In Bowie, Baumann on his strong night, Bishop on his strong year

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

July 09, 2021, 9:12pm

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BOWIE - On a night where Orioles lefty John Means made his second rehab start, maybe the most encouraging pitching sign of the night for the Double-A Bowie Baysox came in Game 2 of a doubleheader.

Right-hander Mike Baumann put together a second straight solid start. And he got a tiebreaking solo homer from Adley Rutschman in the last of the fifth as Bowie beat Richmond 3-2 to split the doubleheader. In his 10th start this year, Baumann collected his first win.

Baumann is trying to show the Orioles he can be both a healthy and productive pitcher again. Shut down at the alternate Bowie camp late last summer with a right flexor strain, Baumann had a reoccurrence of the issue right before big league opening day this year. He began pitching in games again on May 15 for low Single-A Delmarva and his rehab tour now has him back at Bowie, where he went 6-2 with a 2.31 ERA that included a no-hitter his first time through here in 2019.

But while last night's outing reduced his ERA, it dropped to 6.41. Two starts ago, it was 8.64, but now he has allowed three runs over 10 innings his past two games with one walk and 11 strikeouts.

He's starting to look like his old self.

"It's been a little up and down (this year), but I think outing to outing, I've seen some progress. Just fun to be back out here after getting shut down. It's been long and a tough road, but you learn from that and try to keep getting better," Baumann said after the game outside the Baysox clubhouse.

"Coming back it's been a slow buildup," he said. "Just getting back to who I was."

Added to the O's 40-man roster in November, Baumann is the club's No. 7 prospect per MLBPipeline.com and No. 8 via Baseball America. That 2019 season ended with his sharing the Jim Palmer Award as the organization's minor league Pitcher of the Year with Grayson Rodriguez.

Those two now share a clubhouse at Prince George's Stadium, but Rodriguez is here for the first time and Baumann is back trying to show he's healthy and ready to make a run at a big league roster spot.

Does he feel his pitches are where they need to be right now?

"I think just command. Command and consistency is what I need to = what's the word? - harness," he said.

Baumann has seen several of his teammates on the farm, like Dean Kremer, Keegan Akin, Zac Lowther and Alexander Wells, get at least a small shot in the big leagues. He has yet to make Triple-A yet, but he feels he could join them getting a chance in Baltimore soon.

"Yeah, for sure," he said. "We'll see how it goes. That is out of my control. You know, again, I'll just focus in the moment."

In the opener: Means allowed four runs (two earned) and five hits in three innings in his rehab start, taking the loss in a 6-0 Game 1 setback night. He threw 61 pitches, 41 for strikes, and will have one more rehab outing, this time with Triple-A Norfolk, before he rejoins the O's shortly after the All-Star break.

"You know, I'm just glad I'm healthy," he said after he pitched. "Glad when I get extension that it doesn't hurt anymore. That is what you take away from it."

For more from Means' start last night, click here.

No June swoon: Bowie lefty Cameron Bishop was named the Orioles' minor league Pitcher of the Month for June when he ended the month without giving up a single run.

In 10 games (three starts) for the year at Bowie, he is 3-0 with a 2.76 ERA. Over 42 1/3 innings, he has allowed 33 hits and just three homers with 16 walks to 48 strikeouts. He averages 3.4 walks per nine with 10.2 strikeouts to go with a .213 batting average against and a WHIP of 1.16.

He's having a solid rookie Double-A season.

The 25-year-old Bishop was the Orioles' 26th round pick in the 2017 draft, but ended up getting third-round money when he signed for $605,000, which was the fourth-highest bonus the O's handed out that year. He had missed his junior season at UC-Irvine with an oblique injury, but re-established himself for the draft by pitching in the Cap Cod League that summer.

Bishop went 2-9 with a 4.67 ERA at high Single-A Frederick in 2019. Now he's rolling for this Bowie club, which include a 2-0 record and ERA of 0.00 in June when he threw 22 scoreless allowing 10 hits and seven walks with 32 strikeouts.

"I just think for me it's always been about command," Bishop said during an in-person interview Friday before the doubleheader. "Command and consistency. I think some of my woes in 2019 were my walks and kind of getting behind hitters and not being in good counts for myself. As I've been improving and working with player development and coach (Justin) Ramsey (Baysox pitching coach), you know, it seems like things are clicking and the command is back. Been really attacking hitters and that had not been a strength of mine in 2019."

With a fastball that tops out at around 94 mph, Bishop said featuring his four-pitch mix that includes his changeup, curve and slider has been a real key for him.

"For me, it's being creative," he said. "I don't have a Grayson Rodriguez fastball and I'm not going to blow it by guys. But I'm going to mix four pitches in any counts, anytime, anywhere. I think that is my strength this year especially. It doesn't matter what count it is, you might get something you are not expecting. For me, that has been my greatest strength and what I see with myself moving on in my baseball career. Being a guy who can be aggressive, be creative and attack."

Bowie manager Buck Britton has watched Bishop produce this strong season, especially when he rolled through that scoreless June.

"It was impressive. You know he competes, he is a big-time competitor that has a feel for pitching," said Britton. "He's pretty locked into what he is doing out there. Getting outs in the strike zone. Really good in June. He's been up 94 (mph), but is probably comfortable 91-93 (mph). Good breaking ball. A changeup that has been pretty good against right-handed hitters. He's been really good, and once you starting getting confidence out there, too, it kind of rolls for you."