Orioles prospects 6/30: Zach Britton’s rehab sails on smoothly

Durham (Rays) 3, Norfolk Tides 0 (10 innings)

The Tides made like the MLB team on Friday, losing a 10 inning game to the Rays affiliate while notching only five hits. The difference is that the Tides didn’t even manage to score any runs.

The good news is that Chance Sisco was 2-4 at the plate. The bad news is that he was 0-2 in throwing out runners on this particular night. Starting pitcher Chris Lee held the Bulls to two hits and three walks in six innings pitched, though he only struck out one batter.

Bowie Baysox - postponed, rain

Lynchburg (Indians) 5, Frederick Keys 0

I swear the Keys have been playing the Hillcats for the entire last month. This was an even more dismal loss than Norfolk’s: Frederick batters had just two hits. A Ryan Mountcastle double was one of those two hits... then he got caught trying to steal third base.

Oh, it gets worse. Starting pitcher Ofelky Peralta continued his problems with just about everything to do with pitching at the High-A level this season, giving up four runs on a mind-boggling five hits and five walks in just three innings plus three batters. How do you do that?

Zach Britton pitched the ninth inning to complete his back-to-back days pitching part of his rehab. He retired the Hillcats in 11 pitches, picking up a strikeout and two ground ball outs.

Delmarva Shorebirds 6, Kannapolis (White Sox) 4

My man Alex Wells, the Australian lefty, gave the Shorebirds a chance with a quality start - six innings, three runs, seven hits, no walks, seven strikeouts. That is acceptable indeed.

Preston Palmeiro, son of Rafael, dealt the big blow to the Intimidators in the game with a three run home run in the sixth inning, his 10th of the season. Palmeiro drove in four of the six Shorebirds runs.

Aberdeen IronBirds 3, Brooklyn (Mets) 0

Freshly-drafted pitcher Zac Lowther made his debut for the IronBirds, a planned three inning start to get his feet wet. The Cyclones got just one hit off Lowther, striking out five times. Following Lowther was Hector Guance, who scattered two hits and a walk over four innings and also struck out five batters. Hey, that will work.

Ryan Ripken, nephew of Billy, had a 2-4 game for the IronBirds and drove in one of their runs. 2017 draftee T.J. Nichting also had a pair of hits for Aberdeen. Another 2017 draftee, Ben Breazeale, continued his hot start with the IronBirds, going 1-2 with an RBI double and also drawing a pair of walks.

Complete box scores from Friday’s games, including the adventures of both the GCL and DSL Orioles, can be found here.

Saturday’s Scheduled Games

• Norfolk: vs. Durham, 7:05. Starter: Jayson Aquino
• Bowie: at Akron, 7:05. Starter: John “The Ends Justify The” Means
• Frederick: vs. Lynchburg, 6:00. Starter: TBD
• Delmarva: at Kannapolis, 7:05. Starter: Lucas Humpal
• Aberdeen: at Hudson Valley, 7:05. Starter: Nick Gruener