The Orioles locked down a 4-2 win over the Diamondbacks tonight, pulling to an AL-best 25-12 record. The victory, which included some interesting decisions from Brandon Hyde, featured 4 1/3 scoreless innings from the bullpen behind Cole Irvin.
Baltimore’s skipper called upon Craig Kimbrel to pitch the seventh inning with the team holding a one-run lead. Kimbrel retired Blaze Alexander, Kevin Newman and Ketel Marte in order. Jacob Webb, Cionel Pérez and Yennier Cano followed in relief to secure the victory.
It’s the first time this season that Kimbrel has entered a game before the ninth inning. The nine-time All-Star has hit a rough patch of late, failing to finish off save opportunities against the Reds and Nationals in his previous two appearances. After the game, Hyde demurred when asked whether Kimbrel was being pulled from the closer job. The manager said Kimbrel’s role is “day to day” and that he hoped to get the scuffling right-hander a different look this evening (X link via Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun).
Even if the O’s decide to move away from Kimbrel as a full-time closer, he’s clearly still among their most important relievers. Protecting a one-run lead in the seventh is a high-leverage spot — although it did come against the 8-9-1 hitters in the Arizona batting order. Webb and Cano have arguably been Baltimore’s two best relievers this year, so they’re probably better suited than Kimbrel to take on the middle of an opponent’s lineup.
The O’s signed Kimbrel to a $13MM free agent deal with the hope that he’d solidify the ninth after Félix Bautista’s Tommy John procedure. Kimbrel has technically gone 8-11 in save opportunities, but his two previous appearances — in which he didn’t complete the ninth inning but was pulled before the O’s relinquished the lead — aren’t considered blown saves. Kimbrel had only successfully locked down the game in one of his last five tries.
Including tonight’s performance, he owns a 4.40 ERA through 14 1/3 innings. Kimbrel has punched out 22 of 62 batters faced (an excellent 35.5% rate) but he has also walked nearly 15% of his opponents. He’d walked between 10 and 11% of hitters in each of the previous two seasons with the Dodgers and Phillies. While Kimbrel had a couple rough outings in the postseason with Philadelphia, he went 23-28 on save opportunities with a 3.26 ERA during the regular season last year.
Hyde could take a broadly flexible approach to the entire pitching staff. Beyond potentially shuffling the high-leverage bullpen roles, he told reporters before tonight’s game that the team would consider moving to a six-man rotation when the schedule necessitates (relayed on X by Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). Baltimore is off next Thursday before playing 14 straight through May 30. The following month is particularly grueling, as the O’s only have one day off in June (on 6/17).
Baltimore is currently operating with a five-man staff comprising Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish, John Means, Dean Kremer and Irvin. Right-handers Grayson Rodriguez and Tyler Wells are on the 15-day injured list. Rodriguez doesn’t seem far off from returning and will surely step back into the MLB rotation when healthy. With Irvin and Kremer pitching very well of late, there’s sense in moving to a six-man staff when Rodriguez is back given the upcoming heavy schedule.