Baltimore Orioles vs Kansas City Royals: 5 players to watch

Brad Brach, RHP

The 32-year-old Brach was supposed to anchor the bullpen in Zach Britton’s absence, but instead, he’s sporting a 5.40 ERA, including an unfathomable 16.20 mark in high-leverage situations. That last figure will shrink as the sample size grows and his numbers stabilize, but it does speak to just how bad he’s been with the game on the line.

Fortunately, Birds fans have reason to expect better from Brach in the weeks ahead. The righty was rock-solid in Oakland, making back-to-back appearances without surrendering an earned run. That’s par for the course for most relievers of his stature, but in Brach’s case, it hadn’t happened in nearly three weeks.

If the 2016 All-Star is indeed rounding into form, it’s likely because he has stuck with his tried and true approach — Brach seems to be aware that baseball stats usually regress to the mean. Here are some of his postgame remarks from last Friday, per Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun:

"“I made good pitches…Everything’s finding a hole. But it’s just baseball. Hopefully everything turns around. I’ve got to keep living down in the zone and get back to being the kind of pitcher that I am.”"

With Brach’s form improving, the Orioles should seek to further build his confidence by giving him high-leverage work against the Royals, who rank 14th in the American League in runs per game — only Baltimore is worse. The Birds will need more than improved relief pitching to turn their season around, but at 8-26, they’ll take what they can get.