O's got whipped in Cleveland but go 4-0 on farm Sunday

Well, the Orioles minor league affiliates went 4-0 Sunday with some real nice pitching performances. We'll get to that shortly. But the big league club got blown out 10-0 in Cleveland and the postgame interviews reflected that result.

Starting pitcher Yefry Ramirez said he was "just bad." Chris Davis struck out four times against Indians right-hander Shane Bieber and said he didn't make adjustments and that was "just stupidity on my part."

Manager Brandon Hyde has been remaining upbeat about his club in pre and postgame interviews. And he wasn't down Sunday, but you could tell he wasn't happy either. Sure, Bieber threw a strong game with no walks and 15 strikeouts, but the Orioles did their share of chasing pitches out of the strike zone. The skipper certainly noticed.

He said of Bieber and his hitters: "He had a great breaking ball that we just continued to swing at underneath the zone and didn't make any adjustments during the game. He was just really, really good. And we didn't adjust at all and make it tough on him. Obviously you have to recognize early that this guy has really good command and he's going to locate his fastball and get us to chase the breaking ball underneath with two strikes. He just continued to do it for nine innings, and we continued to swing at them. We've just got to get a lot better."

And he noted again to give Bieber credit, which was respectful to an opponent. But one the Orioles helped beat them yesterday.

Bieber's complete-game gem was just the 15th since 1908 where a major league pitcher has thrown a shutout with 15 or more strikeouts and no walks. It was last was done by Colorado's Jon Gray when he fanned 16 on Sept. 17, 2016 against San Diego. It was done just one other time in Indians history. That was by Luis Tiant when he fanned 19 against Minnesota on July 3, 1968. According to MLB, Bieber is the fourth-youngest since 1908 to record 15 strikeouts with no walks in a shutout behind only Dwight Gooden, Kerry Wood and Vince Velasquez.

The losses continue to mount for an O's club that is 15-31 and have lost five of six, 9 of 11 and 19 of 26. The Orioles return home tonight to host the New York Yankees.

But on the farm: Triple-A Norfolk won 8-4 at Indianapolis and Ryan Mountcastle went 2-for-4 with a double, three-run homer and drove in five runs. It's his eighth multi-hit game this month. Norfolk is now 20-21 on the year, but 10-5 in May, scoring 100 runs. For the season, Mountcastle is batting .325/.353/.519 with 11 doubles, a triple, six homers, 29 RBIs and an OPS of .872 in 39 games. Tides starter Luis Ysla allowed just one unearned run over five innings.

Lefty Zac Lowther threw well again as Double-A Bowie beat Erie 3-0. Lowther went five scoreless with eight strikeouts. He is 4-3 wtih a 1.91 ERA and 1.16 WHIP over eight starts. Lowther has a 15 2/3 innings scoreless streak and has thrown three scoreless starts over his past four games with an ERA of 0.75 in that span.

Bowie starting pitchers are on a bit of a roll. The Baysox starters have allowed five earned runs over their last 37 2/3 innings. The combination of Lowther, Alex Wells, Bruce Zimmermann, Marcos Molina and Hunter Harvey have a collective ERA of 1.19 during that stretch.

Single-A Frederick beat Salem 5-2 as right-hander Cody Sedlock pitched well again. Over seven innings he gave up three hits and one run. Sedlock is 3-0 with a 1.63 ERA and 0.80 WHIP in seven starts. He has allowed one run or less in five straight games, pitching to an ERA of 0.96 in that span.

And once again Single-A Delmarva won. The Shorebirds beat Kannapolis 9-3 to improve to 32-9. Winning pitcher Ofelky Peralta gave up two runs over six innings. He is 3-0 with an ERA of 1.77. Seamus Curran hit a three-run homer and Doran Turchin had three hits and three RBIs. The Shorebirds just keep rolling.

Ryan Mountcastle drove in a career-high five runs Sunday, highlighted by this opposite-field three-run homer 💪#TidalTown #Birdland pic.twitter.com/4YRCSqZhLj

-- Norfolk Tides (@NorfolkTides) May 19, 2019