Brandon Hyde’s 5 seasons main the Orioles have hinted how he may deal with a playoff sport. His postseason managerial debut in some ways aligned with what could be anticipated.
Even throughout Baltimore’s rebuild, Hyde confirmed a devotion to matchups, searching for any platoon benefit accessible. Often in these early years, the suitable selections backfired; the Orioles lacked the expertise for even essentially the most logical decisions — say, bringing in a left-handed reliever to face a pocket of left-handed hitters — to be executed accurately.
That’s definitely not the case with the 2023 Orioles, who gained 101 regular-season video games to say the American League East title. But they fell to the Texas Rangers, 3-2, in Game 1 of the AL Division Series partly as a result of the choices he made, logical as they have been, didn’t pan out.
Twice, he introduced in a left-handed pinch hitter to face a right-handed reliever with not less than one runner on base; each have been retired. He began a string of matchup-based bullpen strikes by pulling prime starter Kyle Bradish with two outs within the fifth, with a kind of decisions leading to what proved to be the decisive run on a right-on-right dwelling run.
Hyde is the front-runner to be the AL Manager of the Year not solely as a result of the Orioles have exceeded all expectations however their very own, but additionally as a result of he has often capitalized on Baltimore’s depth, turning to a pinch hitter or calling upon a reliever to create a super matchup. He operated the identical approach in Saturday’s defeat, just for the comprehensible course of to result in poor outcomes.
“We had a lot of games late in the season where we were making a lot of pitching changes, a lot of pinch runners, a lot of pinch hitters, too,” outfielder Austin Hays mentioned. “It’s kind of the style of baseball we’ve been playing all year, so didn’t really feel like there was anything totally different that we hadn’t seen today. That’s just kind of how our team is built, to have to make those moves. Nothing out of the ordinary today. We kind of used everybody just like we always do.”
The method has in some ways been what fueled Baltimore to its first division title in 9 years, with an offense having a mentality of 1 by 14 and a bullpen that hardly missed a step regardless of dropping All-Star nearer Félix Bautista to a season-ending elbow damage.
Hyde needed to be tactical even earlier than Saturday’s sport started. The Rangers didn’t announce left-hander Andrew Heaney as their beginning pitcher till Friday evening; Hyde mentioned he had a number of lineups ready depending on who Texas went with within the sequence opener. The consequence was largely his typical lineup towards left-handed starters absent Jorge Mateo, selecting to go away the speedster on the bench for a possible pinch-runner scenario.
Joining him amongst reserves have been Ryan O’Hearn and Adam Frazier, fixtures in Hyde’s lineups reverse right-handed pitchers who hardly ever have made appearances with the platoon drawback. But each made their approach into Saturday’s sport as pinch hitters to face right-handed relievers, which has typically been the case this yr.
“They give me a couple spots in the lineup and the situations that I might potentially be used,” O’Hearn mentioned. “My job is to stay ready, and obviously, things can happen fast, so pretty much from the third inning on, as soon as guys started moving in the ‘pen down there, I’m ready to go.”
Heaney confronted 14 batters, getting by left-handed-hitting rookie Gunnar Henderson two instances earlier than Texas supervisor Bruce Bochy went to right-hander Dane Dunning to face switch-hitter Aaron Hicks, a scenario Hyde mentioned he anticipated. After Hicks walked to place two on with two outs, Hyde despatched out Frazier to hit instead of right-handed rookie Jordan Westburg, a swap he made in each instructions in the course of the common season.
It was an comprehensible transfer; Frazier’s on-base-plus-slugging proportion towards right-handers (.709 in 391 plate appearances) is healthier than Westburg’s (.676 in 146 plate appearances), whereas Dunning has had way more success towards right-handed batters (.644 OPS allowed) than lefties (.782 OPS allowed). The resolution was sound, however Frazier popped as much as strand each runners.
O’Hearn likewise didn’t do sufficient along with his alternative within the eighth, pinch-hitting for Ramón Urías with two outs and Hicks on first. Typically Baltimore’s cleanup hitter towards right-handed starters, O’Hearn struck out wanting, extending his hitless streak to 24 at-bats.
O’Hearn mentioned Hyde has been “very good” this yr at choosing spots to go to his bench.
“Sometimes, it pays off. Sometimes, it doesn’t. Unfortunately, today, it didn’t,” O’Hearn mentioned. ” I believe there’s been a number of instances this yr when these strikes have labored and are available by and helped us. Guys on the bench do a extremely good job being able to go every time their title’s known as.
“We’ll go back at it tomorrow, and Fraz and I and whoever else is on the bench … we’ll be ready to go whenever they need us to be.”
The similar has utilized on the opposite aspect of the ball, when Hyde had relievers Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb getting free within the fourth inning as Bradish allowed 4 straight hits and Texas took a two-run lead. He pulled Bradish the subsequent inning with a runner on first and two outs, turning to Coulombe, a left-hander, with two lefties and a switch-hitter due up for the Rangers.
Hyde acknowledged that Bradish, who had thrown 84 pitches, was “still throwing the ball well” when he exited. But the second-year right-hander, whose 9 strikeouts have been the third most in a postseason debut in Orioles historical past, didn’t bemoan that selection.
“I completely agree with that decision right there,” Bradish mentioned, noting how profitable Coulombe has been this yr and the actual fact the subsequent hitter up, Texas rookie Evan Carter, had already doubled and walked towards him.
After Coulombe made it by that three-hitter pocket, Hyde went to Webb with a string of right-handed batters arising. The first of them, Josh Jung, took Webb deep, offering what turned the successful run for Texas.
Despite that final result, Hyde stored the sample going. Excluding pinch hitters, 10 of 12 batters an Orioles reliever confronted Saturday have been the identical handedness as them. Jung’s dwelling run was the one run the bullpen allowed in 4 1/3 innings as Baltimore’s employees held one of the best offense within the AL to a few runs however didn’t do sufficient offensively to prime that.
The Orioles weren’t helped by Henderson getting caught stealing within the ninth; he regarded again towards dwelling a few instances whereas working, and Hyde categorized the play as a “miscommunication,” although it’s not clear who particularly that fell on.
“He’s put guys in situations to succeed all year long, and I think he did it again today,” Hays mentioned. “We just came up a little bit short.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Hayes Gardner contributed to this text.
ALDS, Game 2
Rangers at Orioles
Sunday, 4:07 p.m.
TV: FS1
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Source: www.bostonherald.com