McDowell cautious about progress

Pitching coach isn’t satisfied with late-season strides made by starting rotation

OAKLAND, CALIF. — After all the Orioles rotation endured over the first few months of the season, pitching coach Roger McDowell is loath to say all the bad times are behind them. He warned against as much Sunday morning, before new righthander Jeremy Hellickson was charged with six runs in five innings against the Oakland Athletics and suffered his first loss with the team.

But since the Orioles brought in Hellickson, who ultimately replaced Chris Tillman in the rotation, things have stabilized. With Hellickson’s start Sunday, the Orioles have a 3.20 ERA in the 16 games since his arrival. Considering they previously had a 5.99 ERA, the improvement has been striking.

There are seven weeks remaining to see whether it’s enough to help the team reach the playoffs. But if they do, McDowell knows it won’t be because his staff is sitting satisfied with this recent run.

“That’s the trap that we as pitchers hopefully never fall into — that we’ve got it figured out — because each day, whether it’s a work day or a game day, you have to continue to hopefully progress to ... the consistency of making quality and executing quality pitches,” McDowell said.

“It’s something we haven’t worked any harder on or any less. Obviously, the results have been better, so I think it comes down to consistency of the fastball command. It’s been more consistent — early strikes, being able to throw secondary pitches, all the things that we’ve worked on throughout the course of the year.

“And these past few weeks have been better. So that being said, you never want to feel like you’ve got it figured out, because the game has a way of humbling you. ... These guys have been working very, very hard, and we’re getting to see the fruits of the labor. They’ve been working really hard in between starts — the bullpens, the preparation, the film work, everything that they need to do to go out there and be McDowell