O's offense perks up in losses, Elias on core players and more

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

May 19, 2021, 8:19pm

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O's fans had been waiting for the Orioles to break out on offense. And now they have scored 10, six and seven runs the last three games. But as Trey Mancini said after the game Tuesday, they are not synching up right now. When they get pitching, the hitting comes up short and when they get hitting, the pitching is not there.

The O's have scored 13 runs in this series against Tampa Bay. But they have given up eight homers and lost the two games by 13-6 and by 9-7 last night.

Even with lefty John Means on the mound and a 5-0 lead through four innings, they did not win Wednesday night.

The Rays hit two homers off Means in the fifth inning, and they scored nine runs from the fifth through the eighth as they produced their 12th come-from-behind win of the year. Tampa Bay has won six in a row to get to 25-19, and they've scored 53 runs in those games.

The O's bullpen allowed five runs in 2 2/3 innings. Adam Plutko had a 1.27 ERA when he took the mound to start Sunday's game. Now it is 3.57 as he has allowed six runs in 1 1/3 innings his last two outings. Paul Fry took the mound last night with a 1.17 ERA and then allowed three earned runs in 2/3 of an inning, one earned run more than he had allowed all year.

To avoid the series sweep today the Orioles will have to beat one-time Oriole Rich Hill (2-1, 4.26 ERA). The 41-year-old Hill has the longest consecutive-innings scoreless streak currently in the majors at 17 2/3 innings. He is 2-0 with a 1.27 ERA in 13 career games against the Orioles.

Identifying core players for the future: In one sense, the Orioles' rebuilding efforts are slowly moving toward another level. That level, not yet showing big impact in the won-loss record, is in determining which players the club has now that will be part of its future core group.

Which players are here now that might be part of the next O's playoff team.

"I think we are (to that point)," O's executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said yesterday during a Zoom interview. "We've talked about the last couple of years, that this is a big reason why we avail all these players of playing time and why we did so in 2019. Rather than bring people in that might block some of our interesting players. We wanted to let a John Means pitch or let an Austin Hays or Cedric Mullins get their at-bats and figure it out. And in some cases it works and in some cases it doesn't. But this is part of what you do when you turn towards your young talent internally.

"Getting successful in the major leagues often takes a lot of time. Not everyone is a superstar from the moment they are drafted all the way through the minors and as soon as they play as rookies. These are some of the benefits of the process we are undergoing - that we have players on our watch that have blossomed and improved.

"We've got these players under contract for many seasons. We plan internally and we are absolutely starting to see players that we project to be playoff-caliber starters for the Orioles. And you know we want to keep these guys going and we want to build around them and add to them."

Delmarva is still rolling: On the farm last night, low Single-A Delmarva beat Carolina 11-3. The Shorebirds are 11-3 and have scored 74 runs during an eight-game winning streak. Gunnar Henderson hit his fourth homer and J.D. Mundy hit No. 3.

Double-A Bowie beat Richmond 2-1 and is now 10-3 and 7-1 in its last eight games. Starter Kyle Bradish pitched four scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts. For the year, Bradish, acquired in the Dylan Bundy trade with the Angels, has thrown 13 2/3 scoreless innings with five walks and 26 strikeouts. In a piggyback situation last night, lefty Cameron Bishop came on in the sixth for Bowie and finished the game with four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit.

Also on the farm, Wilmington beat high Single-A Aberdeen 5-4 in 10 innings and Triple-A Norfolk lost 5-2 to Jacksonville as Zac Lowther allowed five runs in 2 1/3 innings.