Baltimore Orioles: Dylan Bundy messes with Texas

Dylan Bundy pitched an absolute gem for the Baltimore Orioles in their 4-1 victory over Texas at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Even the sharpest critic would have a tough time finding something critical to say about Dylan Bundy‘s performance last night for the Baltimore Orioles. Bundy held a newly re-tooled and powered Texas lineup hitless through 5.2 innings last night, and wowed both friends and foes alike with the manner by which he sent hitters away. Bundy’s line: 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K.

Bundy was the pitcher that the Orioles drafted last night – and then some. Texas had absolutely no answer whatsoever for anything that he threw towards them. In similar situations where pitchers have looked like that against Oriole hitters, we’ve said sometimes you just have to tip your cap. Hopefully for Bundy’s sake, Texas did just that after the game.

Through four innings plus, this game with two highly-powerful offensive teams was a pitcher’s duel. The O’s couldn’t do much against Texas’ Darvish either. However they broke through in the fifth with Pedro Alvarerz smacked a solo homer to give the O’s a 1-0 lead. That would end up being a familiar motif as the night went on. 

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One inning later it was 2-0, as Adam Jones followed suit with a solo shot of his own. But Alvarez came back to the plate in the last of the seventh and smacked a second solo homer, giving the Birds a 3-0 lead. It really shows you how dominant Bundy was when his perforance overshadowed a guy who hit two home runs in the game!

But the O’s weren’t done at that point; Matt Wieters came up immediately following Alvarez, and decided that it was tie for Oriole hitters to go back-to-back in home runs. His homer ran the score to 4-0, and the O’s were well on their way. Texas would threaten in the eighth, but the O’s only allowed them to push one run across on an Andrus sac fly-RBI. O’Day ended the threat with an emphatic strikeout with two outs and the bases loaded, preserving the lead.

Chris Davis wasn’t able to homer in this game, but he did push the lead back to four with an RBI-single in the last of the eighth. And perhaps the best part about that from the Orioles’ perspective was that it was against the shift. You hope that at some point if Davis can continually hit against the shift, perhaps teams won’t play it as often. 

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Catcher Matt Wieters was incredibly complimentary of Dylan Bundy after the game. And it was certainly tough not to be. However Wieters said that Bundy has a plan going into a game, which is good to see (quote courtesy of Brittany Ghiroli, mlb.com):

"It was fun. It’s fun to catch when he’s able to have all three of his pitches. He located his fastballs really good tonight. It gives me a lot of options to call, and for a young guy, he knows what he’s doing. It’s nice to work with a guy who has a game plan going in, and he’s going to execute it."

That’s pretty glowing commentary from your starting catcher. It’ goes without saying that Bundy isn’t going to pitch like this in every outing. No pitcher can. But he’d do well to keep a copy of this game with him, and when struggles inevitably come maybe he could take a look at it.

Next: Baltimore Orioles bring Steve Pearce back via trade

The series continues tonight at Camden Yards with game two with Texas. Kevin Gausman will get the start for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by Texas’ Cole Hamels. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.