Henderson, Bradish debut; no umps in 9th
Catcher calls balls and strikes as O’s get extra half-inning Bradish has it all working
BRADENTON, Fla. — Gunnar Henderson got his uniform dirty Tuesday, a sign that “means you did something,” he said.
Baseball’s top prospect had been waiting a bit to do anything.
In the Orioles’ road spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Henderson became Baltimore’s last regular to appear in a Grapefruit League exhibition after missing the first three games as some wrist soreness healed. Manager Brandon Hyde noted that Henderson “would have been able to play, no problem,” but the team didn’t want to unnecessarily push him for spring training games.
“Just a little bit of taking too many swings at the beginning,” Henderson said. “Coming from the offseason I took a good amount of swings, but getting down here in the heat and then your body wearing down a little bit and then just keep swinging a lot, that just kind of wore it down a little bit and got it a little sore.
“Wasn’t really worth [it to] keep doing that and then go into the season not healthy. Got over it now and I’m ready to roll.”
Henderson backed that up with his play. In his first spring at-bat he grounded a single up the middle. To end the bottom of the third he ranged to his left for a diving stop at third base.
Henderson figures to be the Orioles’ regular third baseman this season and will also see time at shortstop. On Tuesday Joey Ortiz manned shortstop with Jordan Westburg at second, an infield arrangement of top prospects the Orioles have deployed in the minors and could feature in the majors at some point this season. Westburg had two hits, both put in play at more than 101 mph.
Baltimore’s clubhouse features many of the organization’s top prospects, with Henderson topping those lists.
“We’re all really fierce competitors, but we all love each other and we want to see the best out of each and every person here,” Henderson said. “We all try to do whatever we can to help, and that’s ultimately going to win us a championship one day.”
Henderson wasn’t the only positive injury news for the Orioles on Tuesday. Outfielder Anthony Santander is expected to be in Wednesday’s lineup after leaving Monday’s game after taking a pitch off his left kneecap.
“I’m OK, guys,” he said as reporters approached his locker Tuesday morning.
When Kyle Bradish made a strong impression last spring by pitching well in road games against the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies, he faced lineups stacked with those teams’ major-league regulars.
That wasn’t the case Tuesday, but Bradish’s dominance was still an early statement in his push to win a spot in Baltimore’s rotation. He retired all six Pirates he faced, recording two strikeouts with his slider, getting two ground balls on his sinker and leaving the outing pleased with his curveball, as well. His four-seam fastball reached 96.3 mph.
“Anytime you go out there and you have five weapons that are working, it makes pitching easier, but it is still early,” Bradish said. “There’s still stuff to work on, so not gonna look too much into this, but it’s nice to have some success early.”
Bradish added the sinker late last season amid a strong close to the season, posting a 3.28 ERA in 13 starts after a stint on the injured list for a shoulder injury. He honed the pitch this offseason at Push Performance Gym in Arizona, also working to add some sweep back to his slider after he noticed its break shortened up late last year.
His second-half success in 2022 puts him in the upper half of the Orioles’ 12 rotation candidates this spring. He said his approach this spring is the same as the last one when, despite pitching well, he was optioned to Triple A ahead of an April debut.
“I had a long shot of making the team out of camp, but my mindset was coming in and trying to make a name for myself and put it into the coaches’ hands,” Bradish said. “I didn’t want to do anything to mess that up, and then kind of same thing this year. I’m gonna do what I do and then it’s up to them.”
Tuesday’s game also marked the first this spring in which multiple rotation candidates appeared. Mike Baumann allowed a run in two innings.
Hyde said the Orioles will get creative with backfield work as the spring goes on, their starters get stretched out and the team won’t be able to use two in one game.
Ump no show
Welcome to spring training, where the rules are made up and the games do not matter.
The Orioles and Pirates played the bottom of the ninth inning of Tuesday’s exhibition at LECOM Field without umpires. The half-inning was unofficial, as the top of the ninth
ended with Baltimore, the road team, losing 7-4. In a typical game the bottom of the ninth would not need to be played, but because this is spring training the Orioles had another pitcher they wanted to make sure got his work in and thus asked the Pirates to play another three outs.
The umpiring crew was uninterested in being involved, Hyde said.
“We were told by the league that we could clear it by the umpires and pitch the bottom half of the ninth inning,”he said. “And I guess [crew chief ] Chad Fairchild felt that we couldn’t.”
Umpires are under no requirement to take part in any unofficial play. As Baltimore right-hander Ofreidy Gómez and his teammates took the field, the umpires left it.
Without an umpire behind home plate, Hyde and Pirates manager Derek Shelton agreed to have catcher Maverick Handley call balls and strikes. The practice of a catcher having that responsibility is common in spring for live batting sessions between one team’s own hitters and pitchers but rarely seen when players in different uniforms are facing each other.
“A little backfield action,” Hyde said.
The LECOM Park scoreboard featured an image of the Pirates logo with a background of palm trees, featuring no information on
who was pitching or hitting, the count or the number of outs. The pitch clock, a new rule this season to improve pace of play, was turned off.
A handful of Orioles executives who had gone into the team’s visiting clubhouse after the top of the ninth returned to the stands, as surprised as the fans who initially headed to the exits.
The Pirates’ television broadcast was also caught off guard, with Joe Block and Neil Walker discussing their takeaways from the 8 ½-inning game as players for both teams meandered in their respective dugouts. Then Baltimore’s Daz Cameron began to run out to center field, marking the beginning of a half-inning that will never appear in a box score.
Gómez retired three of the four Pirates he faced, allowing a single that Block noted “won’t count in the games that don’t count.” On the first pitch of that same at-bat Handley framed a borderline outside pitch, and after throwing the ball back to Gómez he deemed it a strike.
The inning ended on a ground ball to third. Josh Lester threw across to first baseman Curtis Terry, and although no one was there to officially rule Jason Delay out everyone accepted it as fact.
Only in spring training.