Is extra rest the key to a solid future rotation?

We have seen some of the Orioles pitchers throw well on extra rest in the second half of the season. Big league teams use five-man rotations for the most part, which means their starters most often pitch with four days of rest between starts.

But in the second half of the season the Orioles have provided pitchers at times more than four days' rest, and it has produced solid results.

When Kevin Gausman has gotten five days' rest, he is 2-2 with a 3.53 ERA in nine starts. Over 51 innings he has walked 12 and fanned 45. Dylan Bundy has made 14 starts with five or more days' rest, going 6-5 with a 3.46 ERA. In 88 1/3 he has walked 19 and fanned 90. When Bundy has pitched with six or more days of rest, he is 3-1 with a 2.68 ERA. Over 37 innings he walked just three and fanned 40.

Even Ubaldo Jiménez is better when pitching with an extra day of rest. On five days he is 3-2 with a 3.52 ERA and WHIP of 1.252. But six days' rest has not worked for him. On six days he is 1-2 with an 8.49 ERA and a 1.886 WHIP.

In noting how some pitchers perform better with the extra rest, I asked manager Buck Showalter recently if he sees a day when a team (maybe even his own) will go to a six-man rotation? Sure, most teams struggle to come up with five good starters. But if the pitchers you do have fare much better with the rest, why not plug another pitcher into the rotation?

"Most pitchers want to get on a routine early in the season," Showalter said. "The six pitchers comes into play more after the All-Star break. They need to get in a routine and get into synch and build up arm strength (in the first half). And then you go through periods where you want to maintain arm strength. Then you go through periods where you don't want to lose arm strength.

"So over years of experience there are no stats ... you watch and listen to your pitchers and are watching their work days and what their bodies are telling them. Plus what the other team is telling us with their at-bats. It is a constant thing."

Orioles pitchers have worked on exactly four days' rest 75 times this year and pitched to a 6.04 ERA. They have pitched with five days' rest 71 times, to a 5.04 ERA. Neither number is good, but they are a run better with an extra day.

Strugglng to find a consistent rotation, should the Orioles look to go to a six-man rotation over a full season? Or, as Showalter points out, are the true benefits of that best later in the season?

Scott is in the show: He is a young lefty pitcher who can hit 100 mph with his fastball. He is among the Orioles' top pitching prospects. And today, Tanner Scott will officially join Austin Hays and Chance Sisco in the big leagues. After going 0-2 with a 2.22 ERA in 24 games and 69 innings at Double-A Bowie, Scott got the call to the show. For more on the lefty, read this profile of him, written here in July before he pitched in the Futures Game. Or this story, from before he pitched in the Eastern League playoffs last Friday.

Can O's avoid the sweep? So Hays and Sisco hitting their first MLB homers are about the only good things seen this weekend by Orioles fans. Also impressive was how both young players were patient enough to draw walks late in the game Saturday, the latest blowout by the Yankees of the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.

The Orioles are 6-12 versus the Yankees this year, and their 150 runs allowed is the most by any team in a season series since 1961. The Orioles are 1-8 at New York, the most losses they've suffered there since going 1-10 in 1960. They have been outscored 30-10 this weekend and 98-40 in nine games at Yankee Stadium for the season. In those nine games, O's starters have pitched a total of 32 2/3 innings, allowing 56 hits and 48 runs (46 earned) for a 12.67 ERA.

Orioles pitchers had been doing pretty well on this road trip until this series. Meanwhile, the O's offense has scored just 10 runs in this series, going 2-for-21 with runners in scoring position. The Orioles have scored just 22 runs the last 10 games.