A look at Alexander Wells' debut, plus other notes

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

June 26, 2021, 4:19pm

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During a mostly otherwise bad day for the Orioles - they lost 12-4 to Toronto - seeing the big league debut of a player in his sixth year in the organization was a real highlight.

Lefty Alexander Wells, 24, pitched two scoreless innings on 43 pitches in Buffalo, keeping Toronto off the board in the seventh and eighth innings. The debut came after Wells had pitched at five levels on the farm, starting in short-season ball in 2016 and going all the way through his rise this year to Triple-A Norfolk.

We have seen Wells named the Jim Palmer Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2017, when he went 11-5 with a 2.38 ERA for low Single-A Delmarva. He walked just 10 batters over 140 innings that season, none over his last 68 innings. We saw Wells advance to high Single-A Frederick a year later and represent the Keys and Orioles in the All-Star Futures Game in Washington.

Some scouts thought his fastball, which sits often between 89 and 91 mph, may not play when he got to Double-A. But in 2019, he went 8-6 with a 2.95 ERA for the Baysox. This year, after a slow start, he was pitching better this month for the Tides. After dealing with an oblique injury in the spring, he had an ERA of 9.88 in May for Norfolk, but that was down to 2.45 this month.

He was looking good again.

The pitcher signed for $300,000 out of Australia in August 2015, was on a big league mound for the first time yesterday after just 32 Triple-A innings. That might be fast, but the O's needed an arm with innings available and Wells joined Konner Wade in getting the call on Friday.

Wells has been called fearless at times on the farm. Even without the big fastball, he's not afraid to pitch inside and he goes right at the hitters. He did that on Saturday. He got Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to pop out on a 3-2 curveball and strand two runners in the seventh. He threw 30 fastballs, which averaged 90.0 mph and topped at 91.4 mph per Statcast. He added 10 curveballs and a got a couple of swings and misses on that pitch, which averaged 74.6 mph.

It was fun to watch him pitch. The Orioles will need a starter in Dean Kremer's spot on Tuesday. Could Wells return on two days' rest for that start?

The RISP stat: For the Orioles offense - and certainly this would be true for most teams - if they get those key hits with runners in scoring position, the final results look a lot better.

In the six games leading into Friday's 6-5 win in 10 innings over Toronto, the Orioles were 1-for-26 batting with runners in scoring position. They lost all six of those games, were shut out in two of them and had scored a total of three runs in four games before Friday.

Then they trailed 5-1 heading into the eighth inning. Then they went 3-for-4 in their next four chances with a RISP. They got RBI singles by Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander and a two-run double from Austin Hays. They tied the game at 5-5 and won it two innings later.

But even after that win and before Saturday's game, the Orioles were batting .234/310/.341 with RISP to rank 11th in the American League in batting average, 15th and last in OBP, and 14th in slugging. The team OPS with RISP of .652 was 14th in the league.

Manager Brandon Hyde and his staff are trying to help the players get better when batting in these key spots. Spoiler alert - success here usually comes due to good plate discipline and no or little chasing of pitches.

"When the pitcher is at a disadvantage, if you can shrink your strike zone and understand what he is trying to do and what you can handle, you're going to give yourself more opportunity for success," Hyde said via Zoom before yesterday's game. "A lot of times, especially younger players or guys that haven't done that well through their career, when you get runners in scoring position, they expand the strike zone. They try to drive the run in, instead of taking an approach of 'I understand what he is trying to do to me and I'm not going to leave the zone on him. And get in an advantageous count for me instead of for him.'

"We do that a lot. Especially with runners in scoring position, we will expand (the strike zone) and help out the pitchers. That is something we have to improve on. The good clubs, they really shrink it on you and they make it really, really challenging on the pitcher.

"When it is a strike and a pitch they can handle, they're on time and put a good swing on it. When it's on the black or off, you'll see them let that go and get into good counts. That is an area that, you know, we have a long ways to go with that and we're slowly getting better."

Grayson still rolling: Double-A Bowie right-hander Grayson Rodriguez allowed one run or less for the eighth time in 10 starts Saturday. He and lefty Cameron Bishop teamed on a one-hitter as Bowie routed New Hampshire 10-0 to snap a seven-game losing streak.

Rodriguez allowed one hit and no runs over five innings with one walk and eight strikeouts. He is now 3-0 with a 1.82 ERA in five Double-A starts. In 10 starts between high Single-A Aberdeen and Bowie, he is 6-0 with a 1.69 ERA, 76 strikeouts in 48 innings and a WHIP of 0.75.

Bishop gets overshadowed here, but lowered his ERA to 2.41 and WHIP to 1.10 with four hitless and scoreless innings.

Aberdeen blanked Rome 5-0 as Conner Gillispie and Ryan Conroy teamed on a four-hitter with Gillispie going the first five innings and Conroy the last four frames.

Jordan Westburg hit a grand slam in the third inning for Aberdeen. But Gunnar Henderson went hitless and is 0-for-10 in his first four games at the high-A level. He does have seven walks for a .000 batting average but an OBP of .412.

Wins by Triple-A Norfolk and low Single-A Delmarva completed a 4-0 night on the farm for the O's affiliates.

Nick Ciuffo drove in three as the Tides beat Gwinnett 4-2. Norfolk is 16-11 over its past 27 games. Delmarva blasted Fredericksburg 14-2 as Mason Janvrin and Hudson Haskin each drove in three runs.