Orioles prospects 5/5: A good day for Ryan Mountcastle

Durham (Rays) 5, Norfolk Tides 2

As a general rule, you won’t win very many baseball games where you get only six hits - although the Tides pitchers, including starter Jayson Aquino, only gave up seven hits. However, Aquino was still charged with the full Tommy Hunter (five runs, all earned) on five hits and three walks over seven innings.

At the plate for Norfolk, recently-activated outfielder Mike Yastrzemski went 2-4 with a double on the night. Catcher Chance Sisco took an 0-3, but he was successful in throwing out one of the two attempted base-stealers on him for the night, so that’s something.

Richmond (Giants) 7, Bowie Baysox 2 (7 innings)

Like all minor league doubleheader games, this one was scheduled to be just seven innings. If you were watching last night’s MASN broadcast of the O’s game, you may have seen some nice words said about starting pitcher John “The Ends Justify The” Means. Unfortunately, in this game, he gave up seven runs in 3.1 innings. Whoops.

Bowie and Richmond both collected nine hits, but the Baysox were only 2-11 with runners in scoring position, so, you know, not really ideal. Shortstop Adrian Marin went 3-4 in the game - he ended the game with a .324 batting average, making this one of the most successful stretches of offense in his career.

Bowie Baysox 12, Richmond (Giants) 2 (7 innings)

Remember how Marin had a 3-4 night in game 1? Well, he had a 3-4 night in game 2 as well, so he’s actually batting .346 for the season to date. That is fantastic. Also fantastic in the second game was D.J. Stewart, who was 2-3 with a pair of doubles and a pair of walks as well. Stewart is now batting .260/.342/.521 for the season.

Many other Baysox also had good games at the plate, as you can imagine when they scored 12 runs in seven innings. They combined for 16 hits.

Stacey’s favorite Orioles prospect, Lucas Long, pitched the seven inning complete game for Bowie, scattering eight hits over seven innings to give up just two runs. Long did not walk a batter and has a 2.00 ERA to go along with his 4-1 record on the season.

Frederick Keys 12, Carolina (Brewers) 9

So that’s a slugfest, and while the Keys were on the right end of it, you don’t want to look in the box score and see last year’s first round pick Cody Sedlock getting bombed for six runs in five innings. Hopefully he doesn’t make a habit of that.

Shortstop prospect Ryan Mountcastle drove in four of the 12 Keys runs with a 3-6 night. One of his hits was a double. Mountcastle is now batting .327/.364/.558 for the season, which is certainly a low walk rate, but you have to like the power showing up. Outfielder Austin Hays was 1-3 and also drew two walks.

Charleston (Yankees) 5, Delmarva Shorebirds 3

There is really not a ton to say about the Shorebirds on most games. Starting pitcher Zach Muckenhirn gave up two runs on seven hits and two walks in five innings. Outfielder Ryan McKenna was 3-5 in the game. That’s about it.

Complete box scores from Friday’s contests can be found here.

Saturday’s Scheduled Games

• Norfolk: vs. Durham, 7:05 (post-game fireworks) Starter: Steve Johnson
• Bowie: at Richmond, 6:05. Starter: David Hess
• Frederick: at Carolina, 5:00. Starter: TBD
• Delmarva: at Charleston, 6:05. Starter: Matthias Dietz