Baltimore Orioles: Pitching ahead of hitting so far in intrasquad games

The Baltimore Orioles played their second spring training intrasquad game Thursday before they prepare to face the Detriot Tigers on Friday.

The Baltimore Orioles spring training schedule opens Friday against the Detriot Tigers, but before that, the Orioles players took part in an intrasquad game Thursday.

Usually, in the early part of spring training, the pitching is always ahead of the hitting, leading to a lot of strikeouts and not many runs being scored.

The game on Thursday saw the Orioles’ orange squad, primarily made up of the team’s regulars, beating the black squad, mostly made up of reserves and those fighting for roster spots. The black team scored one run off of Jed Bradley on a force out RBI by Johnny Giavotella, according to tweets by Roch Kubatko of MASNSports, who live-tweeted the game.

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The orange squad scored three runs in one inning, coming on two home runs off of Vidal Nuno. Manny Machado was the first one to leave the year, followed by Welington Castillo.

So, the Orioles did something on Thursday they did more than any other team in 2016. They homered, and they went back-to-back.

It’s nice to see Castillo hitting, as he will be leaving camp shortly for the World Baseball Classic. I honestly believe that he will have a comparable year to what Oriole fans are accustomed to from Matt Wieters, which never seemed to measure up to expectations for MW.

As for pitchers, Ubaldo started the game and looked good, throwing 11 of 17 pitches for strikes and retired all four he faced. Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day both allowed base runners but also threw most of their pitches for strikes in their innings of work.

Hyun Soo Kim is now 2-for-2 in Spring Training play, as he works to try to become the everyday left fielder. Seth Smith walked twice on the day.

The only person whose performance warrants concern is Nuno, who allowed the two home runs. However, Nuno also threw 15 of 19 pitches for strikes, so maybe it is a case of being around the plate too much.

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The Baltimore Orioles will face the Detroit Tigers in their first exhibition game Friday, with Michael Fulmer taking the mound.

Let the semi-real games begin!