
Last year’s first rounder, D.J. Stewart, scored three runs in the game. He was on base three times thanks to one base hit and two walks. High-A has definitely gone better for Stewart than Low-A did. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Hickory (Rangers) 7, Delmarva Shorebirds 3
When you get outhit 16-9, you’re probably going to lose, and sure enough, the Shorebirds did. Like most of the O’s system, Delmarva doesn’t have very many interesting prospects. Several of their vaguely intriguing players are starting pitchers, but none pitched in this game.
We do have last year’s other first rounder, Ryan Mountcastle, posting a 1-4 night, and Baltimore’s own Alex Murphy going 1-3 with a double and a walk. Murphy entered the day with a .244/.309/.431 batting line... I thought that was going to be better when I looked it up. Oh well.
Brooklyn (Mets) 3, Aberdeen IronBirds 2
Each team had six hits in the game, but the Cyclones were able to cluster theirs closer together and grab three runs. The game actually ended on a play at the plate: Jaylen Ferguson, who had two of the six Aberdeen hits, tried to score from second base on some kind of fielding error. He would have been the tying run but he was thrown out and the game was over. Even in short-season A-ball, the Windmill lives, I suppose.
Last year’s eighth round pick, Seamus Curran, appears to have gotten promoted to Aberdeen, so congratulations to him. I like Curran because I read an article in which he was described as a jolly lumberjack, which just sounds great. Aberdeen’s roster now has most of the interesting 2015 draftees on it. Hopefully some of them really distinguish themselves between now and season’s end.
For complete box scores from Thursday’s games, including the adventures of the GCL and DSL Orioles, check out here.
Today’s Scheduled Games
- Norfolk: vs. Toledo, 7:05. Starter: Joe “The Gunk” Gunkel
- Bowie: vs. Erie, 7:05. Starter: Darren O’Day’s one rehab inning, then Brandon Barker
- Frederick: vs. Salem, 7:00 (Christmas in July) Starter: Franderlin Romero
- Delmarva: vs. Hickory, 7:05. Starter: Cristian Alvarado
- Aberdeen: at Brooklyn, 7:00. Starter: TBD