All it took the Baltimore Orioles to notch another win this Spring was a two-out rally in the third inning. The Orioles defeated the Atlanta Braves 3-1 on Friday at Cool Today Park in North Port, FL, scoring three runs off of Atlanta’s Bryce Elder and making him look flustered in the process.
The rally started when Colton Cowser (0 for 2, 1 R, HBP) was hit by a pitch with two outs. Anthony Santander (1 for 3, 1 R) moved Cowser to third with a single, advanced to second on a Ryan Mountcastle (1 for 2, 1 R, 1 RBI) single. Ryan O’Hearn (2 for 3, 2B, 2 RBI) brought them both home with a double. During the rally Elder looked out of sorts, struggling with both his pitch-com and his catcher’s (Chadwick Tromp) signals; elder came off the mound mutiple times, talking to the homeplate umpire and eventually the third base umpire.
Jackson Holliday went 1 for 3 with a double.
Silas Ardoin went 1 for 1 with a double.
Tyler Wells (1-0) started and earned the win, allowing one hit over 2.0 innings of work.
Bruce Zimmermann allowed 2 hits in 2.0 innings. Kaleb Ort allowed 1 hit and walked 2 in 1.0 inning. Andrew Suarez allowed 1 hit, walked 2 and struck out 2 in 1.0 inning pitched.
The Braves scored their lone run on Matt Krook (1.0 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K) by piecing together a single, a walk and two fielder’s choice ground outs.
Baltimore’s defense played a major role in the win by turning five double plays, including one that ended the game and helped Nolan Hoffman (1.0 IP, 1 BB) earn the save.