The Norfolk Tides and Major League Baseball today announced that Thursday’s game vs. the Memphis Redbirds on Thursday at 12:05 p.m. will be featured as “MLB Pipeline’s Game of the Month” for May.
MLB.com’s highest ranked pitcher, Grayson Rodriguez (#6), is scheduled to start while the Redbirds will toss left-hander Matthew Liberatore, who’s ranked #43 in the top 100. MLB.com’s #2 prospect in baseball, Adley Rutschman, is scheduled to play for the Tides. The game will be available for free on MLB.tv.
Once a month, a member of the MLB Pipeline crew will bring fans even closer to the MiLB.TV action for some of Minor League Baseball’s premier matchups. First up was Double-A Portland vs. Somerset on Thursday, April 28 for an Eastern League game between Red Sox and Yankees affiliates, respectively.
If Rutschman catches for Rodriguez, it will be the 14th time the duo have played together. In 13 starts together so far, Rodriguez is 5-2 with a 2.29 ERA (15 ER, 59.0 IP), allowing a .159 (33-for-208) opponent’s batting average, a 0.90 WHIP and has struck out 85 batters to 20 walks. The 85 strikeouts make up 24.4% of Rodriguez’ career strikeouts (348).
MLB.com ranks the Baltimore Orioles organization as the best farm system in MLB. 10 players in their top 30 Orioles prospects are on Norfolk’s roster. Rodriguez and Rutschman headline the group, ranking as two of the top 10 prospects in all of baseball. D.L. Hall, who’s ranked #87 on MLB.com’s Top 100 Prospects list, will be added to Norfolk’s roster today to total three top 100 prospects on the Tides roster.
The seven other listed top prospects with the Tides in the Orioles organization are Kyle Stowers (#8), Michael Baumann (#13), Terrin Vavra (#14), Kevin Smith (#18), Jahmai Jones (#22), Yusniel Díaz (#26) and Zac Lowther (#27). Vavra is currently the only player inactive, due to being on the Injured List since April 21.
The Memphis Redbirds, Triple-A affiliate for the St. Louis Cardinals, currently features two top 100 prospects. Along with Liberatore, Nolan Gorman (#33) ranks as the second-best prospect in the organization. Liberatore (#43) ranks as the third-best in the Cardinals’ farm system and is their highest ranked pitching prospect.
Among the Top 30 Cardinals prospects by MLB.com, the Redbirds roster has Ivan Herrera (#4), Zack Thompson (#9), Alec Burleson (#10), Angel Rondón (#14), Luken Baker (#17), Connor Thomas (#20) and Jake Walsh (#30). The game will feature 18 total top-30 organizational prospects.
Fans can purchase tickets in person at the Harbor Park box office or online at NorfolkTides.com/Tickets. The Harbor Park box office is currently open from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday each week. The box office also opens at 10 a.m. on Saturdays when the team is at home, and is open from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Saturdays with no home game.
Single-game tickets start at $14 for Reserved Seats, with Box Seats available for $15. The Tides also offer special discounts to children ages two through high school, active military with ID (4 tickets per ID) and senior citizens (60 +). These special discounts are available in the Lower and Upper Reserved sections and can be purchased for $12. Children under two years old are admitted free of charge. For groups of 20 or more, please call the Norfolk Tides front office to speak with a group sales representative at 757-622-2222.
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Chris Graham
