Orioles prospects 7/7: The problem with walks

Columbus (Indians) 8, Norfolk Tides 4

Do you know something that’s happened a lot this year? Tides pitchers struggling. Then they come to Baltimore and they struggle there too. Gabriel Ynoa was on the wrong end of a game in which he gave up seven runs on eight hits and a walk in just five innings pitched. It’s actually kind of impressive that the Clippers got eight runs when they hit just 2-14 with RISP.

Newly-acquired reliever Matt Wotherspoon pitched two scoreless innings for the Tides, giving up just one walk and striking out three batters. Chance Sisco was 1-4 and drove in one of the four Norfolk runs.

Bowie Baysox 5, Richmond (Giants) 4 (11 innings)

The Baysox came out on top of this back-and-forth contest when Austin Hays delivered a walkoff single in the 11th inning. That was the only hit in six tries for Hays in the game, but hey, he made it count.

Hays’s fellow outfield prospect Cedric Mullins is headed back to the DL with what is apparently a less serious hamstring problem than before. We’ll see how that goes. Shortstop Adrian Marin was 2-6 at the top of the lineup.

Starting pitcher David Hess held the Flying Squirrels to two runs in six innings, though he was lucky to be able to scatter five hits and five walks and only give up the two runs. So many walks.

Frederick Keys 8, Myrtle Beach (Cubs) 3

Speaking of so many walks, Keys starting pitcher Ofelky Peralta walked five dudes in five innings. Come on, man! However, Peralta only gave up one hit and he struck out six, so it seems to have been unhittable stuff.

22-year-old outfielder Ademar Rifaela had a four hit game for the Keys, driving in two of their eight runs. Shortstop Ryan Mountcastle was 1-5 with a double in the contest.

Hickory (Rangers) 8, Delmarva Shorebirds 2

When you get only five hits in the game and commit two errors, you deserve to lose. That was Delmarva on Friday. Starting pitcher Zach Muckenhirn held the Crawdads to two runs on seven hits and two walks in six innings pitched. He did not factor in the decisions.

Preston Palmeiro, son of Rafael, was 1-3 in this game and drew a walk.

Tri-City (Astros) 2, Aberdeen IronBirds 1

The IronBirds actually out-hit the ValleyCats by a 9-6 margin, but Tri-City was able to make theirs count a little more, including a solo home run in the third inning. Three of Aberdeen’s nine hits came off the bat of Ben Breazeale, who’s batting .526 over the first 11 games of his professional career since being drafted in the seventh round this year.

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

Saturday’s Scheduled Games

• Norfolk: at Columbus, 7:15. Starter: Tyler Wilson
• Bowie: vs. Richmond, 6:35. Starter: Matthew Grimes
• Frederick: vs. Myrtle Beach, 6:00. Starter: Keegan Akin
• Delmarva: at Hickory, 7:00. Starter: Matthias Dietz
• Aberdeen: vs. Tri-City, 6:00. Starter: TBD