Means after Bowie game: "Glad I'm healthy, onto the next one"

BOWIE - O's lefty John Means extended his outing in his second rehab start tonight, but he allowed two solo homers and four runs over three innings. He was pitching for Double-A Bowie against the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Two of the runs were unearned in his outing at Prince George's Stadium.

Means was not discouraged at all by allowing a few runs. Being healthy was the most important part of this outing.

"No, no. I'm just glad I'm healthy. Onto the next one," he said.

Means gave up a solo homer in his first rehab outing at high Single-A Aberdeen on Sunday, and he did tonight as well. The second batter for Richmond, center fielder Heliot Ramos, cleared the wall in left-center on a 2-1 pitch. Means got a groundout, then allowed the homer and then got a fly ball to the track in left field and a 4-3 grounder to end the first.

He threw 14 pitches, nine for strikes, and his fastball was between 92 and 94 mph, according to a scout's radar gun.

The second inning, though, for Means and the Baysox was messy. Richmond scored three runs, two unearned, to open a 4-0 lead.

After a leadoff strikeout, Richmond catcher Brandon Martorano homered on a long fly to center field on a 2-0 pitch. After an infield single, a two-base throwing error on Baysox third baseman Patrick Dorrian was costly. A couple of RBI singles followed and two runs in the inning were unearned. The grounder was a potential double play ball, but a wild throw into right field left runners on second and third after the play.

Means at least got in practice on having an extended inning.

"Those long innings are going to happen. You have to get through them and you have to practice them," he said. "Look at a positive there. Glad I went through it."

Means rolled through his third inning on 13 pitches, getting a lineout, swinging strikeout and a called strikeout.

Over three innings he allowed five hits and four runs (two earned) with no walks and three strikeouts on 61 pitches, 41 for strikes.

"You know, I'm just glad I'm healthy," he said. "Glad when I get extension that it doesn't hurt anymore. That is what you take away from it. Obviously, you know the feel stuff is important too. Thought my slider felt pretty good. For the most part, the changeup I threw a couple of good ones, a couple bad ones. Just the fastball command was kind of all over the place. I threw some good ones, but some bad ones that got hit."

Means made his first rehab outing on Sunday at high Single-A Aberdeen. He allowed a solo homer in two innings, but retired the other six hitters he faced that day, throwing 25 pitches, 18 for strikes. He threw more pitches in the bullpen after that outing.

Means has gone 4-2 with a 2.28 ERA this year for the Orioles over 12 starts, which includes pitching a no-hitter on May 5 at Seattle. He has not pitched for the club since leaving in the first inning at Camden Yards on June 5 versus Cleveland. He's been out with a strained left shoulder.

Right-hander David Lebron replaced him to start the Richmond fourth.

Means said he is getting back the feel for his pitches.

"It's important. I've felt really good in my bullpens. It's just getting those game reps," he said. "I have confidence it's going to be there. It can be hard to tell down here sometimes where your stuff really is, but the body feels good and that is really all I'm worried about."

Means is quite familiar with the mound here at Prince George's Stadium. He spent parts of the 2016 through 2018 seasons with the Baysox, pitching in 52 games over 284 1/3 innings as he went 14-21 with a 4.34 ERA at the Double-A level.

Means' next outing is expected to be a five-inning outing in which he'll throw about 75 pitches, sometime next week for Triple-A Norfolk at Memphis.