Triple-A: Norfolk Tides 6, Buffalo (Blue Jays) 3 – 10 innings
Of immediate interest to the big league club is that this was another rehab start for Chris Bassitt. There’s little to complain about in the results, as Bassitt pitched six innings without allowing a run, scattering three hits, two walks, and a hit batter. That looks about as stretched out as a guy is going to get on a minor league rehab assignment; this was his third start. I wouldn’t be surprised to see his next game in Baltimore.
Bassitt handed the baton off to my honorary hyphenated cousin, Juaron
Watts-Brown, with a 3-0 lead in the bank. Watts-Brown blew the lead while pitching in the eighth, putting two men on base before giving up three runs on a single swing. That sent things into extra innings, where the Tides were able to plate their Manfred Man plus two more in the tenth.
If you thought that would be enough to close out the game without drama, you haven’t met Norfolk’s pitching staff. The Bisons loaded the bases with one out against previous Oriole Jose Espada. (Why is this team called the Bisons when the plural of bison is bison?) They didn’t get any closer.
Looking at the Tides lineup is depressing. There are only two guys worth mentioning and one of them is because I just can’t give up on Heston Kjerstad, even though the Orioles appear to have done so. Kjerstad had two hits and drew a walk and was picked off once. Creed Willems is down to a .766 OPS after a 1-5 night at the plate.
Double-A: Chesapeake Baysox 5, Harrisburg (Nationals) 2
Despite being out-hit by the Senators by an 11-7 margin and only having four of their players get hits at all, the Baysox were able to win this one. Even tougher than that previous sentence sounds for Chesapeake is that their 1-6 hitters had just one hit combined across all of them. You might think that Harrisburg’s three errors would have helped, but no, none of the runs were unearned. Baseball can be weird and minor league baseball can get even weirder.
My guy Aron Estrada took an 0-4, as did recently-promoted Victor Figueroa. Wehiwa Aloy was also hitless, though his night included a walk and a sacrifice fly, as well as his second stolen base at this level.
For Baysox pitchers, Patrick Reilly made his third start back at the Double-A level after having Tommy John surgery last year. The runs column reads zero on the stat line, so that’s good. He had a whole lot of traffic, though, with nine hits and one walk over 4.2 innings. When the WHIP is over 2, that’s less good. But any starts for the rest of this year are really just about shaking off the rust.
High-A: Frederick Keys 2, Jersey Shore (Phillies) 0
These two teams combined for eight hits, four errors, 13 walks, and 23 strikeouts. Minor league baseball! Recent promotions and injuries have left this Keys lineup depleted compared to early in the season and it shows. Both of the Keys runs scored on groundouts. No one even got an RBI hit.
The starting pitcher who got this thing going towards the combined shutout was JT Quinn, the Orioles competitive balance round B pick from last year’s draft. Quinn’s 5.2 scoreless innings saw him give up just three hits and one walk, while striking out seven batters. He hasn’t raced to Double-A like Joseph Dzierwa and later Caden Hunter did, but he hasn’t acquitted himself badly at the level, sporting a 3.75 ERA and 1.13 WHIP for the season, with a K/BB rate near 5.
Low-A: Fredericksburg (Nationals) 5, Delmarva Shorebirds 3
A Shorebirds pitcher struggles early and the offense never does much the whole game is pretty much the whole season for Delmarva. They had a 1-0 lead after an RBI groundout in the third inning, starting pitcher Holden deJong gave up four runs while failing to complete the bottom of the inning, and they coasted along on the way to a loss. They’re 37-69. It’s rough down there.
Not rough is infielder Jaiden Lo Re, the fifth round pick from last year. Lo Re accounted for two of the five Shorebirds hits all on his own and scored two of their runs. Outfielder Jordan Sanchez also had two hits and drove in all three Delmarva runs. Lo Re has a .915 OPS after 45 games at this level, pretty good for age 19.
Saturday’s Scheduled Games
- Norfolk: at Buffalo, 6:35. Starter: Luis De León
- Chesapeake: vs. Harrisburg, 6:35. Starter: Anthony Eyanson
- Frederick: at Jersey Shore, 7:05. Starter: Kyson Witherspoon
- Delmarva: at Fredericksburg, 6:35. Starter: Harrison Kreiling
That’s three players who were acquired at the trade deadline, and the fourth (De León) was recently promoted to the Triple-A level. An interesting night for pitching on the farm. Hopefully it turns out well for everyone. Experience as an Orioles fan teaches me that it will not.
