Armstrong armed with effective plan in 2020

The Orioles had players in 2020 who made obvious improvements. To miss it would require a blindfold and disabling of your Twitter account.

They provided nice stories to get us through the summer. To offset the collapse that kept the Orioles away from the expanded playoff field.

I'm wondering how many fans noticed that reliever Shawn Armstrong was very effective when healthy?

I should have known because it's my job, but he was sneaky good.

Only after reviewing the final bullpen numbers did I notice that Armstrong, who turned 30 last month, allowed only three earned runs in 15 innings for a 1.80 ERA. He surrendered nine hits, walked three batters and gave up one home run.

(Trivia time: Who hit the home run off Armstrong? Answer below.)

Armstrong's ERA dropped from 5.13 to 1.80 and his WHIP from 1.546 to a career low 0.800. His walks per nine innings tumbled from 4.3 to 1.8.

First batters were 0-for-14 against him. He stranded 11 of 13 inherited runners. Opponents hit .170.

Armstrong appeared in 51 games last summer, so we're dealing with a much smaller sample size after his month-long stay on the injured list. But he made some important adjustments at the January minicamp and in spring training.

Slowing down the game. Improving the shape and depth of his curveball. Moving where he set up on the rubber.

The bullpen really missed Armstrong when a back injury removed him from the roster.

"That was a loss for us, him going down," said manager Brandon Hyde. "I was thinking back to our series here (in Toronto) when we lost two very close games at the end and I didn't have him available, I didn't have (Miguel) Castro available, I didn't have (Mychal) Givens available. With those three guys being available, you never know what could have happened in that series, especially with all their good right-handers that they have.

"Shawn was a big piece of our bullpen. Especially those first 40 games when we were pitching very, very well out of the 'pen, Shawn was getting some big outs for us from that fifth to the seventh inning and getting the ball to some guys with the lead."

The timing is pretty sweet for Armstrong, who's eligible for arbitration.

Armstrong's salary was set at $573,500 prior to the shutdown. The Orioles don't want to commit a significant chunk of payroll to their bullpen - hence, the Givens and Castro trades and past moves that include former closer Jim Johnson - and will have to make a decision on Armstrong based on finances versus his value.

Just as they do with everyone else.

Answer: The Nationals' Starlin Castro hit a two-run homer on Aug. 9 in D.C. The lone multi-run appearance from Armstrong, which didn't hurt much in a 6-2 win.

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