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The Rundown: Will Zach Britton Keep Pitching Multiple Innings?

side profile of orioles player britton holding glove by face before pitch
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The Orioles have two more games remaining on the West Coast swing and have a great chance to finish strong after winning the first game of a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners on Monday night by the score of 3-2. The starting pitching has hit a rough spot lately so it was good to see Wei-Yin Chen bounce back after a few sub-par performances to pitch 7 1/3 innings allowing one earned run on five strikeouts. Despite rocking a hideous mustache, Chris Davis continued his torrid stretch by hitting his 30th home run of the season.

 

TILLMAN MAKES FIRST START SINCE JULY 29

After struggling for most of the season, Chris Tillman went on a run of allowing two earned runs or fewer in six straight starts so of course he had to hurt his ankle and miss the last couple of weeks. I’ll be curious to see how he responds after missing so much time and I’m sure Buck Showalter will have him on some sort of pitch count, but it will be good to see Tillman back on the mound. As noted before, he has pitched well recently and now faces his former organization, against which he has pitched to a 2.09 ERA in seven career starts.

 

GAUSMAN NEEDS TO RELY ON SECONDARY PITCHES

I didn’t want to jump to conclusions and immediately declare Kevin Gausman was throwing too many fastballs, but after looking on FanGraphs.com, my initial thought was correct. The young right-hander is throwing the fastball 72.2% of the time this season. Gausman, along with the organization, have to reevaluate how they want to attack hitters, as major league batters can hit an upper 90s fastball.

Catcher Matt Wieters even admitted to second guessing his pitch selection in Gausman’s last start that saw him use the fastball 73.5% of the time. To put it in perspective, another young pitcher in New York Mets starter Jacob deGrom uses the fastball 62.8% of the time and seasoned veteran Max Scherzer relies on his heater 58.9% of the time. Gausman will enter next season as a full-time starter in the big leagues for the first time in his career and hopefully, he uses this offseason to perfect his secondary pitches so he is more confident using them in any situation.

 

BRITTON BEING USED FOR MORE THAN ONE INNING

I have no idea if it will become more regular as we head down the stretch, but Buck Showalter has now called upon Zach Britton to shut the door prior to the ninth inning in back-to-back appearances. Britton pitched 2 1/3 innings against the Oakland A’s on August 5 and last night was used for 1 1/3 innings to earn his 28th save. The issue with this is now Britton won’t be available tonight and tomorrow’s game could be in question as well. I’m not sure how I feel about this yet, but it definitely makes you wonder if this will continue. I also wonder if this was the reason he was not available on Sunday in extra innings against the Angels. If his two innings-plus against the A’s cost his availability a couple days later, I am not sure it’s worth it.

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