With Jordan Lyles, O’s hope they added innings-eater and more

When right-hander Jordan Lyles threw five innings for the Orioles in Friday’s win over Philadelphia, it was the first five-inning outing this spring by an O’s pitcher. Maybe someone did it on a back field or in a minor league game, but not during a spring training game.

It was a welcome sight, and the Orioles are hopeful he eats that many innings and more each game when the regular season begins next weekend.

Lyles was so efficient that he needed just 55 pitches to get through five innings, allowing four hits and two runs with no walks and two strikeouts. No O’s pitcher had exceeded three innings, and then Lyles got five.

O’s starters pitched the fewest innings in the American League last year. O’s starters averaged 17.50 pitches per inning, and that was also the worst mark in the American League. Five innings via that average would amount to 88 pitches, not 55.

“For a spring training outing, working on his pitches, his command, pitched five really good innings,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “I know he feels good about getting the work in that he got. I thought he actually got better as the game went on. Breaking ball got a little better. That’s a veteran major league start right there, and happy to have him.”

It sounds like Lyles is fitting in well with his new team, dispensing some advice to the younger pitchers. It seems the club will slot him second in the rotation behind John Means, although there apparently were discussions about him going third to split up the top two starters and keep the Orioles from potentially three consecutive tandem or piggyback pitching situations. That would make some sense too.

Lyles was 10-13 with a 5.15 ERA for Texas in 2021, and that ERA was under league average. He was an innings-eater, throwing 180 innings, 33 1/3 more than Means, who had the highest total for the O’s last summer. He gave up 194 hits, including 38 homers, which led the major leagues. He posted 1.389 WHIP, allowing 9.7 hits per nine innings and 1.9 homers. He walked 2.8 per nine, with 7.3 strikeouts. He could be among the pitchers that most benefits from the outfield fence in left field at Camden Yards being moved back.

Lyles threw those 180 innings to rank 18th in the majors, sixth in the American League behind only Robbie Ray (193 1/3), José Berríos (192), Frankie Montas (187), Nathan Eovaldi (182 1/3) and Gerrit Cole (181 1/3). The Orioles could use more of the same from him this season, although his previous career high before last year was 141 2/3 innings.

Lyles recorded a career-best 13 quality starts for the Rangers and pitched six innings or more 18 times. That could be an important stat too, since, as we pointed out here earlier this week, the Orioles went 17-17 last season when they got a start of six or more innings. The Orioles, as a staff, had 34 starts of six innings or more in 2021. So the Orioles produced a start of that length in 21 percent of their games, but Lyles did it in 60 percent of his games.

He pitched to a 4.86 ERA during the first half, with 1.443 WHIP. In the second half, his ERA was 5.49 and his WHIP was 1.327.

Lyles did go 3-2 with a 2.87 ERA and 0.989 WHIP in his last five starts. He posted quality starts in four of those five games, going seven innings three times. He gave up just two homers in those starts, allowing an OPS of just .638 in what was easily his best stretch of the year.

Did he find something at the end that could carry over starting next week? The Orioles sure hope so, and maybe that is another reason they offered him a contract. In the final month last season, Lyles’ four-seam fastball usage was way down and his two-seam and slider usage were up. Maybe he found a pitch mix that led to the good results.

He will probably make his O’s regular season debut a week from today at Tropicana Field. The O’s are hoping he eats innings. If he does it with good results and efficiency as he did yesterday, all the better.

Meanwhile, here is video of Jordan Westburg, the O’s infield prospect who had two hits in Friday’s game. He also made a nice diving stop to his left at third base in the ninth inning. Westburg is 4-for-8 this spring.