Right-hander Evan Yates turned in the longest outing of his professional career Sunday night, but the Chesapeake Baysox still fell to the Altoona Curve 4-3 on a walk-off single in the ninth inning, splitting their six-game series on the road.
Yates worked six and two-thirds innings, the deepest he has gone as a professional, and didn’t allow a run through his first five frames despite repeatedly working out of trouble. He stranded runners in both the second and fourth innings, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the second by retiring three straight batters after a hit by pitch, a single and a wild pitch had put runners at second and third.
In the fourth, third baseman Brandon Butterworth threw out a runner at the plate on a groundball to help Yates wiggle out of another threat. Altoona finally broke through in the sixth on a two-out, two-run single from Titus Dimitru, and Yates opened the seventh by walking a batter before inducing a game-ending double-play grounder to shortstop Wehiwa Aloy to close out his day. He finished with two runs allowed on four hits and two walks, without recording a strikeout.
Chesapeake’s offense bookended Dimitru’s go-ahead knock with a pair of solo home runs. Doug Hodo opened the scoring with his eighth homer of the season to left field, snapping five and two-thirds scoreless innings from Altoona left-hander Connor Oliver, and Dom Keegan tied the game in the seventh with an opposite-field shot off Curve reliever Emmanuel Chapman. Neither team’s bullpen allowed much room for the other to build momentum through the middle innings, setting up a taut finish that ultimately turned on defense and a handful of two-out hits.
The 2-2 tie held until the ninth, when Victor Figueroa reached on an error to open the frame, stole second, and scored the go-ahead run on a two-out single from Thomas Sosa against Altoona right-hander Jaycob Deese (W, 3-3), putting Chesapeake ahead 3-2. But the lead didn’t last. Altoona opened the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff single before right-hander Alex Pham (L, 0-1) entered in relief, and Dimitru — recording his third RBI of the night — doubled home the tying run. After a walk and a hit batter loaded the bases with two outs, Altoona’s Jesus Castillo floated a walk-off single into shallow center field, just out of reach of a diving Sosa.
Sunday marked Chesapeake’s third walk-off loss of the 2026 season and sealed a split of the six-game series in Altoona, a week that saw both teams trade blowout wins and tight, low-scoring finishes. The Baysox opened the series with a 12-3 rout behind Aron Estrada’s grand slam and followed with a near-no-hit performance from Double-A debutant Caden Hunter in a 9-2 win, before Altoona rallied for a 14-10 win of its own on the strength of an eight-run second inning. Sunday’s finish added another chapter to what became one of the more competitive series either club has played this season, with four of the six games decided by three runs or fewer.
Yates, a 20th-round pick by the Orioles in 2024 out of Cal State Fullerton who signed for a $150,000 bonus, has steadily built on a rocky start to his first full professional season; his ERA sat at 6.75 in April before dropping to 3.08 by late May as he settled in with the organization. Sunday’s outing extended that improvement, giving Chesapeake one of its most encouraging starts of the series even in defeat, and offered another sign that the Orioles’ deeper pitching prospects are beginning to find their footing at the Double-A level.
The Baysox return home to Prince George’s Stadium in Bowie on Tuesday, Aug. 4, to open a seven-game series against the Harrisburg Senators, the Double-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.
