Chesapeake’s Garrett Stallings earned his first Triple-A pitching victory Friday night as the Norfolk Tides beat Durham 6-3, pulling even at two wins apiece in their International League series in North Carolina.
Stallings, a 25-year-old from Grassfield High and the University of Tennessee, gave up two earned runs, four hits and three walks in six innings, throwing 82 pitches on a 93-degree night with 7,547 fans. He improved to 1-1 as a Tide and is 20-19 in a minor league career that began in 2019.
Stallings escaped major damage in the bottom of the sixth inning, which included two singles, a walk and a run-scoring double play that tied the score at 2. Right after he left the mound, the Tides then took control with Connor Norby’s three-run homer over the 32-foot-tall “Blue Monster” with none out in the seventh inning, which followed Maverick Handley’s walk and Shayne Fontana’s double against reliever Carlos Garcia (0-1).
Ryan McKenna and César Prieto belted solo home runs in the fourth and ninth innings, respectively, for Norfolk.Prieto was 3 for 5 and scored twice, and Joey Ortiz had three hits, including an RBI double in the first inning. Prieto has hit .358 with 13 RBIs since joining the Tides on June 21.
Noah Denoyer pitched two innings of relief, yielding a run and two hits but striking out four. Easton Lucas captured his first Triple-A save with a scoreless ninth; he, like Stallings, was called up in June from Double-A Bowie.
The IL first-half champion Tides improved to 54-29, 6-3 in the second half. The defending league champion Bulls, Tampa Bay’s top farm club, dropped to 45-40, 5-5.
The series’ fifth game is at 6:35 p.m. Saturday, and the finale will be at 5:05 Sunday.
