Unconventional

Bleier and Brooks dominate on mound; Villar, Alberto homer

Back in April, at the Orioles’ final workout before heading north to New York for Opening Day, manager Brandon Hyde announced his team’s season-opening rotation as Nate Karns as an opener sandwiched between Andrew Cashner and Dylan Bundy.

The term “opener,” lexicon spread throughout baseball thanks to the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics’ practice of using a reliever for a game’s first one or two innings before a pitcher more often used as a starter handles the bulk of a game, has yet to apply to the Orioles’ methods this season. Although Karns was coined an opener, he was instead the first of a series of shortusage pitchers in a tried-and-true bullpen game.

Before Friday’s series opener with the Seattle Mariners, only one in the five months since that workout had an Orioles “reliever” followed a one-inning pitcher with an outing of at least five innings in a non-blowout. But Baltimore’s 5-3 victory at Camden Yards showed the benefits of using an opener when executed properly. Opener Richard Bleier and bulk man Aaron Brooks combined to cover all nine innings, with Brooks following Bleier with seven one-hit innings.

Making his first major league start after 159 career relief appearances, Bleier got two quick outs in the top of the first before Kyle Seager grounded a single up the middle. Kyle Lewis followed with a two-run home run, making him the fourth major leaguer in history with six home runs in his first 10 career games.

But Bleier retired four of the next five Mariners before giving way to Brooks, who had started in his first 12 outings for the Orioles but posted a 14.25 first-inning ERA. Although the Mariners still struck twice in the opening frame, not pitching in the first led to one of Brooks’ best performances with Baltimore.

In seven innings, he allowed one run, the latter coming on a groundout that Alberto dove to his right to snag before getting the out at first as Lewis came home from third in the fourth inning. Brooks retired 21 of the 24 batters he faced, with a hit, walk and error each putting a Mariner on base. Center fielder Austin Hays kept that the case with a diving play for the second out of the ninth.

In their combined nine innings, Bleier and Brooks allowed three runs on four hits.

MITCHELL LAYTON/GETTY PHOTOS Orioles starter Richard Bleier delivers a pitch in the second inning against the Mariners on Friday night.

The Orioles’ Anthony Santander, left, celebrates his three-run home run in the first inning with Jonathan Villar, center, and Trey Mancini on Friday night against the Mariners.