Baltimore Orioles, Wei-Yin Chen hold New York in check

The Baltimore Orioles knotched their third victory of the spring yesterday afternoon in Sarasota, defeating their arch-nemisis New York Yankees 3-1. However this game’s two big takeaways were Wei-Yin Chen and Kevin Gausman. There can be little doubt that Oriole pitching has been strong through a week of Grapefruit League play, and Chen (who started) and Gausman added to that yesterday. Chen’s line: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K. Gausman pitched two innings, allowing two hits, a walk, and striking out one batter.

The Orioles got an RBI-double from Jonathan Schoop in the last of the fifth to take a 1-0 lead. Manny Machado

Courtesy of Joy R. Absalon-US PRESSWIRE

would immediately follow with an RBI-single to score Schoop from second, and the O’s suddenly led 2-0. Rey Navarro would send a solo home run over the left field wall in the seventh to close out the scoring for the Orioles, although New York’s Gary Sanchez would add a solo homer off of Logan Verrett in the top of the ninth.

Perhaps the most interesting news of the day was the fact that Toronto’s young stud pitcher Marcus Stroman suffered a torn ACL, and was done for the season. Stroman, you might remember, enraged the Orioles last September when he accused Caleb Joseph of intentionally stepping on his (Stroman’s) fingers in a play at home plate – this, before he threw at Joseph’s head later in the game. (Stroman would later be suspended.) Stroman was also part of the “compensation” that was discussed if the O’s were to allow GM Dan Duquette go to Toronto.

So in that sense perhaps the O’s dodged a bullet; it’s a tough sell to say that Stroman would have definitely torn his ACL had that deal gone through. But you get the point. However in this article on Sunday morning, MASN’s Steve Melewski talked about the Orioles’ pitching depth. So while you always have to be wary trading in the division, might the Orioles be able to utilize some of that depth to obtain a player?

Whether or not Toronto has anyone they’d be willing to give up that would be worth the Orioles’ while is another story. However the fact is that there’s now a need there. There’s also a potential need in Philadelphia, who appears to potentially be without Cliff Lee. The Orioles have traded with Philadelphia previously a few times, so might there be a match there once again? The question is who do they send – I would submit that Ubaldo Jimenez might be high on the Orioles’ list of potential players.

Incidentally, Toronto will be back at Ed Smith Stadium tomorrow afternoon at 1 PM, with Miguel Gonzalez taking to the bump for the O’s. He’ll be opposed by Drew Hutchinson.