On a night when the Orioles desperately needed a win, the team turned to their ‘old reliable,’ starter Wei-Yin Chen, and he mostly delivered.
Having dipped five games behind the division-leading and red-hot Tampa Bay Rays, Chen gave the Orioles 7 1/3 solid innings, allowing just three earned runs on six hits with nine strikeouts and one walk on a career high 119 pitches.
“That was the most pitches I have thrown in the US,” said Chen through an interpreter, “But I feel really strong, really good today.”
The game also marked the return of slugger Chris Davis to the home run ranks with a two-run blast, with one out in the 6th. The hit broke a 10-game homer-less drought but more importantly, put the Orioles back on top in a game they trailed 4-3 at the time.
“It was big,” said Davis, saying the hit gave the team a boost in the close game more so than snapping him out of a funk.
“It was more working the ball to the middle of the field and letting the ball travel,” said Davis about the 10-game hitting skid, admitting he spent some time working with hitting coach Jim Pressley on his swing to improve.
Chen had his moments of struggle as well despite the win. With one out in the third, three hits, including a broken-bat liner to left and a dying-quail roller in front of Matt Wieters set up second baseman Jose Altuve’s seeing-eye single to short plating a couple runs. Chen followed that with a walk to load the bases before the unexpected, with a 2-2 count on OF Justin Maxwell, a rare steal of home by shortstop Jonathan Villar.
Villar’s feat was the first steal of home against the Orioles since Kansas City’s Jeff Francoeur on August 11, 2012.
“That was embarrassing and a lesson I need to learn,” said Chen through an interpreter.
The O’s offense got started in the bottom of the fourth with JJ Hardy’s two-run single following ‘Stros starter Lucas Harrell walking the bases loaded.
Chen got his final strike out of the night in the the seventh with a man on before Darren O’Day came on in relief, allowing only a stolen base before getting out of the inning. Closer Jim Johnson (“The Tall Man“) pitched a scoreless 9th for his 36th save.
Despite the win from Chen, who is now 6-3 on the season, with a lengthy stay on the Disabled List included, O’s manager Buck Showalter refused to call Chen the team’s go-to starter.
“Our number one starter is whoever’s pitching that night,” said Showalter. “If a guy has a so-so outing doesn’t mean he goes to the end of the line… Every guy goes through that.”
Despite allowing a two-run game-tying homer in his last start against the Royals, Chen has been effective more consistently than any other O’s starter since returning from the DL. With or without a label from Showalter, Chen looks more and more like the man Baltimore will need when it gets to be playoff crunch time, in a tight race.
But Chen can have a little breathing room, as can the O’s if Davis’ home run tonight is the first of many more in the second half.
