Baltimore Orioles: The Arms are Just Fine

It was the arms and not the bats that carried the Baltimore Orioles to a series win over the New York Yankees on Thursday night by a score of 1-0 in 10 innings.

While Masahiro Tanaka and Kevin Gausman were locked into a scoreless duel, the O’s bullpen proved to be just a hair better until the offense could muster a solitary run in the bottom of the 10^th inning.

Tanaka looks to be in good form again here in 2016. In each of his previous five starts he gave up two earned runs. But on this night he would go eight full innings without yielding anything but five hits and a walk.

As good as that was, Gausman was better. He too went eight shutout frames, giving up just three hits and zero walks. He has now yielded only three runs on 10 hits in 19 innings this season. That is a WHIP of 0.68.

Could this finally be the arrival of the Gausman that has been hoped for over the past four years? There have been flashes of it from time to time, games where he is rather unhittable. But the consistency has been absent. Right now he is 14-20 for his career. After all of the shoulder problems, he finally looks healthy and ready to be the guy the Orioles invested in.

Another arm that looked just fine on Thursday night was that of Matt Wieters. His throw to pick off a runner at second base with two outs in the top of the 9^th inning was as good as you’ll ever see from a catcher. After the Tommy John surgery and long-term recovery, this is gratifying to see.

The third arm that is just fine on the Orioles is that of Zach Britton. Actually, it was his ankle that was the recent problem and setback. And Zach did not look good for his first couple of batters. He threw a wild pitch in the 9^th inning and walked the leadoff man in the 10^th. The O’s closer was simply out of rhythm. But he found it again, striking out three in a row for the win.