The David Hess cheering section in front of the press box fought to pace itself this afternoon as the right-hander made his major league debut. Shrieks, cheers and raised iPhones for photo ops upon his introduction, as the video board in center field showed him in the dugout, as he walked to the mound for his warmup tosses. Each strike drew a reaction heard 'round the ballpark.
Orange and white T-shirts with Hess' name on the back, a gray game jersey. Not available in the lobby, but spotted in a couple of rows.
The first pitch thrown by Hess in the bigs was a 93 mph fastball to Mallex Smith that missed the strike zone. He evened the count with another 93 mph fastball and retired Smith on a fly ball near the left field line.
What followed were back-to-back groundball singles past the mound, Matt Duffy's three-run homer into the Orioles' bullpen and the ol' "Welcome to the Show" moment for the kid.
What also followed was a stretch in which Hess retired 14 of 15 batters, reintroduced the shutdown inning to Camden Yards and earned consideration for more starts. He won't lack for support from family and friends. Teammates also will embrace him.
Hess strung together five scoreless innings after a troublesome first, Jonathan Schoop homered twice, Manny Machado continued his longball lunacy and the Orioles won again, 6-3, over the Rays in Game 1 of the doubleheader.
Schoop led off the second inning with a homer to begin a three-run, game-tying rally, and he followed Machado's leadoff homer in the third with a shot to left field on the next pitch from Chris Archer to give the Orioles a 5-3 lead.
Hess retired 14 of 15 batters heading into the sixth and 17 of 19 before the seventh, when Tanner Scott replaced him. He allowed three runs and six hits, walked none and struck out three. He threw 78 pitches, 56 for strikes, and the rotation had its 17th quality start.
Pound the strike zone and trust an improved defense. Not a bad example to set for others.
Manager Buck Showalter said before the game that the club hoped for a clean first inning for Hess so the rookie could get his feet under him. Wipe away any jitters. Instead, the Orioles erased the deficit and learned how Hess handled adversity.
Schoop's home run in the bottom of the second, Chance Sisco's RBI double and a double steal - with Jace Peterson taking second base and Sisco scoring - enabled the Orioles to tie the game 3-3. Schoop has seven career multi-homer games, and his 92 home runs tie Brian Roberts for first on the club's all-time list among second basemen.
Machado has four home runs in the last three games and 13 on the season. The choreographed handshake with Schoop got quite a workout today.
Ice the hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders.
Sisco is the first Oriole to steal home since Seth Smith on May 4, 2017 in Boston. Cal Ripken Jr., on May 31, 1982, was the last Oriole whose first career steal was home.
Mark Trumbo doubled in the sixth and scored on a wild pitch to increase the lead to 6-3. Scott took over, followed by Mychal Givens, and the Orioles won their fourth game in a row while improving to 12-27.
Duffy's home run was the latest first-inning indignity, with the Orioles now outscored 57-16. But the rejuvenated bats went on the attack after Archer's seven-pitch bottom of the first, working him for 32 in the second.
The Orioles have scored 38 runs in the last five games.
Meanwhile, Hess got on a roll that only Joey Wendle interrupted with singles in the third and sixth. His fastball was 92-95 mph and he mixed in a slider and curveball with the proper separation in velocity to make them effective.
"Great pitcher, great stuff and has a lot of confidence in his stuff," said pitcher Jimmy Yacabonis. "He's going to attack the hitters. He's not going to play around with the guys. He's going to challenge guys and he's going to fill up the strike zone."
With his starter working on three days' rest, Showalter turned to Scott, selected one round after Hess in the 2014 draft. The Orioles turned away the Rays again. A season hasn't completely turned, but it's finally moving in the right direction.
Update: Hess is the first Oriole to start and win his major league debut since Mike Wright Jr. on May 17, 2015 against the Angels. This was the first major league start by a Tennessee Tech alum.
Showalter on Hess: "That was fun to watch. Anytime regardless of what ... One of the things we've always liked about David is his moxie, and showed you a little bit there. A lot of guys would have pulled the dirt around them a little bit, but he didn't and that's one of the things we liked about giving him an opportunity."
Showalter on Hess pounding the zone: "A lot easier said than done. Even you've seen it some with Tanner, and you're seeing it some with even Gaus (Kevin Gausman). Sometimes, you get a little bit too much in there, but he made a lot of quality pitches with his fastball. He got the ball down a little bit after that first inning, got some early outs in early counts. We were going to take him between 70 and 80. We were watching pretty closely there in the sixth."
Showalter on Hess pitches: "Yeah, he's a four-pitch mix. He had some outs with the changeup, too. You spend a lot of time and you're looking at the reports to see if the mix of pitches are there because you've got to have them here. And you've heard me talk about, when you see that mix of pitches, they've got a chance."
Showalter on whether he wants to see more of Hess: "All of them. We have some other guys down there, too. He pitched well. I thought Mychal did a big job for us. I didn't want to use him and Brad (Brach), and am trying to stay away from Richard (Bleier) again today. So, I think Mike's outing was as big as any. Tanner pitched well. David presented himself well. We'll see what best serves us."
Showalter on whether he took in the moment: "Oh yeah. I've got the lineup card in my office. I'm probably going to wait until after the (second) game to give it to him, but don't hold me to it. I like those moments. I know usually they would have done something to him in here, kind of an initiation, but I think they're holding off. But would like to try and win another game here."
Showalter on Machado and Schoop: "Whatever we're doing, just stay out of the way and get a good seat and watch it. Jon's had some success with Archer, and that's hard to do, but Jon had a big day, too."
Hess on what ran through his mind after the home run: "Just going out there after that, I knew if I kept throwing up zeros and give the team a chance to win, they'd pull together some runs and we'd pull it off. And we did it."
Hess on last 24 hours: "It's pretty crazy. I know you guys are probably aware that I had a lot of family here. Getting everything organized and situated with that was a lot of fun. Everyone was cooperative, the staff here and everybody's been great. It's been a really exciting process and experience, something I'll never forget."
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