O's notes on the rotation, the walk rate and a developing late-inning arm

As the rotation turns for the Orioles, it took a turn for the better beginning with the second inning Sunday at Chicago. Grayson Rodriguez allowed a pair of homers in the first and the Orioles were down 4-0 to the White Sox.

But they would rally to win that game and two teams have not scored off Baltimore starters, or any Baltimore pitcher, since. Starting with the second inning Sunday, the Orioles staff has thrown 26 consecutive scoreless innings. The starters since that point have thrown 16 2/3 consecutive scoreless.

The back-to-back shutouts at Nats Park reduced their team ERA to 4.68, which is ninth now in the American League and still not as good the league average of 4.32. But trending up.

The Orioles doubled their total of quality starts from two to four in the series in Washington. They are 4-0 in those games. But they rank 22^nd in the majors with four QS. Boston, Detroit and St. Louis are at the bottom of the bigs with just two. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh have 11 and Cleveland is next with 10.

But the O’s hope their young starters are turning a corner and starting to lock in as they did late last year. Right now the rotation features Rodriguez, 23, Kyle Bradish, 26, Dean Kremer, 27, and Tyler Wells, 28.

“Love the stuff these guys have,” manager Brandon Hyde said before Wednesday’s game. “Fun to watch Dean Kremer throwing 97 in the seventh inning. Really encouraging. Kyle has big time stuff also, Grayson, obviously, and Tyler too. All of them have bright futures ahead of them. We’re kind of seeing them early on in their careers and they’re going to have ups and downs, but it’s been a lot of fun, honestly. These guys are competing and when you get to that point where they are competing with each other – and we got to that point last year – and I think it’s going to be soon. Love the stuff all these guys have. Good makeup also.”

The O’s starting pitchers have an ERA of 5.79 for the season and the bullpen ERA is down to 3.30. The O’s ‘pen has thrown 9 1/3 scoreless the past three games and has posted a 1.25 ERA the last six.

The offense so far: On Opening Day if someone had said that through 18 games the Orioles (11-7) would have a higher runs-per-game output than the Blue Jays, Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, Braves and Dodgers, that would have sounded pretty good. And even after the Nats series, they rank fourth-best in the big leagues at 5.50 runs per game.

The team’s ability to work the count and take walks has taken a big turn for the better. The Orioles are third in the majors in drawing walks and third in walk rate as a team at 12.4. They were 16^th last year at 7.9. They rank fourth in the majors in team OBP.

Are the days of O’s fans wondering why Boston and New York can get starting pitchers out of the game by escalating pitch counts, but their club can’t, now over?

“Offensively, the difference from the last few years has been just the way we’ve been able to take walks,” said Hyde. “We never could walk before. We put pressure on the defense (now) and steal bases. Not giving up easy outs. Battling with two strikes and trying to put the ball in play. Love what we are doing offensively, and that’s just going to continue with that same mentality. We are so talented with so much power and can do different things, we have a chance to put up pretty good numbers.”

Cano is no ordinary Joe: One of four pitchers the Orioles acquired from Minnesota last Aug. 2 for Jorge López, right-hander Yennier Cano was not the headliner in the deal. That was thought to be lefty starting pitcher Cade Povich, now pitching at Double-A Bowie.

But since getting the call to join the Orioles on Friday in Chicago, Cano, the 29-year-old Cuban-born pitcher, has been outstanding in the bullpen. Quickly thrown into the deep end of the pool, he sure didn’t sink. But he has thrown a sinker. A great one.

He’s thrown 4 1/3 hitless and scoreless innings. Quite a change from allowing nine runs in the few appearances he got for the club late last year. then in 4 1/3 innings also. The sinker, slider and change have produced a 32 percent whiff rate. Lefty batters are 0-for-2 against him and right-handers are 0-foir-10.

Right-handers Mychal Givens and Dillon Tate are expected to begin rehab assignments next week and are getting closer to returning. But Cano is trying to show he should stick around longer.

“Coming out of spring training I had a good feeling," he said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones in Washington. "I felt like I was doing good things and I was just waiting for the opportunity. Waiting for the team to call me and, you know, give me the opportunity, kind of like a last chance, in a sense. They gave me the opportunity and I’m thankful for that.”

Cano pitched in four of the five games of the road trip the Orioles wrapped up Wednesday in D.C. And he got two quick outs Wednesday night after coming on with two men on and one out in the last of the eighth. When Mike Baumann pitched a scoreless ninth, a second straight shutout was secured.

The Orioles are 7-2 in their last three series, winning each against Oakland, Chicago and Washington. Their next 13 games are against Detroit (7-10), Boston (9-10) and Kansas City (4-15).