The O’s were unable to complete the three-game sweep of Boston on Wednesday night, getting hammered 10-1, in large part due to another poor outing from starter Mike Wright. Wright has made three starts since being recalled again this month, and they’ve all been bad:
Sept 5 @ Tor: 4 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 HR, 1 BB, 4 K
Sept 11 vs. KC: 5 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 HR, 2 BB, 2 K
Sept 16 vs. Bos: 3 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 2 HR, 1 BB, 1 K
Those numbers are a far cry from his first stint in Baltimore this year, when he started off so good. In his first three starts, back in May, Wright pitched a total of 19.1 innings, giving up just three earned runs while walking three and striking out 12. In his first two big league starts, he went 7.0 and 7.1 innings, respectively, while not allowing a single earned run.
The tide turned in June though, as Wright pitched to a 12.19 ERA over 12 starts. He was sent back down, but the results here in September resemble those from June than they do May.
Wright talked to reporters after the game, revealing that he’s quite frustrated:
“It (stinks) when you come out of the game, but I never gave up. I felt good,” Wright said. “I felt good all my starts. That is what is really tough. I feel good about it but still get hit all over the yard.”
Since he rejoined the Orioles early this month, Wright is 0-2 with an ERA of 9.75, allowing 13 runs and 17 hits in 12 innings over three starts. Was the issue tonight more the quality of his pitches or the location?
“My location tonight was way better than it was last game. I mean, just because it was better doesn’t mean it is what works,” he said.
Wright has not recorded a quality start over his last seven outings, going 1-5 with a 9.88 ERA. The six runs he allowed tonight were a career high.
“It (stinks). This isn’t fun at all,” Wright said.
(Note: Melewski replaced “sucks” with “(stinks)” in his post, but you can see below that “sucks” is what Wright actually said.)
[youtube]https://youtu.be/bYDesrCgD1A[/youtube]
It’s tough to see the frustration on the young man’s face as he learns just how tough it is to pitch in the big leagues. Wright was the Orioles’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2013, after being selected in the third round out of ECU in 2011. The 25-year-old has a very good fastball, but so far, his secondary pitches lack the consistent movement and/or location to get major league hitters out.
He gave up two home runs last night, one on a four-seam fastball to David Ortiz, and the other on a slider to Dustin Pedroia.
First off, there is no shame in giving up hits or homers to those guys. One just hit his 500th career dinger and is currently generating much hot air from talking heads over whether or not he belongs in the Hall of Fame. The other is a former American League Rookie of the Year and MVP.
That said, let’s take a look at what happened in each AB, using data from BrooksBaseball:
Ortiz
Wright threw two two-seam fastballs to start the AB. Ortiz watched the first one for a ball, then swung through the second one, just outside, for a 1-1 count. Wright then threw a change-up for another swinging strike to get ahead 1-2.
He had Sloppy right where he wanted him, and tried to go up the ladder with a four-seamer for the strikeout. Unfortunately, he went up too high, and Ortiz laid off. Showing him the heater, but missing, proved to be a bad idea, as when he came back with it again, and got a big chunk of the outside corner, Ortiz didn’t miss. Though Wright reached back for his highest-velocity pitch of the AB, it ended up in the seats anyway, because he caught too much of the plate.
Pedroia
He threw The Hobbit a couple of sliders, the first of which was a called strike, the second of which, again, ended up in the seats. Slider number two came in a little harder to Pedroia, but after letting over the middle of the plate go by, he wasn’t going to be fooled again, taking the second one – over the inside corner but belt high – and making a souvenir out of it.
Neither of the homers Wright gave up came on what you’d call “grooved” pitches – middle middle of the zone – but as he’s quickly learning, big league hitters don’t need perfect pitches to crank home runs.
I don’t have any revelatory answers here – the homers weren’t on terrible pitches, they were on OK pitches to great hitters. That’ll happen.
Wright seems like a good dude – see yesterday’s story that was going around about him helping a fan change their tire – who is honestly flummoxed that he can’t perform at the level to which he’s become accustomed over his baseball life.
Hopefully he has a good start or two to finish out the year to get some better vibes going into the offseason, and spends that time figuring out what may have gone wrong of late. Wright will be, in all likelihood, competing for a rotation spot next Spring. At the very least, he’ll need to be a reliable bullpen arm for the Birds in the very near future.
And hey, if it doesn’t work out here, Mike, don’t worry – you can probably go to Chicago and be awesome in a few years.
