After losing three games in a row over the weekend, the Orioles needed a win. And a win is what they got, even if it was a little too close for comfort. The offense was sluggish, this time against a team with a 6.19 ERA so far this year. Ryan Helsley struggled in the ninth to make things dicey. But thanks to an impressive start from Brandon Young, the limited offense was just enough to lock in the 2-1 victory.
The Orioles called on Young tonight to start the 10th game of the season. None of us expected to see him so soon after the off-season bolstering of the rotation by Mike Elias, but nothing ever seems to go as planned. It may have been an unexpected chance, but Young made the most of it.
The first batter Young faced, Chase Meidroth, worked a walk in which none of the balls were particularly close. But after that, he settled in. For most of the game, Young was on the one-baserunner-per-inning plan. Austin Hays led off the second inning with a single, but was caught stealing as part of a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play to end the inning.
In the third, Meidroth got on base again, this time via a two-out single. He was stranded. And in the fourth, Young walked Derek Hill. That one got dicey, as Hill stole second base and moved to third on a wild pitch. But he was also stranded.
Young saved his best inning for last, an impressive 1-2-3 fifth that required just six pitches. At that point, he was sitting at 66 pitches. In his first start of the season at Triple-A, Young also went five innings with 57 pitches thrown. If this had been later in the season, or maybe if the weather hadn’t been so frigid, it would have been an easy call to send him back out for the sixth. Instead, he was done after five and I’d say he more than met expectations.
The offense had its struggles in this game, but Young’s effort allowed what little they provided to be enough. They floundered their way through the first three innings, first against opener Taylor and then against Erick Fedde. They got lucky in the fourth inning and were able to take the lead on a fluke. With two outs, Adley Rutschman walked. It was his second nice at-bat of the game. In the first he hit a ball hard to right field that would have been a homer on many other nights.
With Rutschman on first, Tyler O’Neill hit a high pop fly to left field. Hays ranged over to catch it, but in a scene that was familiar to Orioles fans who watched him play for years, he pulled up lame and was unable to get to the ball. It fell just inside the foul line. With two outs, Rutschman was hustling on contact and scored all the way from first to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead. O’Neill, however, just stood at home plate and stared at what he clearly thought was a foul ball. Just a bad decision by O’Neill, who could have easily been on second base.
With O’Neill now on first, Ryan Mountcastle hit a ball to the right side that sneaked through for a single. This time O’Neill was running and made it to third. But it was too little, too late, as Colton Cowser struck out to end the inning.
I don’t think you can say definitively that O’Neill cost the team a run with his mishap, but it was still a pretty inexcusable play.
The team’s second and final run of the game came in a much more decisive way. Gunnar Henderson came up to bat in the sixth inning and crushed a ball to right field. It was out of the ballpark in a heartbeat, a 105.3 mph bullet. It was gorgeous, which is nice because Gunnar’s three other at-bats in the game were strikeouts.
After Young exited the game with a 2-0 lead, Tyler Wells took over. Wells started the season with three shaky appearances, but pitched two perfect innings three days ago. He attempted to build on that tonight. He wasn’t as good, but he kept the White Sox off the board.
Meidroth reached with a single to lead off the sixth, then moved to second when a ball skipped off Rutschman’s glove for a wild pitch. He did not come around to score. In the seventh, Wells walked the leadoff batter, Derek Hill. Hill had replaced the injured Hays. The speedy Hill took off for second and it looked like he had the base stolen. But Henderson signaled to the dugout that he tagged Hill out, and after review, that was indeed the case. It was another strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out.
The Orioles squandered chances on the bases in both the seventh and eighth innings. In the seventh, they were gifted a runner when a Mountcastle dink was deflected in the infield and he reached first. But Cowser flew out and Coby Mayo hit into a double play to end the inning. In the eighth, Jeremiah Jackson singled. He was thrown out by a mile trying to steal.
After a perfect eighth inning from the rock-solid Rico Garcia, it Ryan Helsley time. It was…not great. But it ended well.
With a two-run lead, Helsley immediately walked the first two batters. Things felt ominous. Helsley threw a fastball in the zone to Colson Montgomery, who absolutely smoked the ball towards first base. Pete Alonso, who I haven’t yet mentioned in this recap because he went 0-for-4, made a fantastic diving grab. It got an out and it saved at least one run. Great job there, Pete.
The runners moved up on the play and the drama continued. Lenyn Sosa grounded out for out number two, but a run came in to score. Andrew Benintendi hit a ball softly toward third base that died in the grass. Just like that, the tying run was at third and the winning run at first. But Helsley got his man in the end, striking out Edgar Quero to end the game.
A win! A frustrating win at times, but a win all the same. After the weekend in Pittsburgh, we’ll take a win however it happens.
Who is your Most Birdland Player for this game? Is it Brandon Young for his five shutout innings? Maybe you want to reward Rico Garcia for being the best part of the bullpen. If dingers are your thing, Gunnar might be your guy. Put your choice in the comments.
