Orioles prospects 7/30: Alex Wells completes a scoreless July

Norfolk Tides 4, Columbus (Indians) 3- Game 1

In the first of two seven-inning games on Sunday, the Tides found themselves down 3-to-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning but pulled it off thanks to some timely home runs. Pedro Alvarez, yes he’s still playing for the Tides, tied the game up in the sixth with his 23rd homer on the year and Mike Yastrzemski walked it off with a solo shot an inning later.

Alec Asher tossed a quality start, allowing three earned runs over six innings to continue his strong July for Norfolk. In five starts this month, Asher has allowed 10 ER through 27.1 IP. He looks to be positioned next in line for when the Orioles inevitably dip back down into their AAA roster for a starting pitcher.

Columbus (Indians) 8, Norfolk Tides 7- Game 2

It took extra innings to settle game two of the doubleheader, but with the shortened games already, the teams wound up playing a usual nine inning game.

Pedro Alvarez kicked off the game in the first inning by going deep for the second time on the afternoon. The MLB veteran went 5-for-8 on the day with two homers, a double and four RBI’s.

Chance Sisco went 1-for-5 with two RBI’s, but more importantly allowed the Clippers to go 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts. It’s not always on the catcher, but Sisco will most likely make an appearance in Baltimore in September and he will need to do a better job at controlling base runners at the major league level if he wants to stick around.

Bowie Baysox 5, Akron (Indians) 2- Game 1

Akron loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh inning to threaten, but the Baysox were able to get out of the jam and pull out a win thanks to a timely double play.

John Means had another strong start, surrendering only a single earned run over five and two-thirds innings. The lefty out of West Virginia struck out seven Rubberducks and didn’t allow a single extra base hit.

Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays, and Anthony Santander all went 2-for-3 in the game to account for six of Bowie’s eight hits. Mullins had a double, Hays added a triple, and Santander had his first home run in the Orioles organization. The other homer on the day belonged to Ryan Flaherty who is still in Bowie on his rehab stint and nearing a return to the big league club.

Bowie Baysox 5, Akron (Indians) 3- Game 2

The Rubberducks jumped all over Baysox starter Jesus Liranzo and chased him before the young righty could finish the second inning in game two. Luckily, the bullpen combination of Brandon Barker and Scott McGough stymied the Akron bats for five and a third innings and gave the Baysox time to come back and complete the doubleheader sweep.

Bowie scored five runs in the fifth inning thanks to an Austin Hays grand salami. Now the Orioles’ second-ranked prospect according to MLB pipeline, last year’s third-round draft pick refuses to cool off in AA. The grand slam was his 26th homer on the year between Frederick and Bowie. At this pace, we may be seeing him in Baltimore next year.

Anthony Santander went 2-for-3 again in the second game to keep his season average at .667. Through only nine at-bats, the Rule 5 selection has six hits including three doubles and a homer. There’s no way the Orioles will get the required 90 days of service time out of Santander in 2017, but if his first week at Bowie is any indication, the Orioles will be sure to give him another shot next season when they can get a second try at keeping him on the 25-man roster for the entire year.

Salem (Red Sox) 2, Frederick Keys 0

It’s hard to score runs with only three hits, and even harder when they’re all singles. Despite some strong pitching from the Keys, the Orioles’ high A affiliate took a tough loss on Sunday in what was their only game.

With no extra base hits, or anyone in the lineup with a multi-hit game, there wasn’t much to report about on the offensive side of the ball. On the mound however, Ofelky Peralta had a strong start for Frederick and threw five scoreless innings. After three impressive starts in a row, Peralta has lowered his ERA nearly an entire run. There’s still a lot of potential in the 6’5” 20-year-old if he can hone it in.

Greensboro (Marlins) 1, Delmarva Shorebirds 0- Game 1

I’m not sure if fans were more bored at the Salem Red Sox game, or game 1 of the Shorebirds’ doubleheader. Much like the Keys, the Shorebirds only had three hits and took a narrow loss despite some great pitching from a usual suspect.

Have yourself a month, Alex Wells. The young Aussie completed a scoreless month of July over five starts and 31 innings. So far over his incredible run, Wells has struck out 26 and walked ZERO. I’m going to go ahead and say that he is going to be the Orioles’ Minor League Pitcher of the Month. Just a hunch. That’s a seriously impressive streak at any level, and it’ll continue going into August.

Greensboro (Marlins) 3, Delmarva Shorebirds 2- Game 2

The Shorebirds tied the game up at two in the bottom of the fourth, but gave the lead right back in the next half-inning before the teams started trading zeroes. Despite the loss, at least they had more than three hits in the second game. The Shorebirds tallied a grand total of five.

Kory Groves threw four strong innings in relief even though he took the loss. The Shorebirds reliever has now surrendered only three earned runs over his last 25.1 IP over eleven appearances.

Aberdeen IronBirds 7, Brooklyn (Mets) 6

The Ironbirds walked it off on a Ben Breazeale single to take the first of three games with the Brooklyn Cyclones. The two teams combined for thirteen runs, sixteen hits, nine stolen bases and five errors in what was a pretty typical game for short-season A ball.

After his walk-off single on Sunday, Breazeale remains the star of the IronBirds lineup. The catcher/DH is sitting with an impressive slash line of .392/.468/.567 after 120 at-bats. He has continued right where he left off after slashing .333/.399/.540 for Wake Forest this spring.

Complete box scores from Sunday’s games can be found here.

Monday’s Scheduled Games

• Norfolk: at Gwinnett, 7:05. Starter: Tyler Wilson
• Bowie: OFF
• Frederick: vs. Myrtle Beach, 7:00. Starter: TBD
• Delmarva: at Kannapolis, 7:05. Starter: Lucas Humpal
• Aberdeen: vs. Brooklyn, 7:05. Starter: TBD