A look at the last Oriole with a "Maddux" and other notes

At a time when teams are scrambling to get their starting pitchers to complete six innings, a complete game is becoming very rare. And one on under 100 pitches sounds almost impossible.

But it happened at Wrigley Field Friday when the Cubs beat their rival, the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-0. Right-hander Kyle Hendricks pitched a four-hitter on just 81 pitches. That is known in the game as a "Maddux," as in something Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, but not many others, could do. Throw a shutout on under 100 pitches. Maddux did that 13 times.

Hendricks came in well under 100, with eight innings of 10 pitches or fewer. It was the first Maddux by a Cub since Carlos Zambrano in 2009. Hendricks induced the Cardinals to put 17 balls in play within the first two pitches of an at-bat.

Here is maybe the most impressive part: His fastest pitch was 88.3 mph. Long known for his control and command, Hendricks threw a four-seamer that averaged 86.8 mph. His two-seamer averaged 86.5.

According to STATS, the last Maddux by an Oriole was thrown by Sidney Ponson. On June 28, 2001, Ponson shut out the Blue Jays in Toronto on 92 pitches. With such data going back only to 1988, since then the fewest pitches in a Maddux by an Oriole came from Ben McDonald. He needed just 86 pitches to blank the Chicago White Sox on July 21, 1990. That was in his 13th major league game, but his first as a starter.

Since 1988, in addition to those two games, the Orioles have seen a pitcher throw a Maddux five times. Mike Mussina did it on 93 pitches on Aug. 4, 1998 versus the Tigers. Scott Erickson did so on 91 pitches on Sept. 27, 1995 at Toronto. Jamie Moyer did this on 97 pitches on July 6, 1993 at Kansas City. Bob Milacki did it at Minnesota on 95 pitches on June 30, 1990.

By the way, the Orioles are not the only team not getting many innings from their rotation. Believe it or not, every American League team gets, on average, fewer than six innings per game from a starter. Houston averages 5.78 innings per start - and that leads the league.

Here are the top clubs in rotation ERA and their average innings per start through Friday:

* Tampa Bay at 2.48 gets 4.54 innings/start.
* Toronto at 3.32 gets 5.17 innings/start.
* Detroit at 3.47 gets 5.54 innings/start.
* New York at 3.52 gets 5.37 innings/start.

The Orioles rank 14th in AL rotation ERA at 5.68 through Friday and average 4.52 innings per start. Their starting pitcher has thrown five innings or fewer 26 times.

But they got some innings last night: They did indeed as right-hander Dylan Bundy threw 7 1/3 scoreless innings in the 3-0 win over Tampa Bay. Bundy recorded the Orioles' fifth quality start with his longest outing since he went eight innings last June 11 versus Boston. It was Bundy's eighth career scoreless start of seven innings or more.

The Orioles improved to 12-22 overall and have won three of their last four home games after a 1-10 start this year at Camden Yards. If the Orioles beat Tampa Bay today, weather permitting, it will be just the second series loss by the Rays. Boston swept them in three games April 19-21. The Rays are 8-1-1 in series play.

Dwight Smith Jr. hit a solo homer last night, his sixth home run of the season. That ties him for the team lead with Renato Núñez and Trey Mancini. Smith has 11 RBIs his last 12 games and 19 over his past 20.

Stevie Wilkerson went 2-for-3 with a single and a double. He is 6-for-15 during a four-game hitting streak.

On the farm Saturday night: Single-A Delmarva won again, beating Asheville 4-1 on a combined two-hitter by Drew Rom and Gray Fenter. The Shorebirds have won five in a row and are 22-4.

Right-hander Cody Sedlock had another strong start as Single-A Frederick beat Lynchburg 5-0 in a rain-shortened game. Sedlock went six scoreless on two hits and is now 2-0 with a 1.95 ERA. His ERA is 1.06 his past three starts.

Double-A Bowie lost to Erie 6-1 as they were beaten by right-hander Casey Mize, the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Detroit Tigers last June. Mize allowed one unearned run over five innings while Bruce Zimmermann of the Baysox gave up five runs in 3 1/3.

Triple-A Norfolk scored five in the last of the ninth to beat Charlotte 14-13 in a crazy game. Catcher Chance Sisco's recent hitting tear continued as he went 4-for-5 with two homers and five RBIs. Sisco has a seven-game hitting streak, during which he has hit .536 (15-for-28) with five homers, 18 RBIs and a .618 OBP. This was his first career multi-homer game.

Ryan Mountcastle extended his hitting streak to 11 games. He has seven straight multi-hit games batting .529 (18-for-34) during that span. Mountcastle is batting .345 for the season and his 41 hits leads the International League.

Norfolk (14-16) has won five in a row with a team batting average of .400 in those games, scoring 46 runs and they've hit 11 homers in that time.