Shorebirds' Alvarado tosses one-hitter

Taken on their own, none of Cristian Alvarado's pitches may appear to be particularly devastating. Over his last three starts, though, he's shown just how effective they can be.

"He's just commanding his fastball and using his secondary stuff for strikes. The biggest thing with him is, he doesn't have overpowering stuff, but he is able to locate that fastball and throw his breaking ball and changeup for strikes," Class A Delmarva manager Ryan Minor said. "Tonight, he was pitching ahead and that gave him the confidence to be able to throw the ball over the plate and use his defense."

The Orioles prospect tossed a seven-inning one-hitter on Wednesday, striking out eight and walking one, as the Shorebirds completed a doubleheader sweep with a 6-0 blanking of visiting Greensboro.

Alvarado (6-4) lowered his ERA to 3.17 and moved atop the South Atlantic League with 95 strikeouts in 82 1/3 innings. Since June 17, he's scattered 11 hits and two walks while fanning 21 over 19 scoreless frames. Against the Grasshoppers, he struck out six in a row from the fourth to the sixth.

"It's fun watching everybody do that, but with him, you don't realize how many strikeouts he does get," Minor said. "He's not overpowering, but he pitches with what he has. His deception and the good angle with his fastball gives him a lot of success."

Minor said he could tell early on Wednesday that the 21-year-old right-hander was crafting another strong outing.

"The game started in a twilight-type thing, so I'm not sure how well the hitters were seeing the ball on either side, but I could tell he had his good stuff," the manager said. "He was locked in and had a good angle on his fastball and was getting soft contact or swings and misses in his secondary stuff. When he got even or ahead, you could see his confidence go up and he would do things to really compete."

The lone hit Alvarado allowed was a two-out single by Kyle Barrett in the third. He followed that with a walk to Marlins No. 13 prospect Anfernee Seymour, but his manager said he didn't think his hurler was rattled.

"[The hit came on] the one pitch he threw that maybe he wouldn't have later in the night," Minor said. "He threw an off-speed pitch to a guy we'd been throwing fastballs to and getting out. But he was able to work around [the hit and] the walk. It was just one of those things."

By the end of the sixth, Alvarado had retired 10 hitters in a row, and although he'd never gone more than six innings in his first 14 starts this year, there wasn't much conversation about whether the coaching staff was going to give him a chance to finish the game.

"Just a little bit. We did have a guy warming in the seventh a little bit, just because with guys at this level, they can lose it really quick," Minor said. "But we had a doubleheader and we had to use two starters, and he had enough pitches to finish the inning, the way he was commanding out there. But he would have had a short leash if things started to head south."

The Venezuela native turned in his fourth consecutive 1-2-3 inning to finish the 89-minute gem on 81 pitches, 62 for strikes.

Orioles No. 6 prospect Ryan Mountcastle doubled and scored a run after going 2-for-3 with a double and four RBIs in the opener. Yermin Mercedes, who was the designated hitter in the first game and caught the nightcap, homered in both games and was 4-for-7 with three RBIs. Mercedes has 10 homers on the season and ranks third in the league with a .344 average.

"He's been one of the guys who's been the most consistent at the plate this year. He had some big production," Minor said. "When he gets going, he gets going. If he has a couple of hits in a row, you might see him have a five-hit night because he gets real confident at the plate and doesn't try to do too much with two strikes.

"It was a big night for him and it was a big night for us because we didn't get off to a great start in the second half and we needed to get going, get back on track."