The Norfolk Tides (44-19) defeated the Worcester Red Sox (31-33), 3-0, on Tuesday night at Harbor Park.
The Tides, the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, get a remarkable performance from their starting pitcher to take the series opener against Worcester, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.
Tonight’s action started out with dueling arms holding opposing batters at bay through the first two full innings. Bruce Zimmermann did his part for the Tides by allowing only one hit through the first three frames, punching out four in that span.
Following a Terrin Vavra base hit through the left side of the infield that loaded the bases, Lewin Díaz sprinted home on a wild pitch to break the scoreless tie.
It wasn’t until the fifth inning that another run would cross. Maverick Handley singled with two away and scurried his way to second base on a wild pitch which allowed Vavra an opportunity to knock him in. A ground ball single from the lefty kicked off the glove of the diving first baseman, allowing Handley to round third and score the Tides second run of the game.
As Zimmermann continued to deal, Joey Ortiz tacked on another run for the Tides in the seventh with a line drive solo home run to left field to extend the Norfolk lead to three.
By the end of the evening, the Tides would only need one pitcher to earn the 3-0 win, as Zimmermann finished the ninth by inducing a groundout to finish off a complete game shutout.
Game Notes
Bruce Zimmermann went the distance with nine shutout innings, allowing six hits and one walk with nine strikeouts, needing only 94 pitches…it marks the first complete game shutout tossed by a Tides pitcher since Zach Clark did it at Harbor Park on August 31, 2012 against Gwinnett…over his last two starts with the Tides, Zimmermann has tallied a total of 15.0 shutout innings, allowing only 10 hits and four walks while striking out 17 batters…dating back to his start on May 20 against Syracuse, he has tossed 15.1 consecutive scoreless innings, currently sitting 0.1 innings shy of Drew Rom for the longest scoreless innings streak by a Tides pitcher this season.
Terrin Vavra went 2-for-4 at the dish with an RBI… he has a hit in five straight games, with four of them being multi-hit efforts, batting .454 (10-for-22) with five runs, a double, a triple, two home runs, five RBI and two hit-by-pitches in that span.
Next Up
Norfolk is back at it tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Expected to toe the rubber for the Tides is LHP DL Hall (0-1, 4.46) and he will face off against LHP Rio Gomez (0-0, 3.52) who is slated to make the start for Worcester.
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Chris Graham
