Game 101: Jumbo Shrimp at Tides

Matt Present

Published in

Shrimp & Grits

4 min readAug 28, 2021

Saturday, August 28, 2021–7:05 p.m. ET

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (56–44) at Norfolk Tides (40–58)

Harbor Park — Norfolk, Va.

LAST TIME OUT:

Lorenzo Quintana, Lewin Díaz, and Payton Henry all homered for Jacksonville, and the Jumbo Shrimp built up a 6–2 lead in the fifth inning. However, they were unable to tally a hit thereafter and Norfolk came back to tie the game with a run in the ninth inning and win it with a run in the tenth. Nick Neidert started for Jacksonville and gave up five runs (two earned) over 6.1 innings to record the 14th quality start of the season for the club.

Lewin Díaz hit his 19th home run of the season and reached base four times in the loss to Norfolk on Friday (Joey Mims/Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp)

GAME INFO:

The Shrimp and Tides face off in game five of their six-game series tonight at 7:05 p.m. at Harbor Park. This season, Jacksonville is 19–9 against the Tides in head-to-head play, and has outscored Norfolk 135–103. Jacksonville has a chance to win the series with a victory tonight, after locking up the season series Thursday.

MEET THE TIDES:

Norfolk is the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The Tides enter with a 40–58 record and are sixth in the Southeast Division.

Norfolk is managed by Gary Kendall, who returns for his second season with the Tides. Before joining the Tides in 2019, Kendall was the manager for the Bowie Baysox for eight seasons, setting the franchise managerial record for career wins at 570. Kendall led the Baysox to three postseason appearances, including the franchise’s lone Eastern League Championship in 2015.

Norfolk, like Jacksonville, is a very big Navy town, which is why the regular season series between these two teams has been dubbed “The Navy Town Showdown.” As the winner of the series, Jacksonville will receive a ship’s bell as a trophy, presented by Geico Military.

Since the last time Jacksonville faced Norfolk, the Orioles promoted catcher Adley Rutschman to Triple-A. Rutschman is ranked as the №1 prospect in all of Minor League Baseball, and was selected by the Orioles in 2019 as the №1 overall pick out of Oregon State University.

Ryan McKenna hit a three-run home run and tallied three hits in the ballgame against Jacksonville Friday. This season he’s slashed .310/.426/.690/1.116 and he’s 5 for his last 12 in this series. He’s also walked 12 times in his past 11 games.

PITCHING MATCHUP:

LHP Daniel Castano (3–2, 5.50 ERA)

Daniel Castano will make his eighth start of the season for the Jumbo Shrimp. He has won each of his last two starts. However, Castano has allowed at least four runs in half of his starts this year. A native of Austin, Texas, Castano was originally selected in the 16th round of the 2016 draft by the St. Louis Cardinals. On December 13, 2017, Castano was traded to Miami along with Sandy Alcántara, Magneuris Sierra and Zac Gallen in exchange for outfielder Marcell Ozuna. Castano then made his major league debut for the Marlins on August 8, 2020. Castano works with a fastball, cutter, and curveball.

LHP Alex Wells (6–3, 3.42 ERA)

After a slow start to the season, Wells has hit his stride. He has not allowed an earned run in his last four starts with Norfolk, spanning 20.2 innings. He has struck out 19 over this stretch. Wells made his major league debut for the Orioles June 26, and since has made six outings for Baltimore. Wells signed with the Baltimore Orioles organization as an international free agent on August 29, 2015 out of Australia. He played on Australia’s WBC team in 2017. He also represented the World in the Future’s Game in 2018. He features a fastball, changeup, slider, and curve.

LINEUP

Eddy Alvarez, SS
Monte Harrison, CF
Lewin Diaz, LF
Nick Fortes, C
Lorenzo Quintana, DH
Bryson Brigman, SS
Zack Zehner, RF
Deven Marrero, 3B
Joe Dunand, RF

NEWS FROM THE TROUPE:

Right-handed pitcher Bryan Hoeing struck out a career-high ten for High-A Beloit last night. This month he has started four games and worked to a 1.00 ERA with 21 strikeouts and only seven walks in 27 innings of work.

TRIPLE-A SOUTHEAST DIVISION STANDINGS