McDermott spearheads Tides' combined no-hitter

The Norfolk Tides staff may not have been perfect Friday night, but they were pretty darn close. The club spun a three-man combined no-hitter, fanning a whopping 13 batters in the process.

The 2-0 win over Nashville at First Horizon Park marked the Orioles affiliate's first no-no since Chris Tillman’s nine-inning no-hitter in 2010 and the seventh in its history.

“They were locked in, they were executing pitches, and it was fun to sit back and watch them,” said Tides pitching coach Justin Ramsey. “All three of those guys have been chipping away on some development goals and to see them go out there and execute that was fun to watch.”

The brunt of the milestone was handled by righty starter Chayce McDermott . The Orioles’ No. 8 prospect was stellar for the Tides, racking up 11 punchouts in 6 2/3 hitless innings. McDermott was perfect through six but surrendered two walks in the seventh -- the only two Nashville batters to reach base in the contest.

“Everything was working for him tonight, which I think was probably the first time this season he’s had all five pitches working,” said Ramsey.

McDermott employed a healthy distribution of every pitch in his arsenal, which consists of a fastball, cutter, slider, curveball and splitter/changeup, but leaned on the fastball as his put-away pitch, tallying eight of his 11 strikeouts with the heater.

In addition to the career-high 11 K’s, the two walks tied his season-best mark. After the outing, McDermott now sports a 2.89 ERA.

“The walks are higher than he would like [this season],” Ramsey said. “The main focus was just simplifying things this week and getting back to trusting the stuff through the zone. Obviously, he went out there and did that. It helps when you have five plus weapons to work with.”

Following McDermott’s dazzling start, the baton was passed to right-hander Nolan Hoffman to handle the next leg. Thrust into the game with runners on first and second and two outs, Hoffman got Sounds infielder Owen Miller to pop out, keeping the no-hit bid intact.

The former Texas A&M Aggie rode the momentum into the eighth, setting down the next two batters on strikeouts and inducing a ground ball to finish off the frame.

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Entering the ninth, the Tides brought in veteran reliever Kaleb Ort to serve as the anchor to their no-hit relay. The 32-year-old right-hander, who has spent parts of three seasons in the bigs, completed the occasion with a tidy 10-pitch inning, consisting of a popout, a lineout and a groundout.

“It’s always exciting,” Ramsey said. “He’s been professional throughout [this season] and he’s just doing whatever he can to help [the Orioles] when he’s called on.”

In support of the zeros being hung frame after frame, the Tides offense tallied one run in the third on a sacrifice fly from outfielder Daniel Johnson and another in the fifth on a double from MLB’s No. 1 prospect Jackson Holliday.

With multiple 20-run performances already this year, the no-hitter is another notable game on a growing list of Tides feats in 2024.

“There’s prospects on both sides of the ball here and so, it’s great when we put it all together and put together a game like this,” Ramsey said.