Triple-A: Norfolk Tides 6, Nashville Sounds (Brewers) 4 \u2014 (7 inn.)<\/p>\n
The Norfolk Tides\u2019 season opener was a wet and wacky one. For six innings, the Tides\u2019 offense looked hopeless, garnering just two hits as they fell into a 4-0 hole. But the game flipped on its head in a wild, six-run bottom of the seventh \u2014 and I literally mean \u201cwild.\u201d Nashville pitchers issued three consecutive walks after an inning-opening error, with Enrique Bradfield Jr. taking a four-pitch free pass to force home the first run.<\/p>\n
That opened the floodgates for the Norfolk bats. Pinch-hitter Willy Vasquez roped a double to score two more runs before Weston Wilson\u2019s RBI single tied the game at four. The Sounds got wild again, uncorking a wild pitch that plated Vasquez with the go-ahead run. With two down, Sam Huff\u2019s RBI knock added an insurance run, completing an inning in which the Tides sent 10 batters to the plate.<\/p>\n
The rally came just in the nick of time, as heavy rain enveloped the Harbor Park Field and forced the cancellation of the final two innings. That goes down as a win for the Tides, unconventional as it may be.<\/p>\n
Before the late dramatics, Norfolk starter Trey Gibson \u2014 the Orioles\u2019 top pitching prospect \u2014 struggled in his Opening Day assignment. Gibson lasted only three innings and threw just 44 of his 79 pitches for strikes, issuing an ugly five walks. He also got himself into trouble in the second inning by failing to cover the bag on a grounder to first, putting a runner on base who later scored. It\u2019s safe to say that Gibson still has some things he needs to work on.<\/p>\n
Jackson Holliday has already begun his rehab assignment, so it shouldn\u2019t be too long before he\u2019s back with the Orioles. He looked a little rusty in this one, going 0-for-2 with two strikeouts and a walk. Bradfield, meanwhile, did a good job setting the table from the leadoff spot, reaching base twice. Catcher Creed Willems had a tough time behind the plate, failing to throw out any of the Sounds\u2019 three basestealers and also committing an error.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s scheduled game:<\/p>\n
Norfolk vs. Nashville, 6:35 PM. Starter: Nestor German (season debut)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Triple-A: Norfolk Tides 6, Nashville Sounds (Brewers) 4 \u2014 (7 inn.) The Norfolk Tides\u2019 season opener was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,3433,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-648667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles-prospects","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}