Orioles minor league recap 7/24: Drew Rom pitches five shutout innings in Baysox win

Triple-A: Durham Bulls (Rays) 9, Norfolk Tides 8

If Matt Harvey is trying to earn a spot in Baltimore’s rotation, he didn’t help his cause last night. In just two innings, Harvey gave up four runs on three homers. He did strike out five in those two innings, which is something I guess.

Bruce Zimmermann followed Harvey with two very good innings, giving up just one hit and striking out three. A parade of relievers followed Harvey and Zimmermann and combined to give up five runs, including a three-run homer on a pitch thrown from Morgan McSweeney that blew the lead in the eighth inning.

With eight runs scored, you might think there would be some big performances from the prospects. But, not really. The best day at the plate went to Kyle Stowers (#7 prospect via MLB Pipeline), who hit his 23rd double and 16th home run of the year as he knocked in three runs. Jacob Nottingham also homered and Ritchie Martin had a two-hit game including a double.

Terrin Vavra (#12), Jordan Westburg (#5), and Gunnar Henderson (#2) each had a single for their only hit. Yusniel Diaz (#23) went 0-for-4.

Box Score

Double A: Bowie Baysox 3, Richmond Flying Squirrels (Giants) 2

Drew Rom (#15) started for the Baysox and had himself a nice night. In five shutout innings, Rom gave up just three hits and didn’t allow a walk. He struck out seven and threw an impressively-low 59 pitches.

On offense, Baysox put together a four-double, three-run fourth inning that was all they needed to win the game. The doubles were hit by Colton Cowser (#3), Joey Ortiz (#13), Shayne Fontana, and Maverick Handley. That’s a fun inning, and in fact the team had just one other hit in the entire game. That was a single in the sixth, also from Ortiz.

The doubles parade only came after Giants’ #2 prospect and #25 prospect in baseball, Kyle Harrison, came out of the game. Harrison carved up the lineup through three innings, striking out nine of the 10 batters he faced. Wowza! Only Connor Norby, who walked to lead off the first inning, reached base against him. It was a strikeout heavy game overall for the Baysox, who struck out 16 times total with no batter being spared.

Box Score

High-A: Greenville Drive (Red Sox) 8, Aberdeen IronBirds 6

Jean Pinto (#28) started for the IronBirds and it could have gone better. He walked one batter in each of the first two innings, then fell apart in the third. Two walks, a single, a wild pitch and a home run in the span of four batters resulted in four runs scored in what was Pinto’s final inning. Three pitchers combined in relief to give up four more runs, though I give a shout out to Thomas Girard for being the only pitcher to give up zero runs.

Leadoff batter Collin Burns hit his fifth home run in the first inning as part of a two-hit day, and scored three of the Birds’ six runs. John Rhodes (#20) had the only other multi-hit game for the Birds; he picked up two RBI on two singles and a walk.

Heston Kjerstad (#8) went 1-for-4, and for all you Welk-heads out there, Toby Welk had a sacrifice fly and three at-bats.

Box Score

Low-A: Fredericksburg Nationals 7, Delmarva Shorebirds 0

A quartet of Delmarva pitchers, Edgar Portes, Eduard Monroy, Moises Chace, and Hector Perez pitched two(ish) innings apiece in this game with only Chace getting through his outing without giving up a run. They struck out a total of five batters in the game. Not their best work, though they didn’t have much help from their defense, who made four errors behind them.

On offense, the Shorebirds managed just six hits, all singles. Mishael Deson and Frederick Bencosme had two hits each.

Box Score

Sunday’s Scheduled Games

• Norfolk @ Durham, 5:05 PM. Starter: TBD
• Bowie @ Richmond, 1:35 PM. Starter: Justin Armbruester
• Aberdeen @ Greenville, 3:35 PM. Starter: TBD
• Delmarva vs Fredericksburg, 5:05 PM. Starter: Ryan Long