The Orioles have claimed sole possession of first place within the American League East twice in three days.
The first time, they scored three runs within the fourth inning, blew that lead, retook it with small ball and held on due to Félix Bautista. The second time, they scored 5 runs within the fourth inning, blew that lead, retook it with small ball and held on due to Bautista.
The Orioles on Saturday defeated the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-5, in a battle for AL East supremacy behind Grayson Rodriguez’s stable begin, supervisor Brandon Hyde’s choices within the ninth inning and Ryan O’Hearn’s game-winning RBI single.
“We jumped out early, they crawled back in and then we find a way to scratch a run there and Félix shut it down at the end,” O’Hearn stated. “It was a special win, and we’ve got to go get the series tomorrow.”
In his second begin again within the large leagues, Rodriguez allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings for the second-best outing of his younger profession. Hyde tapped Adam Frazier and O’Hearn to pinch-hit within the ninth, and each got here by with base knocks. After Frazier’s leadoff single off right-hander Pete Fairbanks, veteran catcher James McCann, who hit a two-run double within the fourth, bunted Frazier to second. O’Hearn then drove him in to offer Bautista a one-run lead that he held with a three-up, three-down ninth for his twenty seventh save.
“It was a weird game, but a lot of huge things,” Hyde stated. “[Frazier] pinch-hit, stays ready, knock. McCann another fastball to the face bunt. He’s had three this year. Leading the league in bunts with fastballs to the faces. And then O’Hearn just an amazing at-bat off a really, really tough reliever, drops one in there down the right field line.”
Shortstop Jorge Mateo and left fielder Austin Hays additionally hit run-scoring doubles within the fourth as a part of a five-run inning towards Rays left-hander Shane McClanahan, who entered 11-1 with a 2.56 ERA as maybe the perfect starter within the AL. The outburst broke the Orioles’ 12-inning scoreless streak after they have been shut out Friday.
The Baltimore-born McClanahan had by no means allowed greater than three runs in his first eight begins towards the Orioles, going 6-0 with a 2.14 ERA. The 5 runs he surrendered tie a career-high.
“We have never done that against McClanahan,” Hyde stated. “To string some hits together, a bunch of guys pitching in, guys bottom of the order. McCann huge double, love seeing [Mateo] huge double. Just really, really good at-bats there off a guy that’s one of the best pitchers in the league, starter in the All-Star Game that we’ve had trouble with.”
Before Thursday, when Frazier’s sacrifice bunt and Colton Cowser’s sacrifice fly within the tenth propelled the Orioles to victory, they hadn’t been alone atop the AL East since Aug. 12, 2016. Baltimore (60-38) owns the perfect file within the AL, forward of Tampa Bay (61-41). FanGraphs offers the Orioles an 87% probability to make the playoffs, 29.5% to win the division and three.7% to win the World Series.
“I do think this team has what it takes,” McCann stated when requested if Baltimore can win the World Series this season. “It’s a very good mix of young players with a lot of energy and veteran players that have been in that situation before. It’s a team that doesn’t quit, guys that get after their business in a professional way. Anytime you put all that together, you’re going to end up with a lot of success on the field, and that’s what we’re seeing now.”
Rodriguez regroups
When Rodriguez was optioned to Triple-A in late May, Hyde stated the hope was that he’d come again a greater pitcher.
Through two begins, that’s been the case.
The general numbers don’t sparkle — six runs allowed in 10 2/3 innings — however he’s pitched like a 23-year-old who received higher throughout his stint with the Norfolk Tides. The begins have come towards two of the perfect lineups within the main leagues within the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays, and Rodriguez has displayed improved fastball command and composure.
“Nobody wants to see that, but I’ve seen it so many times that it can work to a player’s benefit,” Hyde stated earlier than the sport about Rodriguez’s demotion about two months in the past. “It doesn’t really feel good on the time and no person needs to see it and you’re feeling horrible for the man due to the excessive hopes and the hype and every thing, however no person’s going to keep in mind that six years from now.
“He’s got big-time, top-of-the-rotation stuff. … I thought he did a great job going down with a great attitude, the right work ethic, the right message to work on the things that you struggle with up here, and he did those things.”
His begin Saturday was the second better of his nascent large league profession, behind solely his nine-strikeout, five-scoreless outing versus the Detroit Tigers in late April. In a pivotal AL East matchup, the 6-foot-5 right-hander didn’t enable a run by 5 innings and confronted the minimal thanks to 2 double performs.
After his demotion, Rodriguez’s marching orders have been to enhance his fastball command and belief the pitch extra. On Saturday, he generated a career-high 17 swings and misses, together with eight on his four-seamer that he threw practically 50% of the time. He additionally received 4 whiffs on his changeup, his fundamental offspeed pitch.
“I feel like a totally different pitcher,” Rodriguez stated. “Back to what I know, I guess. That’s just being able to go out and get outs.”
“I think it gives me something to build off of, definitely help my confidence out a lot,” he added. “That’s obviously a really good team, a loaded lineup, so I’m glad I’m able to come in here on the road and put my team in a spot to win.”
After retiring the primary seven batters, together with three groundouts within the first, Rodriguez labored by a one-out single within the third and a one-out stroll within the fifth with double performs. The latter was when third baseman Gunnar Henderson, who has made a number of highlight-reel performs over the previous week, made a diving catch on a line drive and fired the ball to first to double up second baseman Brandon Lowe, due to a slick choose from first baseman Ryan Mountcastle.
“That was incredible,” Rodriguez stated of Henderson’s play. “That’s the only way to describe it.”
Rodriguez’s day ended within the sixth after Wander Franco hit a two-out, two-run single by the Orioles’ shifted infield to place the Rays down 5-2. The prime pitching prospect surrendered three hits and two walks in 5 2/3 with six strikeouts.
“I thought Grayson was unbelievable,” Hyde stated after the sport. “Really impressed with him the last two starts since he came back from Triple-A.”
Danny Coulombe changed Rodriguez and received the ultimate out of the inning due to McCann throwing out Franco making an attempt to steal second. Setup man Yennier Cano changed the left-hander with two runners on within the seventh, permitting an RBI single to Isaac Paredes and stranding one.
Shintaro Fujinami, who the Orioles acquired from the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday, pitched for the second day in a row. After permitting a solo house run in Friday’s loss, the Japanese right-hander struggled Saturday, strolling the primary two batters he confronted and permitting each to attain. Franco drove in Manuel Margot with a floor ball, and Randy Arozarena, who entered Saturday with a profession .345 batting common towards the Orioles, tied the sport with a two-strike RBI single that skipped previous Mateo with two outs.
Hyde stated his religion in Fujinami isn’t shaken after the tough begin to his Orioles profession.
“His stuff is great,” Hyde stated. “He’s going to be a huge help for us.”
Arozarena stole second to place the go-ahead run in scoring place off Cionel Pérez, who changed Fujinami, however the left-hander struck out Brandon Lowe wanting on 9 pitches to offer Frazier, McCann, O’Hearn and Bautista the prospect to win the sport within the ninth. Hyde known as the strikeout the “biggest out of the game.”
Like Thursday’s win, wherein Frazier bunted in a scenario many groups don’t, McCann did the identical. The 98.6 mph fastball from Fairbanks practically hit McCann within the face, however it hit the deal with of his bat as an alternative for an ideal bunt.
“I got Bautista coming in the game, so I’m just trying to score somehow,” Hyde stated.
“Can we talk about McCann’s bunt?” O’Hearn stated when requested in regards to the ninth inning. “I don’t know if you guys have seen the video yet, but that should be circulating on the internet because that is unbelievable that he got that bunt down and he didn’t get seriously injured on that pitch.”
A number of months in the past, O’Hearn was the Orioles’ left-handed bench bat after years in that function with the Kansas City Royals. He’s develop into a starter for Baltimore towards right-handed pitchers with an general OPS of .857, however again in his previous function Saturday, he got here by with one of many largest hits of his six-year profession.
“It means everything,” O’Hearn stated. “I love this team. It’s been my most fun I’ve ever had in my career being a part of it. To be able to contribute, especially in a big game against the Rays, battling for the division is awesome. I don’t take it lightly at all.”
Around the horn
- The Orioles signed veteran left-handed reliever T.J. McFarland to a minor league contract Saturday, and he was assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. McFarland, 34, returns to the group he spent the primary 4 years of his main league profession with. The left-hander was a Rule 5 draft choice in 2013 and served as a protracted and center reliever from 2013 to 2016, recording a 4.27 ERA in 198 1/3 innings. For the previous seven years, he’s pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets. He’s spent a lot of the 2023 season in Triple-A, however he was known as up by Buck Showalter’s Mets in late June and designated for project every week in the past.
- Right-hander Austin Voth will start his minor league rehabilitation project Sunday with Double-A Bowie, the workforce stated. Voth has been on the injured listing since mid-June with elbow discomfort that he managed for a lot of the season. The commerce for Fujinami might complicate whether or not there’s a spot for Voth within the Orioles’ bullpen when he’s wholesome sufficient to return.
Orioles at Rays
Sunday, 1:40 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Source: www.bostonherald.com