Lefty Paul Fry says brief minor league stint was wake-up call

Lefty reliever Paul Fry began the 2018 season with Double-A Bowie, later moved to Triple-A Norfolk and got the call to Baltimore in late June. He pitched well and stayed in the Baltimore bullpen the rest of the season.

That's where he began this year. He was becoming a bullpen fixture for the Orioles. Until he was not. In a bit of a surprise, Fry was optioned to the minors after the game on June 20. But the Orioles called him back June 26 after Josh Rogers went on the injured list.

He wasn't in the International League long this time. But long enough to remind him how much he loved pitching in the majors and how he needed to get better so that he could stay there.

In four O's games before he was optioned out, he gave up nine runs (six earned) in 1 2/3 innings. But heading into last night's game, in 10 games since he returned, his ERA was 0.87 and his average against .114. In last night's loss to Toronto, Fry gave up a run in the ninth inning to end a streak of seven straight scoreless appearances.

"Honestly, it sucked," Fry said of his demotion. "But that is just the nature of the business. I know I never want to be back there. If you play long enough you will be. But I had to take it in stride.

"I had to re-calibrate, and it was a wake-up call type of thing. Those guys are grinding too, and we're all in the same boat. Don't get too comfortable type of thing. It gave me a bit of time to focus more on just me than the game at that time. I know that is so cliché to say, but that is what I took it as."

Fry only pitched in one game when he was back in Triple-A, and on June 24 in one inning he threw 37 pitches, allowing four runs. Things were still not right. But they would quickly turn for the better.

"Just worked on some things with my mechanics to keep me in line," Fry said. "Keep my front shoulder in line to the target as much as possible. Then just getting confidence every outing and building off the previous outing. Not letting little things impact me.

"The mechanics is about feel, and to pitch up here you have to be able to make adjustments on the fly, pitch-to-pitch. The quicker you can make the adjustments is huge. For me, it's a lot of feel. Now I know if a certain pitch is bad, I kind of know why.

"When I was sent down, I had stretch there where I couldn't figure it out. We were on the West Coast and I wasn't throwing strikes and I wasn't myself. So getting back to that is where I need to be."

And he returned to a team playing pretty good baseball.

"This group has such a good energy and attitude every day," Fry said. "We've been fighting for each other. It's a great attitude, and it's been that way all year."

Looking for offense: As their West Coast road trip ended, the Orioles were swinging the bats pretty well. They went 5-4 on the trip, ending it with eight runs in San Diego on Tuesday. They had scored 83 runs the previous 13 games, going 8-5.

Then this long homestand started and the bats got quiet. In two losses to the Blue Jays, the Orioles have scored just four runs on 15 hits, going 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position. They've scored two runs or fewer in three of the past four games. Maybe they get back to hitting well tonight, as they did in that 13-game stretch that produced 23 homers and a team batting average of .292.

Toronto has scored 16 runs and hit seven homers in winning the first two games of this four-game Oriole Park series that continues tonight. O's pitchers have allowed two or more homers in seven consecutive games, allowing 22 in that span.

Tonight at the yard, right-hander Dylan Bundy (5-11, 5.24 ERA) faces left-hander Thomas Pannone (2-4, 6.16 ERA) at 7:05 p.m.