Remember when Miguel Gonzalez was sent down to the minors to make room for Ubaldo Jimenez in the rotation? Then remember a while before that, he was nothing but “trade bait” as the deadline approached?
Yeah, about that.
Miguel Gonzalez has posted a 1.21 ERA in 22 1/3 innings since being recalled from the minors. Shorted him a few innings before. #Orioles
— Luke Jones (@BaltimoreLuke) September 4, 2014
That’s very, very good.
On Wednesday, Gonzalez completely baffled the Cincinnati Reds to the tune of four hits and eight strikeouts through 9.0 shutout innings, Gonzo’s first career complete game and first career shutout.
As this graphic from ESPN shows, he got the job done by utilizing his superb control to work away, away, away.
I really liked @Orioles Miguel Gonzalez's heat map of his outs from last night. Look at how he kept ball away pic.twitter.com/ZaTQzcYxBR
— Mark Simon (@msimonespn) September 4, 2014
Don’t miss Gonzalez’s reaction to getting pied post-game!
The shutout went a long way towards helping the Birds up their record on this stellar home stand to 8-2 with one game remaining, and they cut their “magic number” to clinch the AL East to 16.
For the season, Gonzalez has now has a 3.38 ERA and 97 K to 43 BB in 136.0 innings. It’s looking more and more like Miguel will be a big factor in whatever postseason success the Orioles may have.
