Bleier tries to establish himself in O's 'pen (O's lose again)

It seemed like a bit of a curious move at the time, seeing a team trade a lefty reliever that pitched to a 1.96 ERA last year in 23 games. Not only did the New York Yankees trade that pitcher, they traded him to the Orioles. And only for a player to be named later.

The lefty who pitched so well in a short look for the Yankees last year, 30-year-old Richard Bleier, has pitched well for the Orioles this year, both on the farm and with the big club. Bleier had a 0.61 ERA in eight games with Triple-A Norfolk. For the Orioles, he is 1-1 with that same 1.96 ERA in 19 games. He got his first career win May 16 at Detroit. He has allowed just two of 16 inherited runners to score.

I recently asked Bleier if he was surprised to be traded by New York after a solid 2016 season.

"That is just the way the baseball world works," he said. "Me being older and them going a different direction with younger players, that is the way they were set up. They had other lefties they use."

Bleier did add this: "There was a little bit of extra motivation when pitching against them."

Bleier has pitched twice against the Yankees this season, putting up three scoreless innings. His most recent outing was a two-inning scoreless stint during the weekend of June 9-11, when New York batters torched O's pitchers for 38 runs over a three-game series. They got no runs then off Bleier.

He said his major league success as a 29-year-old rookie last season gave him confidence coming into this season.

"I think I proved to myself I could pitch in the big leagues. You always believe in yourself, but until you actually do it, you really don't know for sure. Having success kind of proved to myself I could get big league hitters out," he said.

Bleier has basically been a two-pitch pitcher. He mostly throws a two-seam sinking fastball and a slider/cutter that has late movement to help him avoid loud contact. He doesn't throw hard - 88, 89 mph - but has been effective.

"Last year I developed a cutter which really helped me against righties, and now I'm actually getting more righties out then lefty batters. Just kind of given up a few infield hits to lefties. But that is huge because the splits were pretty uneven last year. Lefties were real low and righties were kind of high. You don't want to be a one-hitter guy. The cutter/sinker combination has been real effective for me so far."

On the stat sheet, Bleier indeed has been better against right-handed batters (.254 average) than lefty hitters (.276 average).

At a time when the Orioles are looking for someone to grab the bull by the horns and earn a bullpen job, Bleier seems to be doing that. He did give up a homer in 1 2/3 last night. But he's been flying under the radar and since he was recalled to the majors for the second time this year on May 14, and has stuck on the roster.

"I don't think it is only performance-based. The situation had to present itself, which it did for me," Bleier said of staying on the roster and avoiding the Norfolk-Baltimore shuttle.

"When I got recalled the second time, it was at a time where guys ... like Logan Verrett had two extra-innings wins but got sent down. We needed someone else to pitch the next day. So now I can pitch a few times and kind of establish myself."

Another day, another loss: The Orioles just can't seem to stem the tide of losing. Right now the poor starting pitching outings, the injuries and the losses are piling up. The team came home but lost four of seven games on the homestand that ended with last night's 6-3 loss to Cleveland.

While the poor pitching has grabbed most of the recent headlines, the Orioles offense remains amazingly inconsistent. In winning over Cleveland on Tuesday, they scored six runs and hit three homers. In the other three losses to Cleveland they scored four total runs, hit one homer and went 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

The streak of allowing five runs or more has now reached 19 games, one shy of a dubious major league record.

The Orioles have lost 11 of the last 15 games and 21 in the last 31. Since starting the year at 22-10, the Orioles are 13-27. They have played .325 ball over a 40-game stretch. That is a pace to go 53-109 over a full year.

How can they turn this around or attempt to fix 40 games of losing baseball? Open to suggestions here today for both the short-term and the long-term.