Ynoa dealt a tough starting hand
Rotation candidate battered by strong lineup; O’s create some runs without long ball
SARASOTA, FLA. — Orioles fifth starter candidate Gabriel Ynoa drew the short straw Sunday afternoon.
Ynoa is competing for a spot in the Orioles regular season starting rotation and he was pitching at Ed Smith Stadium, so he normally would be facing a visiting lineup packed with minor league hitters.
Not this time. The game between the Red Sox and Orioles was being televised back to New England on NESN, so the Sox lineup Ynoa faced featured a bunch of frontline major league players and a couple of firstround draft choices. Lucky him. He got off to a nice start, striking out Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi at the outset, but the Red Sox pretty much had their way with him for the rest of his two-inning appearance.
Eight of the next 10 batters reached base, and six of them scored. Benintendi came back to homer in the second inning, and third baseman Rafael Devers went deep in a four-run second inning that left Ynoa trying to put the best face on a tough situation after a 10-8 Orioles win.
“Those are things that happen,’’ he said through interpreter Ramón Alarcón. “I know that I have better stuff than what I showed today. I know I can help this team, so I’m just concentrating on the next start right now.”
Since he’s out of options, he figures to get a few more chances to make a better impression. He also faced the Red Sox in his first start of the spring and pitched well, but that still has to make you wonder whether he has a realistic chance to be in the major league rotation when the season opens.
“What is it … March 4?” manager Buck Showalter said after the game. “I’d like to see him pitch better. Two outs, nobody on, nine pitches and then 20-something pitches later. It’s tough. That’s the big leagues, though. And they had a lot of their guys in the lineup today and he didn’t pitch very well.”
There certainly have been some mixed messages flying around camp.
Showalter said before the game that the competition for starting jobs is still wide open.
But Showalter has also said on several Tuesday, 1:05 p.m. occasions that he’s trying to keep his projected starting pitchers away from the club’s American League East rivals this spring, so what is Ynoa supposed to think?
Manufacturing runs: For an Orioles offense often criticized for not turning in big innings without the benefit of a home run, the fourth inning provided a glimpse of what doing it the old-fashioned way might look like.
A steady stream of projected Orioles regulars created a four-run frame out of patience, plate discipline and having a plan to help turn around a 6-0 deficit and satisfy the announced 8,171 in attendance for the first sellout of the spring at Ed Smith Stadium.
“You like to see that, the type of things you string together,” Showalter said. “When you’re down 6-0, you’re going to have to do it. I’m more concerned about making sure we’re not down 6-0 a lot this year like we were last year. That’s a thing that kind of wore on our club last year.”
The rally began when catcher Caleb Joseph pulled a ball down the left-field line that scooted off the glove of diving third baseman Devers and read the carom well enough to end up at second. He scored after the end of a tenacious at-bat by third baseman Tim Beckham, who blocked a breaking ball into short right field.
Second basemanJonathan Schoopdid the same to a pitch on the outer half of the plate, shooting it into right field to keep things moving. The two set the stage for shortstop Manny Machado to yank a two-run double to left field to score them both.
Center fielder Adam Jones poked a double down the right-field line to score Machado after Boston replaced reliever Chandler Shepherd with Matthew Gorst, and Trey Mancini walked before the inning ended.
They also scored three runs in the third on a single by Schoop, a walk by Machado, a single by Jones, then fielder’s choice RBIs by Mancini and first baseman Mark Trumbo.
The big blows came later, when Beckham hit his second home run of the spring in the fifth inning and first baseman Pedro Álvarez hit a two-run home run in the sixth. Relievers impressive: Showalter said he was impressed with Orioles left-hander Tanner Scott, who struck out two in a scoreless ninth inning, and Rule 5 pick Pedro Araujo, who allowed his first base runner of the spring but also had a scoreless inning in the third.