A mixed bag for the young gun lefties on Sunday

If the Orioles are to start getting better, even a little, the young starting pitchers certainly have to take a step forward from what we have seen this year. On Sunday against the Yankees, Zach Britton clearly did that and Brian Matusz clearly did not. One out of two is better than 0-for and I still remain confident that Matusz will make that 2-for-2 - and maybe even before this season is over. It's probably a bit early to say Britton is pitching as well as he did early in the season, but he has given up just one run over two starts since coming off the disabled list. The Twins put runners in scoring position against him all night and didn't do much, while the Yankees just couldn't do much and didn't even get a runner in scoring position against Britton over seven innings. That's a good outing. It seems the focus about Matusz remains often with his fastball velocity but - and I am repeating myself here - that is just one small part of this picture. He continues to struggle to command his secondary pitches and that is a very big part of his game. There is a reason Matusz entered his start last night with a career record of 4-3 and ERA of 2.49 in 10 career starts versus the Yankees and Red Sox. He needs to somehow get back to pitching with the outstanding command he showed late last year. After his start last night, when asked by a reporter if he made progress over his last two starts, Matusz said he did. Nothing wrong with him taking a positive or two from an outing. Nothing wrong with him seeing the glass half-full, as long as he knows that means it is also half-empty. Matusz still has plenty to work on and you wonder if the Orioles would have been better off keeping him in Triple-A. One young gun was outstanding Sunday and the other gave up six runs. This is still a big work in progress, but we didn't need the Yankees to remind us of that.