Minor League Game Summaries 4/23

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Mike Zastrzemski went three for foir with a home run and two battid in for Bowie. He is the Orioles Hangout MiLB player of the day.

(6-10) Tides [AAA] Won 1 to 0

(6-10) Tides [AAA] Won 4 to 3

Ian Locke

Xavier Avery homered and eight Norfolk pitchers combined to hold Durham to three runs on 10 hits as the Tides swept a doubleheader from the Bulls Saturday night at Harbor Park. Norfolk blanked the Bulls 1-0 in the first game before edging Durham 4-3 in game two.

In the opener, Ariel Miranda, Pedro Beato and Oliver Drake combined on a two-hit shutout as Norfolk blanked the Bulls, 1-0.

Miranda turned in a solid outing, allowing two runs over 4.1 shutout innings of work to lower his ERA to 3.00 through three starts this season. The 27-year-old southpaw struck out six while walking just two, but he needed 86 pitches to navigate his outing. The only trouble he ran into came in the first frame, when he worked out of a second and third, nobody out jam by getting two strikeouts and a popup.

Beato (1-1) earned the win by tossing 1.2 innings of shutout relief before giving way to Drake, who struck out one in a perfect seventh to earn his third save of the season.

Norfolk plated the only run of the contest in the third frame, as Francisco Pena opened the inning with a double, moved to third on a single by Paul Janish and scored on a sacrifice fly by L.J. Hoes.

Paul Janish singled twice in the opener to extend his hitting streak to six games, over which he?s hit .571 (12-21) with five multi-hit games.

In the nightcap, the Tides jumped out to a quick lead and held off a late Bulls rally in a 4-3 win.

Norfolk jumped on Durham starter Chih-Wei Hu (0-1) in the first inning, as Henry Urrutia singled home two runs just three batters into the game. Avery singled to open the contest before Christian Walker moved him to third with a double, and Urrutia followed by grounding a single into center field for a 2-0 Tides advantage.

One inning later, Xavier Avery lined a two-out, two-run homer into the right field party deck to extend Norfolk?s lead to 4-0. It was the first homer of the season for Avery, who is now hitting .303 with three RBI through 11 games after his two-hit performance Saturday.

Norfolk used five relievers in the nightcap, as Andy Oliver, Cesar Cabral (1-1), Richard Rodriguez, Zach Phillips and Chaz Roe combined on the victory.

The Tides led the contest 4-0 entering the sixth inning before an RBI single by Mayo Acosta pulled the Bulls within three runs. Durham then nearly tied the game in the seventh, as Dayon Varona hit a two-run single to pull the Bulls within a run. Durham had runners on first and second with nobody out, but Roe retired the final three batters ? including the last two by strikeout ? to pick up his first save of the season and complete the doubleheader sweep.

(8-8) Baysox [AA] Won 7 to 2

Matt Wilson

Bowie won its third game in a row, beating the Senators 7-2 Saturday night to win the series. The victory gives the Baysox the series win as they try for the sweep Sunday afternoon.

Baysox starting pitcher Chris Lee entered the game 2-0 on the season and he continued his hot start. After allowing a run in the first inning, he locked in to throw five more scoreless innings for his third win.

Harrisburg jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first inning against Lee. Lee walked the first two batters he faced and then OF Rafael Bautista stole third base to put runners on the corners with one out. 1B Shawn Pleffner brought Bautista home on a ground out to second base to give the Senators an early 1-0 lead.

The Baysox offense also got rolling right off the bat in the bottom half of the inning against Harrisburg starter Austen Williams. OF Julio Borbon hit a lead-off single to center field and OF Mike Yastrzemski followed with his third home run of the series to right-center field. With one out, Williams issued back-to-back walks and then threw a wild pitch that allowed OF Quincy Latimore to score from second base. Chris O'Brien then hit a pop fly double in the infield that the Harrisburg infielders couldn't handle followed by an RBI groundout from SS Adrian Marin. A RBI double from 3B Drew Dosch gave Bowie the 5-1 lead.

1B Trey Mancini continued his magnificent season and gave the Baysox a 7-1 lead with his league-leading seventh home run of the season to left-center field in the bottom of the fifth inning. He brought home Yastrzemski, who had singled to lead-off the inning for this third hit of the day.

The Senators got one run back in the top of the seventh inning against Baysox reliever RHP Garrett Cortright. INF Adrian Sanchez hit a lead-off single to right field and moved to third base after a ground out and a single to left field by INF Stephen Perez. With two outs, Sanchez scored on a wild pitch to make the score 7-2.

Cortright threw one inning and allowed one run on two hits while striking out one and walking one batter. Baysox reliever Stefan Crichton came into the game to pitch the final two innings in which held the Senators scoreless as he allowed a pair of single, one in the eight and one in the ninth.

Williams took the loss for Harrisburg. He threw five innings, allowed seven runs on seven hits while striking out three and walking three batters.

(5-12) Keys [A+] Lost 3 to 0

Doug Rafferty

The Keys bats were silenced for the second time in three nights, this time by the combination of Mitch Brown and Anderson Polanco, as the duo steered Lynchburg to a 3-0 win on Saturday night at Calvin Falwell Field. The Keys struck out a season-high 15 times and are on a five-game losing skid.

In the third inning, Lynchburg got all they would need. With two outs, Greg Allen singled and stole second. With Yu-Cheng Chang at the plate, Allen would swipe third, and a wild throw down by Jonah Heim scored Allen for a 1-0 lead.

The first run was unearned to Frederick starter Lucas Long, who made his Keys and High-A debut. The only earned run the righty gave up came in his fifth and final inning. Mark Mathias singled and Sicnarf Loopstok walked. After a strikeout and fly out, Chang singled up the middle for an RBI single and two-run Hillcats cushion. Long (0-1) gave up four hits, two runs (one earned), walked three, and struck out three in the loss.

The Keys had one of their best chances of the game in the first against Brown (1-1). Josh Hart singled, swiped second, and advanced to third on a Steve Wilkerson groundout. But the Keys couldn?t capitalize with one out, as Cam Kneeland and Aderlin Rodriguez struck out. That kicked off an 0-for-7 night with runners in scoring position.

Tanner Chleborad replaced Long in the sixth and gave up one run in two innings. Taylor Murphy singled, and Mathias doubled to right-center to put the Hillcats on top 3-0. Ivan Hernandez threw a clean eighth inning, as he worked around a pair of singles.

The Keys offense was shut down by Brown and Polanco. Brown picked up his first win of the year by throwing five innings of three-hit baseball. He struck out a career-high-tying nine. Polanco set down the last 10 Keys in order and racked up six strikeouts.

(9-8) Shorebirds [A] Won 4 to 2

Brendan Gulick

On a night where the Shorebirds seemed like they were constantly trying to keep their balance on a high-wire act at the circus, Ofelky Peralta, Garrett Cleavinger and Jake Bray stranded 14 Kannapolis Intimidators on base in a 4-2 win on Saturday night. Kannapolis left 10 runners in scoring position.

The first inning was as forgettable as it was unforgettable. The top and bottom half of the inning combined to take 35 minutes and both teams got on the board early. Left-hander Ryan Riga pitched to five Shorebirds and had full counts on each one, finishing the frame with 34 pitches and only 17 strikes. Delmarva got on the board on D.J. Stewart?s RBI single to center field. It could have been 2-0, but Ryan Mountcastle was gunned down at the plate by Tyler Sullivan on a perfect throw to the dish.

Four batters into the home half of the inning, Kannapolis had the lead. Ofelky Peralta struggled to find home plate, throwing 31 pitches in the inning and only 14 strikes. After Tyler Sullivan led off with a walk and stolen base, Landon Lassiter doubled him home to tie the game at 1-1. After the first of Peralta?s four wild pitches moved Lassiter to third base, Seby Zavala singled up the middle and gave the Intimidators the 2-1 lead.

Thankfully for both teams, that was the worst inning of pitching all night. But as fate would have it, the Shorebirds tied the game on the biggest pitching blunder of the night - Riga balked home the tying run in the top of the fifth, scoring Jack Graham.

The Shorebirds scored twice in the top of the sixth, thanks to Yermin Mercedes and Gerrion Grim. Stewart led off the inning with a walk, reaching base for the 8th consecutive time in the series. The Mercedes continued his assault on the baseball with a triple to left-center field. A few pitches later, Gerrion Grim hit a check swing single just inside the bag at first to score Mercedes and push the Delmarva lead to 4-2. Grim was thrown out at second base trying to stretch the base hit to a double. Alejandro Juvier tripled two batters later, but he was stranded at third to end the inning. Grim finished 3-4 with an RBI and Mercedes has now gone 8-13 with four doubles, a triple, a home run, four RBI?s and five runs scored in the first three games of the series.

While there was no more scoring, there was still plenty of drama. Garrett Cleavinger got out of the sixth inning with two on and two out. In the seventh, he got a double-play to end the frame when there were runners at first and second with one out. Danny Mendick and Tyler Sullivan both hit two out singles in the eighth inning, but Jake Bray came on to strike out Lassiter to close the frame.

Bray allowed a lead-off double and walk in the ninth to Corey Zangari and Zavala, before Cody Daily sacrificed the runners over. But as the Shorebirds had done all night, Bray pulled out one last Houdini effort and struck out Antonio Rodriguez and Micker Adolfo to seal the win.