Triple-A: Memphis (Cardinals) 5, Norfolk Tides 4<\/p>\n
One notable thing that happened here is that the Tides stuck with their original plan of having erstwhile Oriole Dean Kremer make the start for this game. That rules him out as an option for when Zach Eflin\u2019s turn next comes up in the MLB rotation. Prior to this, a callup would have taken some roster juggling to manage. If the Orioles wanted to do it, they could have done it. They didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Kremer did not pitch in such a way that he was demanding an immediate promotion back to MLB. He allowed three runs over a 4.2 inning outing and seems to have been yanked for effectiveness reasons rather than pitch count: He\u2019d only thrown 62 pitches when his day ended. He should have been better than these guys and he wasn\u2019t. Will we see him in a week? Will it be longer? We won\u2019t know til we know. This is one point in the favor of those who thought \u201clet Kremer\u2019s bad April happen in the minors\u201d was a strategy worth following.<\/p>\n
The Tides offense was unfortunately putrid against former Oriole Bruce Zimmermann. Two solo home runs were the only damage they could muster in the six innings that he was in the game. Rehabbing Oriole Jackson Holliday had one hit in five at-bats, and also drove in two runs. Other than Holliday, it\u2019s a sad lineup down here to start their season. Norfolk had its share of chances but with 0-6 with RISP they could never get the big hit to really break the game in their favor.<\/p>\n
Double-A: Hartford (Rockies) 10, Chesapeake Baysox<\/p>\n
Baysox pitchers issued 11 walks and gave up 12 hits in the game. That\u2019s a tough way to win unless your offense absolutely explodes – as we\u2019ll see for Delmarva in a later section today. Chesapeake, though, did not score until the eighth inning of the game and had just six hits in the game.<\/p>\n
Not much consolation for the Baysox, but at least the three most interesting hitting prospects all avoided taking an 0-for in the game. Griff O\u2019Ferrall had a hit and walk out of the leadoff spot. My guy Aron Estrada went 1-4, as did outfielder Thomas Sosa, whose lone hit was an RBI double. Estrada and Sosa are each 21 as they start the year at this level. Interesting guys to follow, and they\u2019ll be more interesting if they\u2019re able to put together some strong results as the season goes along.<\/p>\n
High-A: Frederick Keys 6, Hub City (Rangers) 0<\/p>\n
Those who watched the prospect-oriented Spring Breakout game last month may have remembered the relief appearance of pitching prospect Joseph Dzierwa. The Orioles second round pick from last year didn\u2019t pitch after the draft last year and was assigned straight to High-A this year. He had an absolutely dominant outing, mowing down the Spartanburgers (really) inning after inning.<\/p>\n
Dzierwa ultimately struck out nine batters over six innings while allowing just one hit and one walk, and he\u2019d only thrown 78 pitches, so he might well have been pushed deeper if the team was so inclined. That\u2019s a heck of a pro debut. I hope he\u2019s able to keep up something like it in his subsequent outings.<\/p>\n
Plenty to like about the offense here too, where fellow high 2025 draftees Ike Irish and Wehiwa Aloy made good things happen. Irish hit a pair of doubles across five at-bats, while Aloy had a triple in three at-bats and also drew a pair of walks. In the leadoff spot, Nate George had a hit, walk, and stolen base, and scored two runs. Pretty good stuff. Not everyone shared in this bounty; spring training fun story Vance Honeycutt went hitless, drawing a walk over four plate appearances.<\/p>\n
Low-A: Delmarva Shorebirds 11, Salem (Red Sox) 10<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got a donnybrook on our hands! The two teams combined for 22 hits, 18 walks, and five errors. The South Atlantic League is a long way from MLB and some games remind one of this much more than others. Many of the players on both teams are making their full-season affiliate debuts as the 2026 campaign begins and, well, it shows.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s focus on the good. Five players in Delmarva\u2019s starting lineup had multi-hit games, led by the three-hit effort by 19-year-old outfielder Junior Aybar. Have I ever in my life thought of this player before right now? No. Now I\u2019ll be paying attention to him for the rest of the year because he drove in five runs the first time I did a minor league recap in 2026. 2024 sixth round pick DJ Layton, also 19, was also making things happen, with two hits and two walks across five plate appearances.<\/p>\n
This is a very young team. Not much good has come from young Delmarva teams in the past few years. It\u2019ll be nice if some players in this group can turn that around.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s Scheduled Games<\/p>\n
Norfolk: at Memphis, 2:05. Starter: Levi WellsChesapeake: at Hartford, 1:10. Starter: Luis De Le\u00f3nFrederick: at Hub City, 4:35. Starter: JT QuinnDelmarva: at Salem, 6:35. Starter: Esteban Mejia<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an intriguing day of starting pitching. Hopefully tomorrow\u2019s minor league recap has some fun results to share from them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Triple-A: Memphis (Cardinals) 5, Norfolk Tides 4 One notable thing that happened here is that the Tides stuck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662804,"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-662803","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\/662803","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=662803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}