The Delmarva Shorebirds are having a not-so-great season. But the team did have a great week, as they had a 5-1 series win over the Lynchburg Hillcats.
After finishing last in the first half standings, the Shorebirds are 8.5 games being the first place Fredericksburg Nationals so far in the second half.
Delmarva on the offensive side was led by unranked prospect Isaac De Leon. The 20-year-old shortstop slashed an impressive .476/.522/.810 with a OPS of 1.331 and finished the series with a team-high 10 hits, four of which were doubles.
De Leon finished the month of July on a hot note, as he slashed .267/.337/.440 with a .777 OPS. He also had 20 total hits, nine for extra bases.
Unranked prospect Luis Valdez had a good series but in a different way. Valdez slashing .292/.370.375 with a .745 OPS in 24 at-bats is solid for a series, but what really impressed Birdland was his speed factor.
Valdez went 6-for-6 on stolen bases in the series and now has a minor-league-leading 53 stolen bases. Is he the possible Jorge Mateo of our future?
Finally for the offensive side, unranked prospect Trendon Craig also had a tremendous series. Slashing a clean .500/.600/.500 with a 1.100 OPS, Craig went 8-for-16 with four RBIs.
Craig finished a July where he slashed .286/.375/.343 with a .718 OPS. The 22-year-old outfielder has been recently proving himself to be an interesting piece for the O’s organization.
Delmarva’s pitching has been all over the place this season, but 18-year-old prospect Deivy Cruz has been as consistent as you can be.
Cruz had one start in the series, when he went six innings, allowing five hits, two runs, zero earned, with two strikeouts.
Cruz finished the month of July with four starts, pitching 18.1 innings and giving up 14 hits, seven runs and punching out 20. He also had an ERA of 0.98 and an opponent’s batting average of .203.
To breakdown the final part of the series, let’s talk about this Shorebirds team as a whole.
Delmarva scored 42 runs as a team, averaging seven runs per game. They also had 66 total hits and averaged 11 hits per game.
In the 5-1 series win, the Shorebirds had a run differential of +13 and a hit differential of +15, which is absolutely amazing for this team. Hopefully this set will lead to a turn-around for Delmarva the rest of the way.
The Shorebirds will start a series against the Augusta GreenJackets at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium Tuesday.
Who stood out to you in Delmarva this week? Let us know in the comments below! And make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook and Twitter and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
Like Zack’s content? Follow him on Twitter – @Zackattack8211
The Baltimore Battery 