Tides Fall in 10 Innings Despite Willems' First Triple-A Homer

Creed Willems, the 22-year-old catcher who arrived at Triple-A Norfolk as the youngest player on the Tides' break camp roster, wasted no time making noise. His two-run blast at AutoZone Park gave Norfolk a 3-2 lead in the middle innings of Tuesday's series opener. It still wasn't enough. Memphis rallied and walked off with a 4-3 win in 10 innings, leaving Willems' first career Triple-A home run as the game's most memorable swing on the wrong side of the final score.

Willems, an eighth-round pick by Baltimore in 2021, came to Norfolk off a 16-homer, .779 OPS campaign at Double-A Chesapeake. The early returns suggest the jump to Triple-A hasn't slowed him down; the two-run shot extended his hitting streak to four games, and it came against a Memphis club with enough pitching depth to outlast the Tides in extras.

Brandon Young gave Norfolk every chance to win it. The right-hander made his 2026 debut and delivered five innings of one-run ball, scattering five hits, walking no one, and punching out four batters on 57 pitches, 38 of them strikes. That kind of efficiency in a season-opening start is exactly what the Orioles need from a rotation depth piece, and Young's command was clean enough to suggest the outing was no fluke.

Jackson Holliday, continuing a Major League rehab assignment that began on opening night in Norfolk, went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk to keep the Tides competitive into the later innings. Holliday's bat has stayed sharp since joining the assignment March 27, and his presence in the middle of the lineup added a meaningful threat that Memphis had to account for.

The game ultimately turned in extras, where Memphis combined situational hitting with timely relief work to push across the decisive run in the 10th. Norfolk's bullpen couldn't match it, and the Tides dropped a game they led heading into the late innings.

Young's debut and Willems' first Triple-A shot are legitimate bright spots for Baltimore's evaluators to flag. Whether Willems can hold that production over a full month will determine just how quickly his name surfaces in conversations about Orioles depth.