O'Day on pitching depth and Trumbo's take on Bundy

No doubt just in the last week or so we've seen just how important pitching depth has been for the Orioles. Kevin Gausman got an early ejection, and Richard Bleier covered four innings and Ubaldo Jiménez three in relief. Wade Miley took two line drives in the first inning and Gabriel Ynoa pitched six scoreless. Logan Verrett was called to New York and pitched two scoreless in an extra-inning win. We've seen quality starts from Alec Asher, Jayson Aquino and Tyler Wilson.

As the Orioles now play for the second time this year without All-Star closer Zach Britton, right-hander Darren O'Day said the pitching depth has been big for the bullpen and the entire staff.

"Absolutely. We would be in shambles right now without guys like Ubaldo in Boston and Tyler when he got called up. Ynoa, Logan in New York. Those guys have been awesome. It's a testament to the depth we have at Triple-A and the job they're doing in Triple-A. They've shown the staff they're big league pitchers," O'Day said this morning.

O'Day got the save in last night's 6-5 victory over Chicago with a 1-2-3 ninth, and Brad Brach is 6-for-7 in save chances as the Orioles again try to survive without Britton.

Are the O's ready for the challenge?

"I don't know if we have a choice, really," said O'Day. "State of readiness? I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be. We're lucky that we have some depth. It's helpful. But we're a better bullpen with Zach when he's right, so hopefully he takes the time and gets it right and comes back as himself."

Meanwhile, Dylan Bundy's latest quality start came Saturday night in the win. He allowed three runs over six innings for his seventh quality start in seven games. That total leads the majors. Bundy is 5-1 with an ERA of 2.17, and the Orioles are 6-1 when he pitches.

So, yeah, pretty impressive. Mark Trumbo provided his take with props for Bundy after last night's win.

"I think the command stands out the most," he said. "He's got four nice pitches that he can throw almost at will. Very hard to square up. It looks like his fastball plays up at times. You see a lot of foul balls on it, and then he's got the curveball and changeup. He's got all the makings of a nice frontline starter."

Bundy is tied with Houston's Dallas Keuchel and Minnesota's Ervin Santana for the American League lead in wins. He ranks seventh in ERA and 11th in WHIP (1.05). He was asked if there is one aspect of his game he has worked on the most this year?

"I think everybody works on fastball command. You can't work on that enough. The only thing that is stopping you is pitches in the bullpen - you can't throw too many. I always work on fastball command, and one thing I am doing is better is getting inside on lefties this year. That was one of the things in the offseason I wanted to work on heading into spring training," Bundy said.