— michael williams (@TheWeams) August 23, 2018
Quality Start, Rough Single inning. Dillon Tate
Norfolk Loses Two
Ian Locke
The Norfolk Tides were swept in a doubleheader Wednesday, dropping a pair of games to the Charlotte Knights.
In the opener, Norfolk was limited to four hits in a 5-2 setback.
Norfolk starter Luis Ortiz (2-1) suffered his first Triple-A loss, allowing three runs on eight hits over five innings of work. Ortiz, acquired by Baltimore from the Milwaukee Brewers as part of a trade deadline deal for Jonathan Schoop, walked one and struck out four while throwing 59 of his 89 pitches for strikes. He yielded run-scoring groundouts in the first and second frames before allowing a sacrifice fly to Ryan Cordell in the fifth. Through four starts with Norfolk, the 22-year-old right-hander has now registered a 3.43 ERA.
Chance Sisco had two singles and an RBI to help pace the offense, while Mike Yastrzemski added an RBI double. DJ Stewart singled and walked in the setback.
Charlotte starter Spencer Adams (4-5) earned the win after allowing two runs on four hits over six solid innings. He walked four and struck out two before giving way to Ian Hamilton, who worked a perfect seventh inning to earn his eighth save of the season.
In the nightcap, the Tides were held to three singles in a 3-0 defeat.
Tides starter Lucas Long (2-2) got off to a rough start in the nightcap, taking the loss despite a strong finishing effort. He yielded three first inning runs – two of which were earned – on three hits and a walk in the opening frame, but settled down to finish his outing with four scoreless innings. He faced just one batter over the minimum over his final four innings and retired each of his last eight batters – including four by strikeout.
Stewart, Joey Rickard and Breyvic Valera singled in the loss, as Norfolk was shutout for just the sixth time this season.
Four different Charlotte hurlers combined on the shutout, with Tyler Danish (2-3) earning the win and Gregory Infante picking up the save.
Baysox Streak Snapped by Squirrels in 3-1 Defeat
Robby Veronesi
Tate throws quality start in loss
BOWIE, Md. – Dillon Tate tossed a quality start, but the Richmond Flying Squirrels snapped the Bowie Baysox three-game winning streak with a 3-1 win in front of 2,372 at Prince George’s Stadium Wednesday night.
Richmond (60-66) jumped on top with a three-run third inning, two runs scoring on a two-out infield single from Caleb Gindl. San Francisco RHP Jeff Samardzija made his first Eastern League rehab start of the season and held the Baysox lineup to one hit over four innings.
Bowie (60-66) cut into the Flying Squirrel lead with a run in the sixth inning. After Corban Joseph lined a single to left field, pinch-hitter Rylan Bannon grounded a two-out RBI double down the third base line. After an 0-for-21 skid, Bannon has three hits over the past two contests against the Flying Squirrels.
Despite the big inning, Tate strung together a quality outing on the mound. The righty allowed the three runs on five hits over six innings, striking out six Squirrel batters. Only two batters out of the 24 Tate faced recorded a hit that cleanly landed in the outfield, while 10 more batters were retired via the groundball. Tanner Chleborad faced the minimum over three scoreless relief innings, tying the June 19 appearance at Harrisburg as the longest outing for the South Dakota native this season.
Keys and Sox Split Doubleheader
Geoff Arnold
SALEM, VA-The Frederick Keys defeated the Salem Red Sox 5-3 in the completion of Tuesday’s suspended game, while the home team claimed game two, 2-1 on a walk-off single by Tyler Hill in the bottom of the seventh. With the split, the Keys are now 11.5 games behind Lynchburg Hillcats with 12 to play (with the Hillcats game not complete tonight).
Picking up game one in the top of the second inning, the Keys (59-67, 24-33) got an immediate lift from Jomar Reyes who deposited the third pitch he saw from Daniel Gonzalez over the leftfield wall. Salem (60-65, 28-29) tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a Josh Tobias home run, but the Keys scored four of the final six runs.
In the fifth, a double by Preston Palmeiro put two in scoring position and Wilson Garcia made it 2-1 Keys with a sac-fly. Jake Ring singled home T.J. Nichting from third one inning later, while Randolph Gassaway doubled home Garcia from first in the seventh.
Salem challenged in the seventh. After tossing five innings of one-run baseball, Zac Lowther allowed a leadoff triple to Jake Romanski who scored on an RBI single from Jagger Rusconi. A second base knock put runners at the corners, prompting a pitching change. Steven Klimek entered and walked the first batter to load the bases, before Brett Netzer hit a sac-fly to make it a one-run game. From there, the Keys right-hander retired two of the next three to keep the tying and go-ahead runs on base.
Garcia added insurance in the ninth, with a home run to right. It was his third of the road trip and 22nd of the season. Tyler Erwin retired all six men he faced to close things out.
Lowther (5-2) earned his second win in as many games against Salem, delivering five innings of three-run baseball to go with five hits. He walked two and struck out three. Gonzalez (8-7) suffered the loss for Salem surrendering three runs on eight hits in five frames. Erwin picked up his 16th save.
In game two, neither side scored until the fifth. Daniel Fajardo doubled down the leftfield line and scored two batters later on an RBI single to left by Palmeiro as Fajardo negotiated his way around the tag of Nick Sciortino.
Lucas Humpal tossed four scoreless innings, while Ryan O’Rourke tossed a clean fifth and Matt Trowbridge worked a scoreless sixth. In the seventh, Trowbridge (4-2) returned to the mound. Tobias opened the inning with a single and moved to second on a sac-bunt before the Keys lefty struck out Ryan Scott. That sent up Jagger Rusconi who singled home the tying run.
From there, Sciortino walked to bring up Hill. Working the count full and with both runners on the move, Hill singled to left and Rusconi scored to give Salem a walk-off win.
Durbin Feltman (1-0) picked up the win for the Red Sox working a scoreless seventh. Trowbridge was tagged with the loss, surrendering two runs on four hits in 1.2 innings.
Mike Lehr
Ironbirds lose 6-2
Burlington, VT – Aberdeen had won seven of their last ten coming into Tuesday against Vermont, including six in a row. Vermont shut the ‘Birds down allowing just three hits and limited their mistakes for a 6-2 win.
PROMISING BEGINNINGS: In the first inning, the ‘Birds looked like the August IronBirds. J.C. Escarra started it with a two out double, he came in to score on Robert Neustrom’s RBI single that made it 1-0.
TOUGH SPOT: Jimmy Murphy cruised through five scoreless, stranding runners in scoring position in three seperate innings. In the sixth he gave up three straight hits to the top of the Vermont lineup that scored one run and left runners on the corners and one out for Josh Keaton. Keaton surrendered the next two runs on a wild pitch and an RBI single for Aaron Arruda to make it 3-1 Lake Monsters.
HERE WE GO AGAIN: Vermont allowed another wild pitch run in the 6th inning to make it a one run game. Milton Ramos had already taken third on one wild pitch after reaching on an error. It sounded a lot like the Lake Monsters in game one.
SEEK AND DESTROY: That’s what the Lake Monsters did to the ‘Birds in the 8th. Jose Diaz allowed four hits in the inning including a two run shot for Aaron Arruda that left the ballpark and found the football field over the left field wall. Another run on an error made it a three run inning, which brought the final score to 8-2