Notes from the Minors 5/6

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Chance Sisco has beeen injured for much of the year. He probably would have been up hear more otherwise. He went 2-for-4 today with a home run. That earns him the Orioles Hangout MiLB player of the day selection.

Tides [AAA] Lost 6 to 0

Chris Jones allowed one earned run in four innings of work.

Christian Walker and Derick Gibson each had two hits.

Baysox [AA] Won 1 to 0

Joe Gunkle pitched six srtronginnings. Striking out three, walking no one and allowing no runs. He was acquired last week for Alexandro De Aza.

Ozzie Martinez had two hits.

Keys [A+] Lost 9 to 3

Jeff Kemp went three for four.

Kevin Gausman pitched three innings and allowed a hit.

Adrian Marin collected two hits in four at bats.

Shorebirds [A] Won 7 to 2

Jay Gonzalez was three for three.

TJ Olesczuk and Ronarsy Ledesma homered.

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Doug Newton

6/6/15

Shorebirds Race Past Intimidators, 7-2

Olesczuk and Ledesma homer in win at Kannapolis

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- The Delmarva Shorebirds defeated the Kannapolis Intimidators by a final score of 7-2 with a well-rounded performance on Saturday night. Delmarva (25-29) took control of the series with a victory, setting up a chance for a series win in Sunday’s finale.

Right out of the gates, Delmarva climbed to an early 2-0 lead. Jay Gonzalez and Cam Kneeland set the table with singles to start the evening. T.J. Olesczuk bounced an RBI grounder to open the scoring. Conor Bierfeldt sliced an RBI double down the right field line, his 15th double and 48th RBI of the year.

Ronarsy Ledesma crushed a solo home run, his first of the year, for a 3-0 lead in the second. The Delmarva defense turned three double plays to help Matthew Grimes through the first three frames. Grimes minimized the damage out of a bases loaded, no out jam in the third to just one run allowed.

The Shorebirds kept building the lead out to a comfortable margin. Olesczuk ripped another RBI single in the fifth, and Yermin Mercedes added another RBI single in the sixth. Jay Gonzalez capped off another solid night with a sacrifice fly in the eighth. Gonzalez went 3-for-3 with a walk, two runs scored and a RBI, having now reached base eleven times in the series.

Olesczuk blasted a solo home run in the ninth inning for the evening’s exclamation point. It was Olesczuk’s first home run of his professional career. The outfielder has gone 8-for-13 with eight RBIs in his first three games as a Shorebird.

Grimes earned the win with a quality start, one run surrendered in six innings pitched. Stefan Crichton and Donnie Hart closed out the game, with Hart extending his scoreless streak to 15 consecutive innings. Yency Almonte took the loss for the Kannapolis Intimidators.

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Geoff Arnold

6/6/15

Frederick Keys News Release

For Immediate Release: June 6, 2015

TWO BAT AROUNDS LEAD WILMINGTON TO SERIES WIN

GAUSMAN WORKS THREE SCORELESS IN MLB REHAB

Wilmington, Del. –The Wilmington Blue Rocks batted around in the fourth and fifth, scoring nine times off Dariel Delgado to claim a 9-3 win on Saturday night at Frawley Stadium. With the win, the Rocks take the four-game series and extend their lead in the CL North standings to five games.

Wilmington’s most productive inning was the fourth, as the home team scored five times and sent all nine men to bat. Mauricio Ramos got hit by the first pitch of the frame and moved to third on a one-out double by Frank Schwindel. The next batter Jack Lopez singled Ramos home, while consecutive walks to Cam Gallagher and Dexter Kjerstad forced in the frame’s second run. With the bases still loaded, Logan Moon brought in Lopez on a sacrifice fly, before Carlos Garcia connected on a two-run triple to complete the scoring.

In the fifth, the Blue Rocks put the first three on base, as Ramos and Cody Stubbs both singled, and Schwindel drove in both via a double to center. Following a walk to Lopez, Delgado (0-1) would be taken out of the game and replaced by Jarett Miller, who would allow three more singles to make it 9-0 Wilmington.

Delgado received the loss, surrendering a career-high nine runs on six hits in one inning to go along with three walks.

Making a Major League rehab start, Kevin Gausman looked sharp over three scoreless innings. During that time he gave up one hit and struck out four. He threw 40 total pitches, 32 for strikes.

On the Blue Rocks side, lefty Cody Reed turned in his fourth quality start in five outings, allowing one unearned run in six innings. He scattered six hits, walked one and struck out five. The lone marker came in Reed’s last inning of work. After a double by Adrian Marin, Drew Dosch reached on an infield single, while a throwing error by Schwindel at first enabled Marin to score. Frederick tacked on two more in the seventh on a two-run homer by Chance Sisco, his first at the Advanced-A level.

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Adam Pohl

6/6/15

Bert Hindman Photo

Portland, ME - Making his organizational debut, Joe Gunkel dealt six scoreless frames in a 1-0 Baysox win in Portland on Saturday night. Gunkel allowed five hits and struck out three batters facing his former team.

The Red Sox 18th round pick in 2013 was traded to the Orioles for big league OF Alejandro De Aza on Thursday afternoon. By chance his first start for Bowie came against his former team, the Double-A Affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, the Portland Sea Dogs. He was efficient, with an eight pitch first inning en route to a 73-pitch effort in six innings.

The Baysox put Gunkel on top early with a first inning run. SS Ozzie Martinez singled and LF Mike Yastrzemski walked. With two down C Rossmel Perez singled to center scoring Martinez for the only run of the ballgame.

Bowie brought in RHP Mikey O'Brien who did not allow a hit in two innings before RHP Marcel Prado worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his first save. The game lasted two hours and six minutes.

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Charlotte Knights

(UPTOWN, CHARLOTTE) - A night removed from being shut out 5-0 by the Norfolk Tides, the Charlotte Knights returned the favor, tallying 10 hits in a 6-0 shutout victory to put themselves back into a tie with the Tides for first place in the International League South Division.

Knights starter Scott Carroll entered Saturday night's matchup with a 1.83 ERA - lowest among Knights pitchers - and left the game with 5.2 more scoreless innings under his belt, lowering his ERA to 1.42 in five games started this season.

The Kansas City native did leave the game with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, but RHP Matt Lindstrom was able to record the final out of the inning with the shutout intact. Lindstrom would go on to spin 1.1 perfect innings in relief of Carroll.

Matt Tuiasosopo gave the Knights an early 1-0 lead with his fourth home run of the season - a solo shot in the bottom of the second inning. The 29-year-old would tally two RBI in the game, one shy of 500 for his minor-league career.

Micah Johnson would reach base with a one-out double in the third inning before Tyler Saladino reached base on a fielding error; the Knights then showed some speed with a double-steal to get a pair of runners into scoring position. The move paid off as Johnson then scored on a Jason Coats RBI-ground out before Tuiasosopo added his second RBI of the game by driving-in Saladino with a single to give the Knights a 3-0 advantage.

The Knights were able take a 5-0 lead in the sixth with Trayce Thompson scoring on a Coats sacrifice fly and Neftali Soto coming home on a Johnson RBI-single.

Saladino would lead-off the bottom of the seventh inning with his second triple of the season, later coming in to score on a Matt Davidson sacrifice fly to push the Knights advantage to 6-0.

RHP Maikel Cleto would relieve Lindstrom in the eighth inning to record the final six outs of the shutout victory. The 26-year-old from Santo Domingo, DR would allow only one hit over 2.0 innings while striking out three Tides.