Orioles minor league recap 6/9: Heston Kjerstad scores winning run in Norfolk debut

Triple-A: Norfolk Tides 5, Scranton Wilkes-Barre Railraiders 3

The air was declared clean enough for baseball, and the Tides took this in comeback fashion, 5-3. DL Hall pitched 3.1 innings and allowed no hits while walking four. Eduard Bazardo and Joey Krehbiel let the lead slip away, with three runs allowed between them in 3.2 innings.

Daz Cameron kicked off the comeback with a walk and a stolen base in the eighth inning. José Godoy singled him home to tie the game, 3-3.

The ninth inning saw three hopefully future Orioles string together a rally: Heston Kjerstad singled, his first Triple-A hit. After him, Jordan Westburg tripled, scoring Kjerstad. Joey Ortiz singled home the fifth run.

Before that, the Tides had scored two runs on a pair of home runs, one by Joey Ortiz and one by Hudson Haskin. Daz Cameron singled twice on the day and Colton Cowser walked three times.

Reed Garrett (5-1, 1.66) earned the win with two scoreless innings.

Box Score

Double-A: Bowie Baysox 10, Erie SeaWolves 8 (Tigers) (F/10)

Bowie was down 8-4 after six innings, but the Baysox had plenty more in the tank, scoring two runs in the eighth, ninth and tenth innings to edge the SeaWolves in extra innings.

The Baysox hit four home runs on Thursday. The very first two batters of the game went back-to-back: Joseph Rosa drove a hanging curveball and Coby Mayo followed him with an oppo-field shot to extend his on-base streak to 23 games.

The comeback began with another Rosa home run in the eighth inning to close the gap to 8-6. In the ninth, John Rhodes himself went deep with César Prieto aboard to send the game to extras.

With Anthony Servideo aboard at second, Rosa walked, Coby Mayo singled to load the bases, and Prieto singled home two runs, including the game winner.

Rosa has had a monster debut at Bowie, and he had three hits and two walks to bump his OPS to 1.284. Coby Mayo went 2-for-5 and walked. César Prieto was 4-for-5 and is hitting .374.

This one was a party for Bowie hitters, so it didn’t much matter that Justin Ambruester had his first bad start of the year: Armbruester gave up six runs in five innings. After him, Connor Gillispie also allowed two runs. Wandisson Charles threw two scoreless.

Box Score

High-A: Aberdeen IronBirds 3, Asheville Tourists (Astros) 1

Thursday saw an excellent pitching effort from the IronBirds’ Daniel Lloyd, who threw five shutout innings with just two hits allowed. The righty is 2-2 with a 4.30 ERA at this level. After Lloyd were Daniel Federman (1 R, HR), Graham Firoved (2 IP, 0 R, 5 SO) and Dylan Heid (1 IP, 0 R, 2 SO).

Jacob Teter powered the offense with a home run in the fifth inning, a single, and a crucial stolen base that helped make a second IronBirds run happen by drawing a throwing error from the catcher so Frederick Bencosme could scamper home. Jud Fabian drove in the third run with a sac fly.

There were only five hits on the day, but they were enough. Fabian went 1-for-3. Jackson Holliday was 1-for-4. Creed Willems walked twice. Bencosme singled and scored a run.

Box Score

Low-A: Down East Wood Ducks (Rangers) 7, Delmarva Shorebirds 1

Baseball is a game of inches, but I’m not sure how close to the ball Shorebirds fielders came on the six balls they misplayed on Thursday. Ouch. LF Angel Tejada, C Ramón Rodríguez, 2B Carter Young and P Wyatt Cheney all made errors, while RF Isaac Bellony managed one throwing and one fielding.

So, although Wyatt Cheney took the loss with five runs allowed in three innings, his earned run total was just one. Trey Nordman threw one scoreless but he did walk three. Jared Beck threw 3.2 and allowed two runs. But he did strike out eight batters—pretty impressive. Finally César Alvarez closed this one out with 1.1 scoreless.

Delmarva scored its lone run in the fifth when Angel Tejada and Carter Young doubled and singled consecutively. Of the Shorebirds’ hits, the remaining two belonged to Ramón Rodríguez and Tejada.

Box Score

Friday’s Schedule

• Norfolk: at Scranton Wilkes Barre, 6:35. SP: TBD
• Bowie: at Erie, 6:35. SP: Cade Povich (4-5, 5.23 ERA)
• Aberdeen: vs Asheville, 7:05, SP: Trace Bright (0-3, 6.10 ERA)
• Delmarva: vs Down East, 7:05, SP: Deivy Cruz (4-0, 4.33 ERA)
• DSL Orange, DSL Black, and FCL teams also play