Dylan Bundy gets a Yankees rematch tonight, plus farm notes

Orioles right-hander Dylan Bundy, looking to bounce back from a season in which he led the majors in homers allowed and tied for the major league lead with 16 losses, takes the mound for the second time in 2019 tonight. Once again, he faces the New York Yankees.

A Yankees team that scored five runs in its recent three-game series versus Detroit, but has scored 23 runs in four games this year against the Orioles. A team that bashed four homers in Thursday's 8-4 win over the Orioles in Baltimore's home opener.

A Yankees team against which Bundy allowed three runs last Sunday at Yankee Stadium. That was a strange outing for the right-hander. One where he didn't allow any runs while he was in the game, but also one where he didn't make it out of the fourth inning.

Bundy put up zeros in the first two innings in that game, but needed 35 pitches to get six outs, three on strikeouts. In the third, Bundy pitched out of a two-on, none-out jam, but his pitch count escalated to 65. His fourth inning went single, strikeout, walk, strikeout, walk. He left the game with the Orioles ahead 4-0, but with a pitch count of 93 to get 11 outs. John Means came on, issued a bases-loaded walk and allowed a two-run single, and suddenly Bundy had three runs on his record.

He threw 3 2/3 innings, allowing two hits with five walks and seven strikeouts. That is a walk rate of 12.3 per nine innings and a strikeout rate of 17.2 per nine. He didn't yield a homer a year after giving up 41 to shatter the Orioles' single-season record.

During this spring training interview, Bundy cited location, location, location - or lack of it - for his 2018 home run issues. The 41 he allowed was the most in the majors since the Reds' Bronson Arroyo gave up 46 in 2011.

"Yes. You look at every one of those homers and 95 percent of them were about the location of the pitch. Not necessarily the wrong pitch, but the location of it," Bundy said.

Bundy is a flyball pitcher, and I asked him if he's accepting that some of those fly balls will leave the park and that his home park can be homer-friendly.

"Maybe at the very, very back of your mind. But you never want to accept that you are in a hitter's ballpark," Bundy said. "I accept the fact that balls fly out of there a little easier. But that just means you have to get the pitch where it needs to be more often."

During his earlier start against New York, Bundy threw 58 four-seam fastballs that averaged 91 mph and topped out at 93 mph. He added 17 sliders, 11 changeups, five two-seam fastballs and two curveballs.

Bundy is 2-5 with a 6.28 ERA in 10 career games versus the Yankees with a 1.674 WHIP. Over 43 innings, he has allowed eight homers and a slash line of .272/.372/.462 with an OPS against of .833.

Meanwhile, Orioles pitchers have allowed six homers the last two games and 13 in seven games during a 4-3 start. They've allowed at least one longball in every outing. O's starters have an ERA of 0.90 their past four games, allowing three runs (two earned) on 12 hits over 20 innings.

The Orioles offense has produced just nine runs the past three games. Baltimore batters hit .400 with runners in scoring position (10-for-25) in the season's first three games at Yankee Stadium. But the Orioles are batting just .190 (4-for-21) with RISP the last four games.

On the farm: While Single-A Frederick and Double-A Bowie had games rained out Friday, both Triple-A Norfolk and Single-A Delmarva won by shutouts.

The Orioles' 2018 first-round draft pick, right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, made a strong Delmarva debut in a 3-0 win at Lexington. Over five innings and 74 pitches, he allowed just two hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts. Rodriguez, who picked up his first professional win, and four relievers teamed on a two-hitter with 15 strikeouts. Right-hander Ofelky Peralta fanned two in the ninth to record his first career save.

For the 2-0 Shorebirds, left fielder Robert Neustrom went 2-for-4 with a solo homer and catcher Daniel Fajardo was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Right-hander Gray Fenter gets the start tonight for Game 3 of a four-game series.

I recently wrote this profile on Rodriguez, who rates as the Orioles' No. 5 prospect, according to Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com

Righty Gabriel Ynoa got the win as Norfolk beat Gwinnett 6-0 to improve to 1-1. Ynoa threw five no-hit innings with seven strikeouts. Evan Phillips pitched 1 2/3 innings, Branden Kline went 1 1/3 innings and Luis Gonzalez pitched the final inning to wrap up the Tides' four-hitter with 13 strikeouts.

Norfolk's seven, eight and nine hitters - Christopher Bostick, Zach Vincej and Stevie Wilkerson - went a combined 6-for-11 with a triple, homer, four runs and five RBIs. Wilkerson drove in three and Bostick hit a solo home run. Ryan Mountcastle had two singles in four at-bats and is 3-for-7 through two games, while Chance Sisco is 1-for-8 and DJ Stewart is 0-for-8.