With changeup now on point, Grayson Rodriguez ready for his next outing (plus other notes)

For Orioles rookie right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, it was one very welcome sight. That was seeing his changeup with great movement and getting the swings and misses it got last Sunday at Chicago.

As he goes into his next start tomorrow at home versus Detroit – his fourth in the majors – he feels having that pitch be as effective as it was his last time out will be huge for him going forward.

When the Orioles selected Rodriguez with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft out of Central Heights High School in Nacogdoches, Texas, he could throw with big velocity. But he didn’t have much of a changeup to go to.

On the O’s watch and in their player development system, not only did he develop a good one, but over the years it became his best secondary and helped him become the top pitching prospect in baseball.

He worked hard on it before that start at Chicago and then had it really going that day as, after allowing four runs in the first inning, he threw scoreless ball from the second through the fifth innings against the White Sox in a 93-pitch outing.

“I think just the preparation going into that last start. Was focusing on the changeup in the bullpen going into that last one," Rodriguez said Friday in the Baltimore clubhouse. "Just continuing to throw it a lot when just playing catch. It is a key piece for me as a pitcher, and I had not had it this spring or in the season before Chicago.

“I need to throw it whenever I want. Having that confidence to throw it whenever I need it is big for me.”

He got eight whiffs on 17 swings against his changeup last Sunday for a strong 47 percent whiff rate. His fastball that day averaged 96.2 mph and his ERA is 6.91 through three starts. But the swings and misses are starting to come. His 29.2 percent whiff rate ranks in the top 31 percent of the majors, and his K rate is 11.93. That is the best of any O’s starter.

So how did his changeup become so good on the O’s farm?

“Really, just practice. Just reps in the bullpen,” Rodriguez said. “Playing catch with it. Drawing stripes on the baseball to be able to see the spin while playing catch with it. Our pitching department has done a really good job of helping me perfect the pitch with different grips and hand positioning. They have been good with helping me with things like that.”

How does drawing the stripes on the ball help him?

“If you can imagine a four-seam fastball. When you it throw it well you see a clean stripe," he said. "Being able to throw a changeup with that clean stripe as well results in the best form of it. It is just instant feedback without looking at an iPad or something. The movement with the stripe like that means it is the best it can be.”

“They (O’s minor league staff) really helped me learn the pitch in 2019 after not having thrown it a lot in games. Just were constantly working on that pitch with me. Always coming up with ways to make it better.”

Rodriguez has fanned 19 and walked seven in 14 1/3 innings this year. Seven of the 11 runs he has given up have come in the first inning. He thinks a better start, both at the outset and throughout his entire outing, is coming, and very soon.

“Absolutely. That is something I’ve been working to do," Rodriguez said. "Getting off to a slow start this spring, and now really working to continue to piece it together. I think a game like that is close.”

One streak ends, another does not: The Orioles' scoreless innings streak ended at 34 in the ninth last night, but they won yet another series-opening game. They posted a 2-1 walk-off win over the Tigers to improve to 12-7 overall and to 7-0 in the first game of each series.

The Orioles have 11 walk-off wins since the start of 2022 and two in a row at home this year.

Baltimore pitching has allowed just five runs the last four games and one run the last 35 innings. Since the second inning at Chicago last Sunday, O's starters have thrown 23 2/3 scoreless with two walks and 24 strikeouts. 

They have three straight quality starts and five on the season, going 5-0 in such games, when the starting pitcher goes at least six innings and gives up no more than three runs.

The O's bullpen has a 1.52 ERA over the past seven games.

Jackson Holliday goes deep twice: Single-A Delmarva's Jackson Holliday hit two homers Friday night, producing his first career multi-homer game as the Shorebirds (7-6) won 16-4 at Fredericksburg. Holliday went 3-for-6 and is batting .404 with a 1.214 OPS, eight extra-base hits and 14 RBIs in 12 games.

Triple-A Norfolk (13-5) beat Rochester 3-2 on Daz Cameron's tiebreaking homer in the eighth. DL Hall allowed two runs over five innings. Norfolk's staff relays the note that this is the best start for the Tides, with records going as far back as 1994.