Durham (Rays) 6, Norfolk Tides 2
A good way to lose a baseball game is to get only four hits. Maybe the Tides suffered from facing the knuckleball of former Orioles farmhand Eddie “The Gambler” Gamboa. Maybe the Tides suffered because their offense kind of isn’t very good and that’s why their team is now 46-66.
Recently-demoted Odrisamer Despaigne started the game for Norfolk and gave up three runs on seven hits in 3.1 innings of work. That’s also not so good of a way to go about winning a baseball game. Trey Mancini took an 0-3 in the game, though he drew a walk. Christian Walker drew two free passes to go with his 0-2.
Reading (Phillies) 12, Bowie Baysox 8
We’ve got a live one! There were ten home runs hit between the two teams. Also, here is something that happened in this game: The game score of Bowie’s starter David Hess was 5. The score for Reading’s starter Tyler Viza was -1. Game score is not like golf. Lower is not better.
Hess allowed only seven hits - but five of them were home runs. Yowza. You gotta work pretty hard to give up five home runs. The Bowie level really hasn’t gone so well for Hess this year, As the minor league season heads into its final month, Hess has a 5.55 ERA.
The Fightin Phils hit seven of those homers in total. That leaves three for the Baysox. None of those home runs were hit by catcher Chance Sisco, who did, at least, share in the 18 Baysox hits himself. Sisco went 3-5 in the game. No runners tested his arm on this occasion. Sisco is batting .319 with an on-base percentage over .400 in 91 games for Bowie this year. He is only 21.
Winston-Salem (White Sox) 3, Frederick Keys 1
My fellow Camden Chatter Stacey’s favorite minor league pitcher, Lucas Long, had a very strong start - seven innings, three runs with only one earned, and seven strikeouts. However, the Keys offense managed just one hit for the entire game. Sheesh.
West Virginia (Pirates) 3, Delmarva Shorebirds 0
Delmarva wasn’t much better than Frederick in the offense department, getting only three hits - and they didn’t even score. Must have been something in the air for the O’s organization on Thursday.
The lack of offense spoiled a strong start by Brian Gonzalez, the 2014 third round pick, who, after posting six shutout innings in this game, has a 2.50 ERA for the Shorebirds this year. He’ll be worth watching at Frederick next year.
Aberdeen IronBirds 3, Tri-City (Astros) 2 (11 innings)
It took 11 innings to settle this one after Aberdeen tied the game 2-2 in the eighth inning. The IronBirds pushed the winning run across after loading the bases with one out. Jaylen Ferguson delivered a sacrifice fly for the walkoff.
Way back at the start, the top 2016 O’s draft pick, Cody Sedlock, pitched the first three innings for Aberdeen. Sedlock allowed a run on a hit and three walks and also struck out three batters. The O’s haven’t been pushing any of the top pitchers drafted this year beyond three innings as of yet.
For the complete box scores from Thursday’s games, including the adventures of both the GCL and DSL affiliates, check out here.
Today’s Scheduled Games
- Norfolk: at Charlotte, 7:05. Starter: Mike Wright
- Bowie: vs. Richmond, 7:05 (Fireworks!) Starter: TBD
- Frederick: at Winston-Salem, 7:00. Starter: David Richardson
- Delmarva: vs. West Virginia, 7:05. Starter: Reid Love
- Aberdeen: vs. Tri-City, 7:05. Starter: Lucas Humpal