A look at reasons for Dylan Bundy's great year

They lacked a three-run homer, but the Orioles sure had some pitching and defense in last night's 5-2 win over Boston. Earl Weaver would have approved of that victory.

He would loved to have seen right-hander Dylan Bundy use a combination of talent, smarts, work ethic and a great mix of pitches to get off to such a strong start.

How about a 4-1 record and an ERA of 1.82? The Orioles are 5-1 in his six outings and he's produced six of six quality starts. Six times this year, an O's starter has thrown seven innings or more, and Bundy has pitched three of those games.

He has faced the defending American League East champion Red Sox three times already and is 2-1 with an ERA of 2.21, allowing five runs and 18 hits over 20 1/3 innings. Against Boston last year, Bundy went 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA and a batting average against of .344.

On a given night, all four of Bundy's pitches can be plus offerings. We have seen them all be excellent at times, including the four-seam (and sometimes two-seam) fastball, curve, changeup and slider. They have been good in both their quality and in his ability to command them well. It's a nice one-two combination for any pitcher.

Bundy and his catchers (Welington Castillo the first five times he pitched, Caleb Joseph last night) have done a great job keeping opposing hitters off-balance. They have not fallen into any patterns; in fact, quite the opposite.

Bundy had thrown a higher percentage of non-fastballs in his first five starts, then reversed the pattern last night when he threw 60 percent fastballs, 12 percent curves, and 14 percent each of sliders and changeups. His fastball percentages over his first five starts in order: 44, 38, 37, 49 and 39. Then he ramped it up to over the 50 percent mark.

In his first start against Boston on April 11, he threw 38 percent fastballs and 24 percent sliders. In his second start against Boston on April 21, he threw 49 percent fastballs and 17 percent sliders. Last night, he threw 60 percent heaters and 14 percent sliders. As word spread how good his slider has been, he threw fewer, not more, to Red Sox hitters. Maybe it just worked out that way, but I doubt it. Bundy, Castillo and Joseph have gone out there each time with a very sound gameplan and then the kid has been able to execute it against three different AL East teams.

It's not just the percentage changes that could be a problem for a hitter. It's the quality and command of each pitch and his ability to throw any pitch in any count.

Through his first five starts, he gave up a batting average against of .346 on his fastball, but just .161 off his slider, .118 off his changeup and .071 off his curveball.

The Red Sox batters have all the numbers, stats and scouting reports, not to mention plenty of actual at-bats against him - both last year and this season. Bundy was still good against them for the third time in a month. Yep, very impressive.

Last night, Bundy had a defense that played stellar behind him. Manny Machado and Adam Jones made several strong plays and it was a highlight reel for Machado. On a night when he was in the spotlight again, Machado seemed to take an old-school Frank Robinson-type approach to the night. Just beat the other team. He homered, he made great plays, he did it all.

But Bundy set the tone on the mound yet again. His start to this season is beyond promising. Six starts does not a season make for Bundy, but the kid that lived up to massive hype in the minors during his strong 2012 pro debut season is now doing as much on a bigger stage.

The ugliness we heard about later: After the game, Jones told USA Today that racial taunts were directed at him during the game.

"A disrespectful fan threw a bag of peanuts at me,'' Jones said, "I was called the N-word a handful of times tonight. Thanks. Pretty awesome."

This is beyond disgusting and as someone who was raised a different way, I can't relate to why anyone would scream such language in the direction of another human. Very likely one they do not know or have a single clue about.

No doubt Orioles fans, in rushing to the defense of a player that is a team leader and someone that loves Baltimore, will be pretty upset and emotional about this. And with good reason. I hope any comments made here today don't reflect only anger and emotion and no one says anything that just escalates an already bad situation.

But no one condones what happened. It is terrible. No player or person, for that matter, at anytime or anywhere should have to hear that. The individuals involved represent only themselves and in the very worst possible way.

Maybe someday soon, the Orioles and Red Sox can play a baseball game and all we will really want to talk about are hits, runs and errors.