O's game blog: McDermott makes major league debut as Miami series continues

MIAMI – After a series-opening 6-3 loss in Miami last night, the Orioles take the field tonight looking to turn around their recent poor play and even this series.

They do it with right-hander Chayce McDermott making his big league debut on the mound. The 2023 Jim Palmer Award winner as the O’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year was 3-5 with a 3.96 ERA at Triple-A Norfolk. Over 91 innings in 20 games, he had a 5.34 walks-per-nine-innings rate and 12.76 strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate.

He leads the International League in strikeouts and is tied for the overall minor league lead.

Ranked as the O’s No. 6 prospect by Baseball America, he is No. 7 via MLBPipeline.com, which provides 60 grades on his fastball and slider and 45 for his control.

In 10 Triple-A games to end the 2023 season, McDermott pitched to an ERA of 2.49 and 1.01 WHIP and felt then he was on the way to making command gains.

“Last year at times, I’d get pushy with my hands, so out of hand break they would go out instead of down," he said in March during spring training. "Trying to limit that. Also, I need to keep my hips closed longer. Those were the big two. A few minor things we found like my hands breaking a bit late."

Triple-A skipper Buck Britton felt McDermott realized last year he didn’t need to trick anyone and had quality stuff that could get outs within the strike zone. He felt like moving forward that would be big in his development.

"He’s got great stuff,” Britton said last September. “But understanding he can get outs in the strike zone I think helped him really take off. He’s commanding the ball well and I think he’s got a chance to impact our major league roster here in the near future.”

McDermott’s first chance to do that comes tonight in Game 2 of the series at loadDepot park.

When McDermott threw 6 2/3 scoreless on one hit July 12, he used his four-seam fastball 30 percent of the time, his slider 29 percent, changeup 19 and sweeper 15 percent. He averaged 94.1 mph on his four-seamer, topping at 96.4. He got five whiffs on 13 swings versus his slider and four swings and misses on his fastball and changeup.

Tonight he faces a Miami team that scored six early runs last night, but for the year coming into this series ranks 29^th in majors in slugging, OPS and runs per game and 30^th in home runs.

The Orioles, visiting for the first time since 2021, are now 3-15 all-time in Miami and 13-29 all-time against the Marlins. Both win percentages are the lowest for the Orioles on the road and against any club in team history.

The O’s rotation pitched to an ERA of 8.50 in the final eight games of the first half. But the starters posted a 3.12 ERA in winning the series in Texas. Tuesday night, righty Albert Suárez allowed six runs in two-plus innings.

The Orioles got six scoreless from their bullpen Tuesday as Keegan Akin, Burch Smith, Vinny Nittoli and Bryan Baker combined to allow just two hits and fanned six. Over the four games since the All-Star break, the O’s ‘pen has allowed only two earned runs over 14 2/3 innings.

The Orioles are 60-40 and begin play tonight leading the American League East by 1 1/2 games over the Yankees as both clubs lost last night. The O’s have lost seven of 10 and nine of their past 14. They are 11-15 since June 21.

Right-hander Edward Cabrera (1-3, 7.36 ERA), 26 years old from the Dominican Republic, will make his ninth start tonight. The Marlins are 4-4 in his first eight games. He has an ERA of 7.71 in three starts this month. And in five home starts, he is 0-1 with a 5.16 ERA and 1.500 WHIP.

Miami (36-65) has won four of its past six games and improved to 2-7 last night this season versus AL East teams.