Early returns on Rule 5 pitchers (and more)

The Orioles are only seven games into their season, but they don't have a reason to second-guess the decision to carry two Rule 5 pitchers on the opening day roster.

The risk made sense back in Sarasota and it makes sense further north.

Tyler Wells surrendered his first major league home run Thursday, but he also struck out three batters in the inning. Franchy Cordero was fed two changeups and two four-seam fastballs and swung through an 87 mph slider. Wells got swinging strikes on Bobby Dalbec with 95, 96 and 95.5 mph fastballs, the last a foul tip squeezed by catcher Pedro Severino. Alex Verdugo was called out on strikes, fouling off two fastballs and taking an 85 mph slider in the zone.

Shawn Armstrong gave up an RBI single to Marwin Gonzalez the previous inning and left two runners on base for Wells, who retired Christian Arroyo on a fly ball.

Wells has allowed two runs in 3 1/3 innings, including Giancarlo Stanton's RBI double Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. Opponents are batting .231.

Mac Sceroler tossed 2 2/3 scoreless and hitless innings Monday night in his debut, walking two batters and striking out four. He inherited a bases-loaded, one-out jam, struck out Aaron Judge on a 94 mph fastball and retired Aaron Hicks on a foul popup.

The split-changeup sent Gary Sánchez, Jay Bruce and Matt Tauchman back to the dugout. It looks like a legit weapon in a four-pitch mix.

The Tauchman strikeout prevented manager Brandon Hyde from warming another reliever.

"For him to get Tauchman," Hyde said, "I was very happy to see that."

Mike Snyder, the club's director of pro scouting, noted after the Rule 5 draft how Sceroler gets "a lot of awkward swings on a plus splitter."

"He brings a lot to the table," Snyder said.

Now, it's just a matter of Hyde bringing him into another game.

The Gameday pitch-tracker kept identifying a splitter from Sceroler, who turned 26 yesterday. MASN analyst and Hall of Famer Jim Palmer called it a "split-change."

"I call it a 'split-change'" Sceroler said. "It's like a modified split, but not truly a split."

Shortly before breaking camp, Sceroler explained one of his biggest challenges in making a successful leap to a much higher level of competition.

It wasn't the quality of his pitches, the location of them, the toll on his body.

"I think the biggest thing for me personally is the mental side of it," he said.

"Physically, I feel like my stuff is good enough to compete. It's just a matter of just trusting your stuff. Kind of came in the first couple weeks trying to be perfect with everything, trying to make all my pitches perfect, and here recently the past couple outings I've gotten back to just competing and attacking the zone and I've found more success doing that."

Armstrong allowed three earned runs in 15 innings last summer, but he's already exceeded that total with four in 1 1/3 since the Orioles reinstated him from the paternity and injured lists. His two walks are one fewer than in 2020.

All four inherited runners have scored after Armstrong stranded 11 of 13 last season.

Left-hander Paul Fry had a career year in 2020 with a 2.45 ERA in 22 appearances and 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings. Spring training was a grind with 11 earned runs (12 total) and 14 hits in 9 1/3 innings, and he's surrendered a run and four hits with two walks and no strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings this month.

"I think Paul Fry's going to have a good year," Hyde said. "Army's off to a little bit of a tough start, but I think he's going to settle in and be good for us."

Hyde also is counting on the offense to perk up.

New shortstop Freddy Galvis is 3-for-26 (.115) with 10 strikeouts. New third baseman Maikel Franco is 5-for-28 (.179) and occasional third baseman Rio Ruiz is 4-for-23 (.174) with 10 strikeouts.

Ryan Mountcastle and Trey Mancini are each 5-for-28 with 11 strikeouts.

The Orioles eventually are going to get some production out of second base. Yolmer Sánchez couldn't provide it. Ruiz made three sensational plays on opening day, but is laboring at the plate. Ramón Urías is 1-for-6 with five strikeouts. Pat Valaika was 1-for-9 before his option yesterday to the alternate training site.

Severino keeps pushing further away from that 1-for-22 start in spring training. He went 7-for-18 down the stretch and is 7-for-22 (.318) with a double and home run this month.

He's also struck out nine times, but that only ties him for the third-highest total on the club.

Severino and Cedric Mullins are tied for the team lead with three multi-hit games. Mullins has an 11-game hitting streak dating back to Sept. 24.