Minor league notes on Wright, Alvarez and more

Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds outfielder Gregory Lorenzo reached base three times on Wednesday. Each time he was on, Lorenzo stole a base. He is 9-for-12 stealing on the year and his nine steals is tied for the South Atlantic League lead.

Lorenzo is batting .250 over 17 games, but he is 6-for-13 over his last three games and is 5-for-5 stealing bases in that stretch.

The 22-year-old from San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, set a career-high stealing 40 bases (in 48 attempts) in 2013.

Triple-A Norfolk pitcher Mike Wright, the Orioles' 2013 minor league Pitcher of the Year, makes his fourth start tonight. He is 0-0 with an ERA of 1.59. Over 17 innings, he's walked four and fanned 13 for the Tides.

Wright has some strange split stats at this early point of the season. Lefty batters are hitting just .132 off him and right-handed batters are hitting .400.

Wright's good start to this year follows his strong finish from last year when he went 4-1 with a 2.29 ERA over his last eight starts for Double-A Bowie. He then pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings on the final day of the regular season for a Norfolk team that was still in the playoff hunt.

Cuban outfielder Dariel Alvarez hit his third homer in four games this afternoon, during Bowie's game with Erie at Prince George's Stadium.

Alvarez began the day batting .300 with seven doubles, two homers and 14 RBIs, along with a .486 slugging percentage and a .791 OPS. He was batting .300 against both left- and right-handed pitchers.

Update: Bowie lost today 9-5 to Erie. Alvarez finished 2-for-4 with a double and homer and is now batting .311.

O's minor league batting leaders:
.414 - Glynn Davis, Frederick
.380 - Ronald Bermudez, Bowie
.370 - Buck Britton, Bowie
.350 - Niuman Romero, Bowie
.340 - Garabez Rosa, Bowie

O's minor league ERA leaders:
0.86 - Hunter Harvey, Delmarva
1.13 - Tim Berry, Bowie
1.59 - Mike Wright, Norfolk
2.14 - Matt Taylor, Frederick
2.70 - Tyler Wilson, Bowie