Triple-A: Charlotte (White Sox) 4, Norfolk Tides 1
One might like to see better from a Tides lineup that has rehabbing big leaguers Jackson Holliday and Heston Kjerstad than to get just four hits in the game. One does not always get what one wants. Holliday and Kjerstad, batting at the top of the lineup, had a hit apiece. Holliday also drew two walks, two of ten that were picked up by Tides batters in this game. Lots of traffic! They just couldn’t capitalize, going 0-9 with RISP as they left 11 men on base.
Norfolk’s starter, Levi Wells, a guy who
if you squint counts as a pitching prospect, allowed all four runs on seven hits over a four inning game. That included two solo home runs. He’s up to a 4.50 ERA for the season. This was a tough one for Tides pitcher/catcher combos, as the Knights stole five bases in the game.
If all of the above puts you in the mood to hear about the ongoing Triple-A success of a random reliever in whom Orioles fans had no emotional investment before this season, 28-year-old lefty Andrew Magno threw two scoreless innings, dropping his season ERA to 0.49 over 18.1 innings. My sources say that’s pretty good. To be clear, my sources are me looking at a lot of minor league box scores, many of which are bad games for the Orioles affiliate.
Double-A: Akron (Guardians) 5, Chesapeake Baysox 1
My guy Aron Estrada had three hits and stole a base and that’s about the only good thing to say about this one. And that’s only so good, because after this game he has a .672 OPS. OK, I’ll try to find a little more: outfielder Thomas Sosa hit a home run, his third of the season, one of two hits. Other than that, a lot of zeroes, and not the good kind. Ethan Anderson took an 0-4. Lately-sorta-interesting infielder Anderson De Los Santos was 0-4. The team combined for seven hits and three players accounted for all of those hits. It is a tough way to win.
High-A: Frederick Keys 4, Hudson Valley (Yankees) 3
Vance Honeycutt strikeout watch: Three strikeouts in an 0-4 game. We should perhaps also do a Wehiwa Aloy strikeout watch: He struck out two times, though at least he added a double for his trouble. Big first baseman Victor Figueroa remains over a 1.000 OPS after a 1-4 game here.
The performer of the game for the Keys was outfielder Braylin Tavera, still young enough that some modest success at this level is interesting. Tavera hit his third homer of the season, one of two hits on the game. He also stole a base, his 12th in 15 tries. There was a throwing error mixed in there too.
Keys starting pitcher Carson Dorsey labored through five innings, allowing six hits and three walks, which ended up translating into three runs. Two relievers behind him combined for four scoreless innings – last year’s 17th round pick Braeden Sloan struck out four guys in his two innings, picking up a save and lowering his ERA to 0.60 in ten games. He’s 22, so he’ll have to prove it at higher levels to be interesting, but it’s something.
Low-A: Fayetteville (Astros) 8, Delmarva Shorebirds 3
Maybe the perfect example of a Shorebirds box score, not that this says good things about the recent fortunes of the lowest-level Orioles affiliate. The starting pitcher was not good. Two other pitchers weren’t good either. The team combined for just four hits, and nearly had more errors (three) than those four hits. Yeah, they lost. I don’t like to pile on when non-prospects don’t do anything to look like prospects. Look at the box score below if you really need to know.
If you have been paying attention to this roster, you might be interested in infielder DJ Layton or outfielder Stiven Martinez (the DH in this game). Layton went 1-5 with three strikeouts. Martinez took an 0-4 with three strikeouts. There just couldn’t be anything too fun here.
Saturday’s Scheduled Games
- Norfolk: at Charlotte, 6:05. Starter: Nestor German
- Chesapeake: at Akron, 6:05. Starter: Christian Herberholz
- Frederick: at Hudson Valley, 5:05. Starter: Joseph Dzierwa
- Delmarva: vs. Fayetteville, 7:05. Starter: Brayan Orrantia
Dzierwa’s last start was cut short when a bad bounce popped up and hit him in the face as he was backing up a base on a play. Let’s not have any more of that! The guy has struck out 44 batters in 35.2 innings. I am going to see Frederick in a couple of weekends; I wonder if Dzierwa will even still be on this roster by then.
