Another look at a brilliant, yet unlikely pitching performance

TORONTO - Don't over-analyze it, just enjoy it. Maybe that is the point we have reached with Orioles right-hander Ubaldo Jiménez. Will we get the good Ubaldo or bad one? On this night we got a great one.

On the same mound where he gave up the homer that ended the Orioles' season last October, Jiménez was dominant against the Toronto Blue Jays. Eight scoreless on 98 pitches. He needed only 27 pitches to get the first nine outs and threw 13 or fewer pitches in the first, second, third, fourth, sixth and eighth innings.

Sure, he wanted to come out and pitch the ninth and try for his fourth career shutout.

"Of course you want to go out there for the ninth, but it's about the team," Jiménez said. "We need to secure that W. Brad (Brach) is a guy that had to be there in the ninth. I'm happy to be there for the team for eight innings."

We pause for a surprising stat alert: The Orioles are 7-4 in Jiménez's 11 starts for a winning percentage of .636. That is the best on the team by anyone with more than one start. The Orioles are playing .563 ball (9-7) in Dylan Bundy's 16 starts.

The question everyone would love to know the answer to is how Jiménez can do what he did his last start and then what he did last night. Friday at Tampa Bay he gave up nine runs (tying a career-high) in 2 1/3 innings. And a few days later he dominates.

Catcher Caleb Joseph can size it up as well as any and he tried to explain the enigma that is Ubaldo.

"I think you need to take into consideration the type of movement he has on his pitches," Joseph said. "It is a lot different when you have tremendous movement on all of them. It's not like he just has movement on the split or the slider. He's got a sinker that can run half a plate when executed. All the pitches have so much movement that sometimes it is a little tougher to get in the zone.

"For the most part I think a lot of it has been the movement has been out of the zone, or missing the spot. So when that happens, you either walk guys or give up balls centered in the plate," Joseph added. "When he's been able to locate and find out where the movement is starting and able to pinpoint that you usually get good results. The thing about pitching is you're always just trying to disrupt timing. When you have four pitches that move totally different and you can execute different quadrants, you can keep them off balance. Boy he did that tonight and it was a lot of fun."

Manager Buck Showalter kept giving Jiménez chances this season and it paid off last night.

"He had that fastball that starts in on guys and ran over and then to right handers started off the plate and ran it back over the corner," Showalter said. "Orel Hershiser said a long time ago, I know you all have heard it, you need one (pitch) to compete, two to win and three to have a dominant effort. You guys can tell me. You guys have seen him a lot. That's the best game I've seen him pitch. I thought that eighth inning was pretty impressive."

Another key for Jiménez last night was throwing first-pitch strikes. He was 9-for-10 doing so over the first three innings, 11-for-13 in the first four innings and 20-for-27 for the game. That is 74 percent first-pitch strikes, well above his season average of 53 percent.

Jiménez provided the Orioles with just their fourth quality start in the last 23 games, a stretch where the rotation ERA is 8.27 even after Jiménez's gem. O's starters have pitched six or more innings just three times in the last 19 games - twice by Ubaldo.

Now the Orioles return home tonight with a few road wins finally under their belt. When this road trip began they had two road series victories all year. Now they have four, going 2-1 each at Tampa Bay and Toronto.

Since the end of the streak where they allowed five or more runs in 20 consecutive games, the O's staff has allowed 13 runs in the last five games. They gave up five in this series and just one in the two victories at Rogers Centre. Once a house of horrors for the Orioles, they are 5-2 at Rogers Centre this year. They are 9-3 versus the Blue Jays, winning all four series.

Today at home, we'll get medical updates on catcher Welington Castillo and reliever Stefan Crichton. Crichton will have an MRI today after experiencing shoulder soreness in Toronto. Castillo slipped on the steps leading to the dugout last night and was a late scratch from the lineup with a left knee sprain.

Castillo has already been on the DL twice this year. He hopes to avoid a third trip and was confident after last night's game that he will.

"Yeah it's something that you can't control, just slipping down the stairs," Castillo said. "But at the same time, it's frustrating too because there have been a couple guys and myself who have been on the DL at times. I hate being on the DL. I want to be out there doing my best and supporting my teammates to win some games.

"They did a lot of tests today on my knee. The only one that bothered me a little bit was going in, like kneeling in. That's the only thing that bothered me. Hopefully (today) I feel better and I can play and I can be back in the lineup," Castillo said.