Orioles prospects 7/5: Frederick rained out, Bowie takes two

Frederick’s matchup against Potomac was postponed due to rain, but everybody else got their games in yesterday, including some bonus baseball for Bowie. Full box scores for yesterday’s action, including the rookie league games that aren’t recapped below, are available here.

Gwinnett Braves 10, Norfolk Tides 3

Chris Lee got the ball for Norfolk and was completely ineffective, allowing seven runs on nine hits and four walks while striking out just a single batter. It’s been a rough season for Lee but it looked like he may be turning a corner after he went six shutout innings on Friday.

Instead, his ERA is back above six (6.32) and he’s gone four straight starts without striking out more than two batters. Meanwhile, Kris Medlen shut down the Tides over six innings although they did manage to scatter eight hits off of him.

The Tides had three extra base hits on the day - doubles by Sharlon Schoop, Johnny Giavotella, and Chris Johnson. All three either scored or moved a runner to third who would later score.

Giavotella had his third straight multi-hit game and is now hitting .306/.368/.441. He’s primarily a second baseman by trade, which is a bit of a problem for him considering he’s got Jonathan Schoop ahead of him. He has an opt out on July 31st, and it wouldn’t be a shock if he used it.

Bowie Baysox 4, Hartford Yard Goats 3 (12 innings)

In the continuation of a suspended game from Tuesday, Bowie found themselves down by one in the bottom of the ninth. Austin Hays singled, and ended up on third after two straight wild pitches. He would score to tie the game on an Aderlin Rodriguez groundout, and the game went to extras.

I can’t imagine anyone was too happy about that considering they had another game to play, but the Baysox managed to limit the damage to their bullpen by using only three pitchers in the entire game.

Brandon Barker was great over four innings but his start was cut short by the rain. Lucas Long was on the hill when the game resumed and went five strong innings. He allowed a couple of runs but had five strikeouts and zero walks. Finally, Tim Berry came on for the tenth and pitched until the end of the game in the twelfth.

Facing another one-run deficit in the bottom of the twelfth, Aderlin Rodriguez led off with a single and Mike Yastrzemski walked. Audry Perez singled to tie the game, and three batters later Adrian Marin ended it with a walk-off base hit.

Bowie Baysox 7, Hartford Yard Goats 2 (7 innings)

For the second leg of the doubleheader, Jesus Liranzo took the hill for one of those pre-planned three-inning bullpen starts that have been all the rage in Bowie this year. He gave up a pair of runs in the first but settled down after that, and had an impressive six strikeouts.

It didn’t take long for the Baysox to tie the game, scoring on a Garabez Rosa single and a D.J. Stewart sac fly in the bottom of the first. They blew the game open in the sixth after a couple of walks and a single loaded the bases for Erick Salcedo.

Salcedo walked, Yaz knocked a two-run single, Steve Wilkerson singled after that, and suddenly it was 6-2. Ryan Meisinger made sure it would stay that way with a dominant relief outing, recording the last seven outs of the game (six by strikeout).

D.J. Stewart had a very D.J. Stewart game, going 1-1 with a double, a sac fly, and a walk. Austin Hays was 0-4, dropping his average to a mere .339 since his promotion to Bowie two weeks ago.

Delmarva Shorebirds 2, Lakewood BlueClaws 0

Alex Wells had a tremendous start to the year, but his ERA had increased from 1.74 to 3.14 over his past five outings. That’s pretty remarkable considering four of them were quality starts; he gave up exactly three runs over six or seven innings in those games.

Yesterday, though, the dominant Wells was back. The 20-year-old Aussie pitched seven shutout innings, striking out five and walking none. He’s now walked only ten batters in 90 innings.

Wells made sure Delmarva didn’t need much offense, which was good, because they didn’t get much. The Shorebirds had only four hits in the game. Chris Clare scored on a wild pitch in the first, and Cole Billingsley scored on a balk in the third.

Lowell Spinners 5, Aberdeen Ironbirds 3

Aberdeen jumped out to an early lead behind a strong three-inning start from Zac Lowther. This year’s 74th overall pick out of Xavier, Lowther has begun his career with two straight outings of three shutout innings, with ten K’s across those two games.

Luke Ringhofer, this season’s 22nd round pick, got the scoring started with an RBI single in the second after Tristan Graham tripled. The Ironbirds added runs in the fourth and fifth, but international signee Hector Guance gave it all back in a four-run sixth inning that left the score at 5-3 in favor of Lowell.

Guance had thrown nine consecutive shutout innings to start the season, but he didn’t have it yesterday. Both bullpens were strong the rest of the way, and the final score would remain 5-3.

The star of the day for the Ironbirds was catcher Ben Breazeale, a 7th-round pick out of Wake Forest. Breazeale was 4-5 to continue a white-hot start to his pro career. He’s hitting .486/.571/.771 over his first ten professional games.

Today’s matchups and probable starters

Norfolk @ Gwinnett, 12:05 PM (Alec Asher)

Hartford @ Bowie, 7:05 PM (TBD)

Frederick @ Potomac, 7:05 PM (Ofelky Peralta)

Lakewood @ Delmarva, 7:05 PM (Lucas Humpal)

Lowell @ Aberdeen, 7:05 PM (Nick Gruener)