O's game blog: Matt Harvey makes his O's debut

After posting the sixth opening day shutout - and first since 2005 - in club history yesterday, the Orioles play the second game of their series in Boston this afternoon.

Lefty John Means allowed just one hit over seven innings and two relievers joined him to team on a two-hitter in Friday's 3-0 win at Fenway Park. Means threw 97 pitches, 65 for strikes. He retired the last 18 batters he faced as Boston batters went 2-for-29 on the day against Means, Tanner Scott and César Valdez.

Over his past five starts, dating to late last year, Means is 3-1 with a 1.17 ERA. Over 30 2/3 innings he has walked three and fanned 35.

Means became the 17th pitcher in major league history, and first Oriole, to toss at least seven innings and allow one or fewer hits in a start on opening day.

The Orioles began their 68th season with a victory, improving to 44-24 all-time on opening day. They are now 12-11 when the opener is on the road and 7-3 when they play the Red Sox on opening day. The Orioles are 9-2 in the last 11 openers and 16-5 in their past 21.

Right-hander Matt Harvey makes his official O's debut after signing a minor league contract with the club on Feb. 17. He pitched to a 4.80 ERA in the spring, showing a lively fastball, and earned his way onto the 25- and 40-man rosters.

Over the past two years with the Los Angeles Angels and Kansas City Royals, he went 3-8 with a 7.82 ERA and 1.738 WHIP over 19 games. He was 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA in 11 2/3 innings in 2020 for the Royals. He gave up 27 hits and had 2.743 WHIP.

His last start was on Sept. 6, 2020 for Kansas City. His last win was with the Angels on July 13, 2019.

Valdez, who pitched the ninth yesterday, made his first career opening day roster. He made his MLB debut on May 3, 2010 and turned 36 on March 17. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Valdez is the oldest Orioles player to be making his first opening day roster in the last 35 years. Valdez is the first player since right-hander Nelson Figueroa (debuted in 2000 and made his first opening day roster in 2011) to have had as many seasons between the time he made his big league debut and the season he first made an opening day roster.

Right-hander Tanner Houck (3-0, 0.53 ERA in 2020) gets the start for Boston. Houck, 24, made three starts last year and gave up just six hits and one earned run over 17 innings, with nine walks and 21 strikeouts. He gave up 3.2 hits per nine innings.

It was quite a run of pitching for a hurler that had gone 15-20 with a 4.08 ERA over 66 minor league games. In 2019 at Double-A and Triple-A, he went 8-6 with a 4.01 ERA. Boston selected him No. 24 overall in round one of the 2017 draft out of the University of Missouri. He signed for a bonus of $2.6 million.

In his big league games last year, Houck threw his fastball 62 percent of the time at an average velocity of 92.1 mph. He threw sliders 35 percent of the time and his splitter three percent. Batters went 0-for-15 with 10 strikeouts versus his slider. Baseball America ranked Houck as Boston's No. 3 prospect in 2018, and he is No. 8 this year.

The two hits O's pitchers allowed Friday were the fewest in team history on opening day. It was the 30th time in the majors since 1954 that a club allowed two or fewer hits in the first game of the season. The Pittsburgh Pirates also did it this year, in their opening game against the Chicago Cubs on Thursday.

O's shortstop Freddy Galvis has appeared in 999 career games. He will become the 59th active player to reach the 1,000-game plateau. There are 18 players in Orioles history who have played 1,000 career games for the club.