Alderman homers late as Garrett, Jacksonville no-hit Norfolk in 2-0 win

Braxton Garrett and Kemp Alderman gave Jacksonville exactly the kind of late-game punch that can change the tone of a road trip. Garrett carried a no-hitter deep into Sunday’s game at Harbor Park, and Alderman broke a scoreless tie with a ninth-inning two-run homer as the Jumbo Shrimp beat Norfolk 2-0 to clinch the series.

The game stayed tense through eight innings before Jacksonville finally broke through. Matthew Etzel opened the ninth with an infield single, then Alderman unloaded on a pitch and sent it 418 feet into left-center field for the only runs of the afternoon. What had felt like a tight pitchers’ duel quickly turned into a statement finish for a club that had dropped the first two games of the series, including a 3-2 loss on Saturday.

Garrett set the tone from the start. The Miami Marlins left-hander worked 6.0 no-hit innings on just 66 pitches, allowing one walk while striking out six. It was an efficient, controlled outing that reinforced why he matters so much to Jacksonville’s rotation picture, especially while he is on an injury-rehabilitation assignment. Through April 13, Garrett had thrown 15.1 innings in 2026, giving up just one earned run and four hits with five walks and 17 strikeouts, a .082 opponent batting average that helps explain why his return has drawn so much attention.

Ryan Gusto finished the job from there, throwing 3.0 scoreless innings to earn the win. The no-hitter survived until the eighth, when Willy Vasquez finally broke it up with Norfolk’s first hit. Even then, Jacksonville never let the game slip, and the bullpen protected the shutout all the way to the end.

The victory moved the Jumbo Shrimp to 7-8 and sent them home with a road series win against a Norfolk club that had made every game competitive. It also arrived on the heels of another significant recognition for Garrett, who was named International League Pitcher of the Week for April 7-13. Jacksonville said he was the first Jumbo Shrimp pitcher to win a weekly honor in 2026, a reminder that the most important development stories in Triple-A often come wrapped in immediate major-league implications.

After an off day Monday, Jacksonville was scheduled to open a six-game home series against the Charlotte Knights on Tuesday morning at VyStar Ballpark, carrying both momentum and a rotation storyline that now looks even more relevant.