Another look at Dylan Bundy's strong outing against Cleveland

CLEVELAND - We don't need analytics or any advanced data to know that your chances of winning are much greater when allowing one run than say, 14. No late touchdown was called for last night, and we can also call off the panic over right-hander Dylan Bundy.

Proving yet again last night that he can win throwing his fastball 90 to 92 mph, Bundy pitched the Orioles past Cleveland 5-1 with a very strong outing. It would have been a longer outing and a quality start except for a couple of errors that cost him several added pitches.

Still, Bundy gave his team 118 pitches, the second-most he's ever thrown in the majors. He knew he would need to eat some innings after the bullpen got torched on Thursday night. His career high is 121 pitches set on May 24, 2018 at Chicago in a complete-game win with 14 strikeouts against the White Sox.

"That's just a gutsy performance on a night where we were so short in the bullpen, and him knowing it and him staying out there to compete," manager Brandon Hyde said of Bundy's work Friday. "I thought he competed really well. It's a tough, left-handed lineup, but I just thought he mixed, really, really well. It was just a really great performance."

Coming off a start that seemed to raise a red flag with Hyde when Bundy's average velocity was a career-low 89.8 mph, Bundy averaged 90.6 on his fastball last night and topped at 92.7 mph.

"I think he was not happy with how his last start went. I think he wanted to have something to prove tonight," Hyde said, adding that he has no problem with extending a pitch count when his hurler is throwing well deep into a start.

While there was a bit of a media and fan fixation on Bundy's velocity, we might have missed another aspect of his game: that he had been pitching pretty well. Over his previous four starts coming into his game Friday, his ERA was 3.47. Now it is 2.79 his last five starts. In that span, Bundy has allowed no earned runs in two of his past three games and is an out short of three quality starts.

Whether it was because of concern over his last start or a concession to a heavily lefty-hitting lineup, Bundy did throw 37 changeups last night. That helped lead to fastball usage of 41 percent, the lowest of the year for Bundy.

Bundy was asked whether throwing more secondary pitches, and throwing them earlier in a game, provides a framework for success moving forward. Bundy leaned on his changeup and curve last night, but didn't throw a slider (he would eventually throw 20) until his 31st pitch of the night.

"Maybe, we'll see. Slider still plays well to righties, Bundy said. "But with a lefty-heavy lineup like that, I threw more changeups tonight."

Meanwhile, center fielder Stevie Wilkerson had another strong game at the plate. He's 4-for-8 in this series with two doubles, a homer and four RBIs. Last night marked the first game in his major league career that Wilkerson had more than one extra-base hit. He's batting .333 with seven extra-base hits and nine RBIs in May. Any key to his recent success?

"I guess laying off balls down in the zone, in the dirt," said Wilkerson. "Getting myself in a little bit better counts and, you know, even when I am in those two-strike counts, to hang in there long enough to get something to hit and put in play."

He's been doing that, and the Orioles had a nice bounceback game after the ugly seventh inning on Thursday at Progressive Field. The club has come back nicely this season from some blowout losses.

"I think it starts with the coaching staff," Wilkerson said. "They come with a fresh attitude every day, no matter what happened the day before, win or loss. And we're going to grind every day and put our best foot forward and try to play our best game."

A few more notes on the win: The Orioles allowed 14 earned runs Thursday to raise the team ERA from 5.44 to 5.66. They allowed zero last night to reduce it to 5.53. The Orioles pitched a three-hitter, their low-hit game of 2019, for a third time. They also did that May 4 versus Tampa Bay and May 6 against Boston.

The O's offense has had a good start to this four-game series. They've scored 12 runs on 20 hits with six doubles and four homers. The O's are 6-for-17 with runners in scoring position in Cleveland after batting just .136 (16-for-118) with RISP in the 16 previous games.

The Orioles are now 4-23 when their opponent scores first, as Cleveland did last night. They are 9-2 when allowing three runs or fewer. They won for just the fourth time in the past 16 games against the Indians.

Jonathan Villar made two errors, but also hit a three-run homer in the third that provided the club a 3-1 lead. Austin Wynns reached base three times for the first time in his career and produced his second multi-hit game of the year.

Cleveland was 5-0 versus the American League East until this loss. The Indians are 23-20 and have lost seven of their past 12. Bundy is now 4-1 with a 2.82 ERA in his career against Cleveland.