It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Orioles had a baserunner against the Texas righty, which is no way to win ballgames.
It’d be hard to imagine a starker contrast in starting pitchers than tonight’s matchup of two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom, one of the greatest pitchers in the game, against Brandon Young, an unknown thrower who went undrafted in 2019 and had just two career MLB starts before tonight. DeGrom is making $37 million a year and has a 100-mph fastball; Young was called up from the minors this morning and—actually Young’s stuff looked fine, but he doesn’t have a good enough fastball to get away with many mistakes.
And Young made several: the 6’6” right-hander allowed an early run on a pair of doubles, two more on a Josh Jung home run, and he got yanked in the fifth after walking the leadoff runner. Relief pitcher Scott Blewett blew it (I’ve been waiting to say that), allowing three Rangers runs to come home in the fifth, plus a fourth on a Jonah Heim home run (the offensive success of the onetime Orioles catching prospect will never not bother me). With a 7-0 lead and Jacob deGrom on the mound, the Texas Rangers might as well have subbed out their whole lineup for Little Leaguers. It was a romp to the finish.
Were O’s hitters psyched out by having to face one of the game’s best? I can’t say, but the righty really is impressive-looking. He hit 100 mph with his fastball in the first inning and struck out leadoff man Jackson Holliday on a putaway pitch with a 91-mph tailing motion—a “freak pitch,” said MASN’s Kevin Brown. Wow, went Brown and Hall-of-Famer Jim Palmer together.
This was indicative of what was to come, which was the sort of game where Orioles fans had the choice of wishing for a quick mercy kill or trying to get themselves excited about things like back-to-back warning track flies by Holliday and Jordan Westburg and a sweet over-the-shoulder catch by Holliday. (It was a sweet catch, though, and we need some silver linings, so take a gander if you want.)
Through seven innings, the Orioles had not a single hit against deGrom. In fact, they didn’t have a single baserunner until Holliday worked a walk that inning. Obviously if there was a Most Birdland Oriole today, it’d have been Holliday, who shone on offense and defense. But there are no Most Birdland Orioles in 7-0 beatdowns, I’m afraid. Colton Cowser finally broke up the no-hitter and drove deGrom from the game with an eighth-inning single. Moral victories!
I can understand if you don’t care enough to dig through this recap for details on Brandon Young, but I’ll give you some, anyway, because it is my job. Despite the box score (four runs in four innings), the Orioles’ spot starter had his moments. He got whiffs on his fastball (around 93-95 mph, but well-located at the top of the zone), sprinkled in some splitters, and unfurled a curveball that seemed to genuinely impress Jim Palmer. Sometimes he had a good game plan, like when he punched out Evan Carter, the Rangers’ No. 5 hitter, with a curveball-fastball-changeup sequence.
But there’s one pitch in the toolbox that I think Young might want to work on—err, make that two. The Rangers’ second-inning rally started when Young hung a cutter to cleanup hitter Marcus Semien, who doubled on it, then scored on a two-out Josh Jung single. It was a really bad cutter.
The other pitch that left Young’s hand with a big “Hit Me” sign on it was an 0-2 changeup he threw to Josh Jung with two outs and a runner on in the fourth inning. Jung was all over it, and by the time it landed on the flag court it was 3-0 Texas, and the Rangers’ third baseman had himself three RBIs.
After Young issued his first walk and got yanked in the fifth, Kevin Brown asked Jim Palmer to reflect on Young’s start. “What do you make of Brandon Young today, Jim?” Palmer answered, “Not bad.” I think that captures it, too. This was an okay start, despite being short and interspersed with mistakes. Interim manager Tony Mansolino is starting to distinguish himself for keeping his pitchers on a short leash, which—given our rotation—probably isn’t a bad thing.
Besides Blewett, the relievers were good: Bryan Baker was solid, Gregory Soto didn’t allow a baserunner (I say any day Gregory Soto doesn’t walk someone is a good day), and Andrew Kittredge pitched a three-up, three-down ninth.
It seems to me there are two ways of looking at tonight’s game. This is the “glass half-full” version: Brandon Young didn’t look half bad, inserted in a tough spot start, to give our starters a break.
The “glass half-empty” one goes like this: Jacob deGrom totally outclassed the Orioles, who don’t have a pitcher sniffing his level. This says a lot about the differing roster construction approaches of the two respective teams. Can the Orioles win without spending on starting pitching? Frankly, I’m still not sure.