In latest loss, two young right-handers showed their potential

If you are a fan of a baseball team team that is 34 games under .500, 1-15 in its last 16 home games and has been swept nine times in series of three or more games, you take good news anywhere you can get it.

In their latest loss Thursday afternoon to Seattle, two young right-handed pitchers showed some promise for the Orioles. They'll have to settle for that after being swept four in a row by the Mariners.

Drafted in the 13th round in 2013 out of Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Jimmy Yacabonis had shown plenty of potential in recent years at upper levels on the O's farm.

In Double-A Bowie in 2016 his ERA was 2.03 and his WHIP 1.08. In 2017 at Triple-A Norfolk his ERA was 1.32 and his WHIP was 0.95. This year the Orioles converted the right-hander into a starting pitcher and he was doing well in outings of mostly 60 to 75 pitches with the Tides this year. He went 3-2 with a 3.14 ERA and had a recent six-start stretch with a 1.27 ERA.

Now it's time to find out if Yacabonis can have this kind of success - or something close, perhaps - at the big league level. And can he do it as a starter?

Maybe the Orioles got some answers yesterday, or least saw enough to want to see more of Yacabonis. In four-plus innings he gave up six hits and two runs. Yefry Ramirez replaced him and stranded two of his runners in the fifth.

"A little nervous, but I felt good," Yacabonis said. "I was up here last year a little bit, so it kind of got me acclimated to the whole environment out there. But I think my real transition came in Norfolk, the first month in Norfolk. I got my feet settled under me, and it's been going good."

Yacabonis threw 67 pitches and got nine swings-and-misses. He threw 43 two-seam fastballs that averaged 93.6 mph and topped at 95 mph. Yacabonis threw 19 sliders and five changeups. Three of his five strikeouts came via sliders.

Yacabonis was asked about trying to take advantage of any opportunity he gets with the Orioles, particularly with the team playing so badly.

"It doesn't matter if we're winning games or losing games, whenever they give you the ball ... to come up here and they give you the opportunity, you've got to take advantage of those chances, those opportunities. Obviously, we want to win ballgames. That's why we're here. That's our job. Either way, I just see every time they give me the ball as an opportunity to try and have success."

During a spring-training interview Yacabonis said he felt his stuff was good enough to get big league hitters out. He just needed to allow himself to realize he didn't need to make a nasty pitch every time.

"For sure, I noticed in Norfolk, especially, getting ahead of guys is huge. That's basically what I've been trying to do," he said.

Meanwhile, it was a pretty good day for the young right-hander Ramirez, too. In his second major league game he threw five scoreless innings on three hits in relief of Yacabonis.

What was the key to having such a strong outing and getting 15 outs on just 52 pitches?

"I think concentration, being focused on the pitches that I wanted to throw and executing them," Ramirez said through team interpreter Ramón Alarcón.

RIP, John: It wasn't long after news of the shooting at the Annapolis Capital Gazette spread in the Camden Yards press box yesterday that some of us began to worry that we might know one of the victims. Sadly, we did. Longtime sportswriter and reporter John McNamara was shot and killed in the latest senseless tragedy.

I first met John in 1982 when I was starting out as a young reporter in Frederick and he was doing the same over the mountain in Hagerstown. We saw each other often at high school games, and then as we moved on to other jobs our paths crossed at University of Maryland basketball games, Bowie Baysox games and Orioles games. John was sort of forced into the news department in recent years, but sports was his true love. Few were better covering college basketball or baseball.

John loved covering the Baysox, and I know how much he admired current manager Gary Kendall. He was a big Gary Williams fan, and it seems the coach was a John fan. John and I often shared stories of watching coach Tom Dickman's great Thomas Johnson High School boys basketball teams in Frederick.

John was warm, kind, funny, sincere, loyal, modest, hard-working and so many other things that any of us would admire. I didn't see him as much in recent years, but he was in the Camden Yards press box about a week ago with that warm smile. We talked for a long time. Who knew then that it would be the last time?

Please respect this man by not making any political statements or anything else of the sort here today. Baseball talk is very welcome, and my friend would have enjoyed that.

RIP, Johnny Mac.

We send our heartfelt condolences to the victims of today's tragic events at @capgaznews. An extremely close friend of the Baysox, sports writer John McNamara, was one of those victims. He will be dearly missed by our players, coaches & front office staff. https://t.co/zCLYsLGiLa

- Bowie Baysox (@BowieBaysox) June 29, 2018

Mourning the loss of a friend, a Terp and a wonderful writer, John McNamara. pic.twitter.com/8KjC3OTd8s

- Maryland Terrapins (@umterps) June 29, 2018