Tides drop homestand finale to Charlotte, 4-2

The Norfolk Tides (68-39) fell to the Charlotte Knights (41-67), 4-2, on Sunday at Harbor Park.

The Tides, the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, finish their 13-game, two-week homestand with a 8-5 record.

Charlotte, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, was able to strike in the first inning to start off the game. After the Charlotte leadoff hitter Clint Frazier walked, he reached second on a pickoff throwing error. He scored as an unearned run on a RBI single by Korey Lee to go up 1-0.

That would be the only run allowed by Tides starter Bruce Zimmermann. He ended up lasting 3.0 innings, allowing the one hit by Lee and the walk while striking out five. The five strikeouts put his Norfolk career total at 199, passing Chris George for 11th all-time in Orioles affiliate history.

The Knights added another run in the top of the fifth. Adam Haseley led off with a single and scored two batters later when Xavier Fernandez roped an RBI double to make their lead 2-0. One more run was added by Charlotte when Stephen Piscotty knocked an RBI single to go up 3-0.

The Tides wouldn’t score until the bottom of the sixth inning when they put up two runs. Shayne Fontana doubled, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Connor Norby sacrifice fly to break up the shutout. Norfolk didn’t stop there, with Joey Ortiz knocking an infield single and scored on an RBI triple by Kyle Stowers to shrink the deficit to 3-2.

Norfolk could not make up any more ground from there, with Charlotte adding one more run in the ninth. The Knights capped their victory when Frazier knocked an RBI single to put the Tides away, 4-2.

With the conclusion of the two-week homestand, the Tides now hit the road for a two-week road trip. They first head to Jacksonville this week, then to Memphis next week. Neither Norfolk or Jacksonville has announced their probables for the week.

Game Notes

Going 1-for-4 with an RBI triple today was Kyle Stowers…the extra-base hit was the 72nd of his Tides career, passing L.J. Hoes and tying Pedro Álvarez for 11th-most in Orioles affiliate franchise history…the RBI was also the 122nd of his Tides career, passing Álvarez and tying Mike Yastrzemski for sixth in Orioles affiliate franchise history.

The lone Tide to have a multi-hit effort today was Joey Ortiz, who finished 2-for-4 with a run scored…it was his 28th multi-hit effort of the season, second on the team to Connor Norby (34)… since July 6, he’s hit safely in 21-of-26 games batting .388 (38-for-98) with 24 runs, 10 doubles, a triple, three home runs, 18 RBI and eight walks while slashing .430/.602/1.032.