Baltimore Orioles: David Hess Tosses A Gem Against Toronto Blue Jays

Behind a gem from starting pitcher David Hess, the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night.

No April Fools’ jokes here, folks. The Baltimore Orioles have won three straight ball games, are playing fun baseball, and witnessed a dominant outing by their starting pitcher on Monday night against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Andrew Cashner made it just four innings on Opening Day and Dylan Bundy couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning in his debut. Two veteran starting pitchers who are expected to lead this Baltimore Orioles rotation barely made it longer than Nate Karns, who pitched just two innings on Saturday as the “opener.”

Enter David Hess. Hess dominated the Blue Jays throughout the evening, throwing six-plus no-hit, shutout innings at the Rogers Centre and racking up a career-high eight strikeouts.

David Hess dominates for the Baltimore Orioles.

With one out in the bottom of the 7th and at just 82 pitches, manager Brandon Hyde made the decision, to the surprise of David Hess and his infield, to pull Hess with his no-hitter still in place.

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Immediate reaction among fans involved outrage, shock, and disappointment at the decision, however, it was the right move, in my opinion. Trust me, I wanted a David Hess shutout just as much as everyone else, but what about “trust the process” and doing the rebuild the right way?

Hess threw two innings of relief on Opening Day against the Yankees and it was his first start of the season. David Hess owned the mound all night long, topping out at 95.8 mph with his fastball, a pitch that averaged just 92 mph last season. Protecting an arm that just might be a part of this team down the road was the right decision, as much as it sucked.

I’m sure a majority of fans disagree with my thought there. I get it and fans do have plenty of justifiable reasons to be angry or disagree with Hyde’s decision. The Orioles may be winners of three straight ballgames, but how many wins can we expect this team to rack up by the end of the season? Taking a potentially historic moment away is a punch to the gut.

At the end of the day, the Baltimore Orioles are 3-1, Trey Mancini seemingly can’t be stopped at the plate (.500 average, two home runs), and this lineup has actually been pretty fun to watch.

Congratulations to David Hess on a fantastic outing. The 25-year-old is now 2-1 against the Blue Jays and has given up just two earned runs in 25.1 innings over the past two seasons.