Fill-in Orioles starter outclasses AL’s aces in surprising stat

At the trade deadline, the Orioles made moves to improve their starting rotation by getting Zach Eflin from the Tampa Bay Rays and Trevor Rogers from the Miami Marlins, filling the void left by John Means, Tyler Wells, and Kyle Bradish as they are all out for the season.

Getting those starters pushed veterans Cole Irvin and Albert Suárez to the bullpen. That was, until Grayson Rodriguez went down with an injury just before his scheduled start against the Toronto Blue Jays.

With Irvin DFAd and off the 40-man roster, Chayce McDermott on the Triple A IL, and Cade Povich having struggled in the big leagues, it was Suárez who rejoined the starting rotation.

Making the spot start for Rodriguez on short notice, Suárez pitched five scoreless innings in what ended up being a 5-2 loss for the Orioles. He then toed the rubber Sunday afternoon against the division rival Rays and continued to shine, pitching 6 2/3 scoreless innings in a disappointing 2-1 loss for the Orioles.

His start against the Rays gave him seven scoreless starts this season out of the 16 he's made. That's the most among all AL pitchers, notably ahead of Bryce Miller, Logan Gilbert, and Tarik Skubal, who are all tied for second with six.

Orioles' Albert Suárez outclasses AL aces in surprising stat

Of those seven scoreless starts, five of them have gone down as Orioles' wins. The only two that weren't have unfortunately been his last two. He had two scoreless starts in April, one in May, two in June, and now two in August.

Suárez's ERA dropped from 3.66 entering the game to 3.39 after, with his WHIP also going down from 1.34 to 1.30 after allowing four hits and a walk. The common denominator in his scoreless starts is the lack of hard contact against him. If he limits that, he's the pitcher he needs to be for the Orioles to come out with a win. The good thing is he's done that more often than not, as he ranks in the 87th percentile in barrel percentage and 63rd percentile in hard hit percentage.

Though his first three appearances of the second half had been shaky, Suárez's last two have been exactly what the Orioles needed, and he's become increasingly more valuable to the team as the injuries have piled up. Not bad for a guy who signed with the team from overseas and started the year with Norfolk.