Columbus Clippers (Indians) 9, Norfolk Tides 2
The good news for Tides starter Luis Ortiz is that he pitched his longest outing of the year, working six innings and racking up a season-best seven strikeouts. The bad news is that he still wasn’t particularly good. Ortiz gave up four runs, including two homers, en route to his fifth loss in six decisions. Indians first base prospect Bobby Bradley bashed two home runs, including a game-breaking grand slam off Luis Gonzalez in the ninth. Old friend Ryan Flaherty was 2-for-4 with a double for Columbus.
The Tides’ lineup tonight featured three players who started for the Orioles on Opening Day: Cedric Mullins, Jesus Sucre, and the newly demoted Joey Rickard. The trio, who went 0-for-11 at Yankee Stadium that day, were 0-for-10 on this night. How appropriate. The only Tide to hit well was Jace Peterson, who socked a two-run homer. He has 11 hits and eight RBIs in his last four games.
The Clippers for some reason kept switching Tim Federowicz and Eric Stamets between second and third base all game, leading to this ridiculous-looking box score.
Akron RubberDucks (Indians) 6, Bowie Baysox 2
Mark Trumbo is back on a baseball diamond. Try to contain your excitement. The Orioles DH, who’s been on the injured list all season while recovering from last year’s right knee surgery, has finally started his rehab assignment. Batting third and DHing for the Baysox, Trumbo went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Trumbo wasn’t the only Bowie hitter to have a quiet night. The Baysox managed only four hits, and Ryan McKenna’s two-run single in the sixth accounted for their only runs. Austin Hays went 1-for-4 with a double, the club’s only extra-base hit.
Dean Kremer, the Orioles’ No. 9 prospect per MLB Pipeline, has faced a rough return to Bowie so far, posting an 8.38 ERA in two starts. The RubberDucks jumped on him for three runs in the first inning, and he ultimately allowed 10 baserunners and four runs in 5.2 innings, striking out three.
Delmarva Shorebirds 5, Hagerstown Suns (Nationals) 4
There is simply no containing the Shorebirds, the best team in professional baseball. With yet another victory, Delmarva became the first club in the minor leagues to win 40 games. Heck, no major league club has that many wins, either. At 40-11, the Shorebirds’ record is 4.5 games better than the best MLB team, the Twins.
As usual, the Shorebirds’ win was led by a strong starting pitching performance, this time from Gray Fenter, who held the Suns to two runs in five innings while striking out six. Fenter has a 2.34 ERA in nine games. Delmarva got a little help on the offensive side; of the five runs they scored, only two were actually driven in by a hitter. They took advantage of a couple of Hagerstown errors and a run-scoring wild pitch, doing most of the damage in a four-run fifth inning. Tim Naughton closed things out with a perfect ninth inning, notching his organization-leading 10th save.
The first 40-win half for Delmarva since 2016, just the third since the playoff draught began in 2005. And it’s the day after Memorial Day. #FlyTogether #Birdland https://t.co/4r1nFLDJPM
— Will DeBoer (@WillDeBoer) May 29, 2019
Complete box scores from Tuesday’s games can be found here.
Wednesday’s scheduled games:
- Norfolk vs. Columbus, 6:35 PM. Starter: Josh Rogers (2-4, 8.47)
- Bowie vs. Akron, 6:35 PM. Starter: Bruce Zimmermann (1-1, 2.25)
- Frederick vs. Lynchburg, 7:00 PM. Starter: Cameron Bishop (0-2, 3.38)