Baltimore Orioles: The Ups and Downs of Chris Tillman

Baltimore Orioles pitcher Chris Tillman is off to the best start of his career after beating the Yankees on Tuesday night 4-1.

Tillman has had some ups and downs over the years, having a particularly rough start in the 2015 season. And though 2014 was an incredible year for him over the final four months, I remember being at his start against the Pirates on May 1^st of that year — a day where he threw over 50 pitches to get through the first inning.

Tillman often has a rough start in games as he searches for the feel of his pitches. Over his career he has a 5.21 ERA in first innings and 4.82 in second innings. But after that it is all in the twos and threes.

And struggles have happened more than just at the beginnings of games, it has been true of the beginnings of season. In the first two months of the baseball year his combined ERA is 4.65.  But for June through the end of seasons, it is 3.96.  August is his best month.

So it is especially encouraging for O’s fans to see Tillman off to a good start for this 2016 campaign.

The following graph shows Tillman’s numbers for his first six starts over the past four years. I am not counting back to 2012 when he began well with the Orioles and was 5-1 with a 2.38 ERA, but his first start was on July 4^th after being called up from the minors…

Currently, opponents are batting .211 against Tillman, who also has a WHIP of 1.13 in spite of a few too many walks. Even last night he allowed four of them while striking out nine. On three occasions he walked the leadoff hitter.

The key for Tillman is to have most or all of his four pitches working. He never really had great fastball command last night, and the strike zone was incredibly pinched. But this other three pitches had some nasty movement, and Tillman was able to pitch out of trouble.

On another note — and no extra charge for this — I have been especially following the Frederick Keys this season. As I’ve mentioned previously, we are the host family for one of the players named Matthew Grimes, who was incidentally named the Carolina League Pitcher of the Week for last week. He won his two starts, pitching 11.2 innings and giving up three runs on 10 hits, registering eight strikeouts. For the season he has a 1.75 ERA in five games.

Next: How much will the O's miss J.J. Hardy?

The Keys are on the road right now, and Matthew pitched on Sunday. But a story to mention here is that I quickly looked in on the score of the game a few times last night, ultimately seeing that Frederick came from behind to win 8-7. Looking later at the box score, it was very strange. They only had six base hits. How could this be? There was only one homer in the game. But then I saw the tally of the bases on balls! The Keys picked up 16 walks in the nine inning game! First baseman Wynston Sawyer walked five times in the game, scoring three runs. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a thing even in Little League.