Baltimore Orioles vs Tampa Bay Rays: 3 takeaways

Dylan Bundy will be just fine

Bundy didn’t have a lot of friends in his corner following his May 8 start against the Royals, in which he gave up seven earned runs without retiring a single batter. In two May appearances, his ERA had ballooned from 2.97 to 5.31, no one’s idea of a good start.

It was a worrisome pattern for the talented righty, but Bundy managed to halt the downward trend with a strong performance on Sunday: two hits and seven strikeouts over seven scoreless innings, good for his second win of the year.

Take a look at some of the highlights from the terrific outing:

Maybe those who panicked were dead wrong to begin with — Bundy’s velocity never really suffered during his trying stretch. Buck Showalter mentioned last week that Bundy had been dealing with a minor groin injury, a common culprit when a hurler suddenly loses command. If health was indeed the issue, then we can expect to see him pitch much better in the weeks ahead.

If it wasn’t, then the seven-run start was merely a confirmation of something we already knew about Bundy: he’s inconsistent. All young pitchers go through growing pains, and the former fourth overall pick is no exception. He may have his ups and downs this year, but given what we saw on Sunday, the bet here is that he’ll be just fine in the long run.