How O's pieced together a great pitching performance after Kyle Bradish's injury

ARLINGTON, Tex. – Well, that was unexpected and unlikely but most welcome.

An Orioles pitching staff that had allowed nine runs three straight games completely reversed its fortunes last night deep in the heart of Texas. They threw a four-pitcher, one-hitter at Globe Life Field. Against a Texas team that was 3-0 and leading all of MLB with 29 runs scored.

Last night Texas went 1-for-29 for the night and 0-for-24 after Josh Jung’s infield single with one out in the second inning. It was the fewest hits allowed by the Orioles since they one-hit the Chicago White Sox on the road on June 24, 2022.

The pitching game plan had to call an early audible when starter Kyle Bradish took a liner off his right foot. He suffered a contusion, but preliminary X-rays were negative for a fracture. We should get an update later today at the ballpark.

Lefty Danny Coulombe came in and got four outs, three against lefty hitters. In the dugout, Tyler Wells was not dressed in full uniform because he wasn’t scheduled to pitch until tonight. But he told Brandon Hyde to use him if needed and Hyde took him up on the offer. Grab that jersey quick.

“I went up to him and said, ‘If you need me to throw I will.’ I was ready for it. The bullpen has been so taxed the first series. I told him I could go and that was ultimately his decision. Very happy he let me,” said Wells.

He would pitch five no-hit innings, retiring 15 of 16 batters with the only guy reaching on an error. He pieced it together for the Orioles from the fourth through the eighth and needed just 47 pitches. He used his fastball just 34 percent of the time, going to the secondaries for 66 percent. It went great, to say the least.

What was the challenge in preparing to pitch the next night only to get rushed into the game unexpectedly?

“Sometimes it’s easier,” Wells stated. “Depends upon the person. At this point in time you just go out there and do it. You don’t have time to think and it’s pretty quick and happens fast. Sometimes that works in your favor.

“We have such a great scouting team. You know they came up with a lot of really good information I was able to use on the spot and it worked out really well.”

Hyde was gushing about Wells postgame for both how well he pitched and that he pitched. The O’s were in a tough spot and the tall right-hander bailed them out big time. When Wells said he could pitch, Hyde’s ears perked up.

“For me, that was our chance to win the game,” he said he thought.

Added Hyde: “Tyler Wells came to the park not thinking he was going to pitch, (that he would) start (tonight) and to do what he did, that’s just absolutely amazing. Amazing performance. When that happened with Kyle, I had no idea what we were going to do at that point. We were already short in the bullpen going into today. For Tyler to volunteer, step up, total team guy, unbelievable character kid. Just awesome.

“He did tonight what he did a lot of times last year. That’s a good lineup, a good offense. For him to do that, rush down to the bullpen. I had him ready for (Marcus) Semien. I told him Coulombe was going to have the lefties and for him to get ready quick like that and go in the game. Awesome.”

Hyde was tempted to send Wells out for the ninth. It was his game, and he wanted those last three outs. But he felt Wells had done enough on zero notice. He went to his rested closer and Félix Bautista got two strikeouts and a groundout on just seven pitches, topping out at 100.7 mph.

An unheralded player in all this was the catcher, Anthony Bemboom, making his first start of the year behind the plate.

“It’s not how we drew it up,” he said in an upbeat postgame clubhouse. “Kudos to the guys that came in and did an outstanding job. Tough circumstances. Danny coming in, second and third and two outs and making big pitches. Tyler coming in, scheduled to start tomorrow and doing what he did tonight, can’t say enough about those guys and how well they pitched.

“That is kind of the MO of our team. Anybody at any time, take the ball when you are asked to, pick up your teammates, pick up the bullpen and he did that tonight. It was great."

He said he could just about call any pitch and Wells would execute it.

“Really everything. All his pitches were working really well," he said. "Filling up the zone, getting ahead and kind of putting them on their heels a little bit and that was huge. Just staying on the attack, the entire time.

“As a pitching staff, that last series, that’s not us. We wanted to set a tone, everyone step up and show who we are and what we are about as a pitching staff.”

The Rangers were hitting .343/.407/.559 as a team heading into this series and had a team OPS of .966 and then got just one infield hit versus an O’s staff that entered with a team ERA of 8.42.

The Orioles won the game with just four hits of their own, two by Gunnar Henderson, who hit a solo homer and so did Jorge Mateo. The Orioles nine homers are tied for their most through four games with O’s teams in 1966 and 2000.

Before the game, Hyde said of Gunnar that the hits would soon be coming. We didn’t have long to wait.

“That felt great," said Henderson. "Felt like I put in some good work in the cage today. Got my swing feeling pretty good and glad it showed today. Been working with the hitting coaches on one certain thing and feel like we got it squared away today.

“Felt like I’ve been seeing the ball really well, taking good at-bats and knew it was only a matter of time. Got pitches to hit and put a barrel on it,” said Henderson who added Wells showed real guts last night and gave his team now a great chance to win this series.

With Wells pitching last night, the O’s now have to shuffle their rotation. Opening Day starter Kyle Gibson would be pitching on normal rest after throwing 79 pitches in Boston.

On a night of stunning O’s pitching at Globe Life Field the Orioles staff turned around their performance in Boston and may have gotten their early season performance back on track.