Shane Baz's Curveball Keys His Third Straight Gem And Another Orioles Win

Two weeks ago Shane Baz took the mound against his former team, in Tampa, teetering on implosion, like everyone else in the Orioles rotation not named Kyle Bradish.

Baz’s fastball was getting mashed, but change up wasn’t doing much, he hadn’t really started throwing his sinker and he wasn’t leaning enough into his knucklecurve. He carried a 5.26 ERA into that start, allowing constant hard contact, and then stymied the Rays in Florida (despite losing) and dominated them in Baltimore last week – throwing more knuckle curves than fastballs – and then stymied the Red Sox for seven innings Tuesday in a 4-2 win.

“He did a great job pounding the strike zone and being able to induce weak contact when he needed to,” rookie skipper Craig Albernaz said.

Baz increased a stretch of 13 outings during which Orioles starters have an ERA under 2.50, the O’s got two blasts over the Green Monster (Coby Mayo and Pete Alonso) and they carried momentum from their 10-game homestand to the road. That’s no small feat for this outfit, which had been horrible away from home in pretty much every category.

"The biggest thing is that they're throwing strikes," Albernaz said of his starters, "and when tyou hrow stirkes it gives you the ability to go deeper into the game … These guys are doing a great job just attacking the strtike zone."

Baz ramped up the use of the knucklecurve more than ever – he thew 69 of them to 67 fastballs in the outings vs the Rays but threw nine more of them than any other pitch Tuesday and got his first five strikeouts with the pitch and had the Red Sox batters lunging at it from both sides of the plate. Nine of the 12 swing and miss Baz induced came off the knucklecurve.

Baz avoided yielding a long ball for a second straight start, he went seven innings for a second straight start and only walked two. This team desperately needs someone to present himself as the Robin to Bradish’s Batman, and Baz has started building that case, with lofty expectations hanging over him from the offseason trade and contract extension.

"Just challenging hitters to put balls in play in the first three pitches of the at bat," Baz said, acknowledging he was pressing in his first few starts. "Not trying to strike everybody out and not trying to be too perfect."

Monster Mash

The Orioles have struggled to score runs on the road, especially off starting pitchers, and Boston’s Connelly Early has been one of the best lefties in the AL. But youngster Coby Mayo, now with an OPS over 1000 against lefties, worked an epic at bat in which he saw the pitcher’s entire arsenal before depositing a curveball just over the wall to tie the game at 1 (Taylor Ward’s latest misadventure in left field helped provide Boston’s opening run).

Pete Alonso also did damage from the right side against Early, sending a two-run blast over the wall in the third. The Orioles, bottom five in MLB in hitting with runners on base on the road this season, manufactured another run in the fourth when Leody Taveras (who reached on a bunt in the 9th) advanced Tyler O’Neill with a sacrifice bunt and Blaze Alexander (who stole a base in the 9th) scored him on sac fly – the kind of small ball we implored them to employ on this road trip.

"We're playing great team baseball right now," Albnenaz noted, not just rellying on thump or slug to score runs

It needs to stay contagious.

Bird Seed

Rico Garcia was dominant in the ninth inning again and should probably stay in this role even if/when Ryan Helsley comes back from a lengthy injury despite being signed to be the closer ... The Orioles have now clawed to within three games of .500, tearing off eight wins in the last 11 games, showing the ability to win close games and low-scoring games, which has not been the norm. They have reversed their results both against left-handed pitching and AL East foes ... The Red Sox are now 9-20 at home and the Orioles are 10-17 on the road.

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