New Oriole Danny Coulombe settles in nicely in 'pen, plus other O's notes

The newest addition to the Orioles is continuing to make a nice first impression, even though he has pitched in four games now. Lefty Danny Coulombe, 33, has thrown 3 2/3 scoreless thus far on just one hit with no walks, four strikeouts and an .083 batting average against.

He got the first two outs of the seventh inning Sunday and then allowed a single. Logan Gillaspie then replaced him and stranded the inherited runner. Coulombe was acquired by the club very late in spring training, on March 27, from Minnesota for cash considerations.

“Everybody has been great so far, really welcoming. It’s a really young team, but really talented. Enjoying it so far,” Coulombe said recently about fitting in well so far as an Oriole.

“There is so much talent in this clubhouse and on the pitching side it’s been fun to see how these guys work. These pitchers have an idea of what they want to do. That is fun to see. It’s still early and I’m still trying to get to know people but it’s been fun so far,” he said.

Coulombe said he had some nerves going for his first outing with the his new club during the second game of the season at Boston.

“It was nerve-wracking,” he said. “Because you want to impress your new team and show them they made a good choice in getting you. So, yeah that was nerve wracking and nice to have that out of the way and it’s settling down a little bit and now I hope to keep contributing.”

He threw six sliders among his 10 pitches on Sunday against the Yankees and he fanned Oswaldo Cabrera with a slider.

“When I’m going well, I’m attacking the zone,” Coulombe said. “Not getting in bad counts. Pitching is count leverage – that’s the name of the game. When I am going well, I am throwing a lot of strikes and throwing balls when I want to.”

And he is a lefty that can get out both left and right-handed hitters but his numbers over 198 career big league games are much better versus lefty batters. For his career, lefty hitters bat .232 with an OPS of .628 against him and right-handers hit .244/.760.

“I have always been a (good) spin guy, always been able to spin the ball my whole career. The best pitch analytically in the game is a left-on-left slider. So, I have a slider, curveball, sweeper and cutter. Lot of different types of spin to try and keep the hitters off balance. Against righties I added a changeup last year and that has helped to try and neutralize them,” he said.

He was with a very data-driven organization with Minnesota and now is with a team very similar to that with the Orioles.

“Very similar. Twins are very data driven too. As far as that goes, not much of an adjustment. I like to use the analytics it is very helpful, but you still have to execute the pitches.”

So far skipper Brandon Hyde likes what he has seen from this new Oriole.

“He’s done extremely well. That was a tough spot I put him in in Texas (when Kyle Bradish got hurt). Didn’t think the phone was going to ring at that point and then to have him go in the game. He was ready and that showed the professionalism and what a pro he is. I like that, it’s different than what we have. A lefty with a little bit of funk to it. Got a couple of breaking balls, bit of a unique delivery and gives the hitters a bit of different look,” said Hyde.

O’s lose two of three to Yankees: It was a bit of a disappointing end to the weekend for the Orioles. After the Opening Day win on Friday, they scored just four runs on 10 hits in losing the last two games of the series to New York.

The Orioles, while scoring five runs or more five times this year, now have been held to six hits or less four times. They are 6-for-33 (.182) their past four games batting with runners in scoring position.

So far this year the Orioles are 3-0 in series-opening games, but just 1-2 in series.

Aaron Judge hit two solo homers Sunday to produce his 28^th career multi-homer game. Judge has hit 11 homers in his last 18 games against the Orioles and 22 in his last 40. In his past 23 games at Oriole Park, he has hit 15 homers. The Orioles held him to 1-for-6 in this series and 2-for-13 in his last five games versus Baltimore pitching dating to last year, before his three-hit game yesterday.

Adley Rutschman went 4-for-4 with three singles and a solo homer Sunday. He becomes the first Oriole to ever have two games of four hits or more among the season’s first nine games.