O's game blog: Bundy faces Jays (plus minor league rotations)

After their season-opening walk-off win over Toronto in the 11th inning Monday, the Orioles look to sweep this brief two-game series tonight at Oriole Park.

Right-hander Dylan Bundy (10-6, 4.02 ERA in 2016) pitches against Blue Jays left-hander J.A. Happ (20-4, 3.18 ERA in 2016).

Bundy entered the Orioles rotation last year after the All-Star break and went 4-2 with a 2.76 ERA in his first six starts. In 14 starts overall in 2016, he went 8-5 with a 4.52 ERA.

Bundy picked up his first major league win on May 27 at Cleveland. From July 22-Aug. 12, he ranked tied for first in wins (four) and fifth in strikeouts (32) among all major league pitchers. He pitched to a 1.84 ERA in that span. As a starter, he allowed a batting average against of just .231 and fanned 9.0 per nine innings.

He became the 17th Orioles pitcher to record 10 wins in his rookie season. The last Oriole to accomplish the feat prior to Bundy was left-hander Wei-Yin Chen, with 12 wins in 2012.

A question that the Orioles are not completely prepared to answer right now is how many innings they expect Bundy to pitch this season. He went 109 2/3 last season.

Happ was among the major league wins leaders last season:
22 - Rick Porcello, Boston
20 - J.A. Happ, Toronto and Max Scherzer, Washington
19 - Jon Lester, Chicago Cubs

The 34-year-old Happ set career highs in 2016 in wins, innings and strikeouts, and posted his lowest ERA since 2009. He became Toronto's first 20-game winner since Roy Halladay in 2008.

The southpaw went 3-0 with a 2.76 ERA last April. In 18 first-half starts, he was 12-3 with a 3.36 ERA. Happ finished sixth in the AL Cy Young voting. The Blue Jays went 24-8 in his 32 starts and 2-1 in his starts versus Baltimore. Happ went 2-0 with a 3.54 ERA in his 2016 starts against the Orioles. In 12 career games (11 starts), he is 4-3 with a 3.56 ERA against Baltimore.

Last season, he allowed a .245 batting average when facing lefty hitters, a .228 average against right-handed batters and a .201 average when pitching with runners in scoring position.

The minor league pitching rotations: Here is a look at the minor league starting rotations for the Orioles' four full-season affiliates at Triple-A Norfolk, Double-A Bowie, Single-A Frederick and Single-A Delmarva. The minor league season starts Thursday night. These are listed in order so the first pitcher is tomorrow's opening night starter for each club.

Norfolk: Mike Wright, Gabriel Ynoa, Chris Lee, Alec Ashur and Jayson Aquino.

Bowie: Brandon Barker, John Means, David Hess, Tanner Scott with Jason García in relief in that game and then Matthew Grimes.

Frederick: Keegan Akin, Cody Sedlock, Brian Gonzalez, Cristian Alvarado and Ofelky Peralta.

Delmarva: Lucas Humpal, Zack Muchenhirn, Matthias Dietz, Travis Seabrooke with Jhon Peluffo in relief in that game and then Alexander Wells.

The way the Norfolk rotation lines up, Aquino is scheduled to make his first start on Monday. That lines him up to next pitch on April 15. That is the first time this year the Orioles need a fifth starter, so we probably can read a few things into how they have lined up those five pitchers.

The final rosters for the opening day games will probably not be set until sometime Thursday afternoon. For now, it looks like right-handers Joe Gunkel and Logan Verrett will be pitching out of the Norfolk bullpen.

Bad news for Álvarez: Right-hander Dariel Álvarez, who was planning to convert from the outfield to a pitcher/DH this year, may now be headed for Tommy John surgery. What a tough break for the native of Cuba. He was excited about his chance to show what he can do on the mound. I talked to him about it in Florida recently for this blog.