Showalter: Orioles have plan to give struggling starting pitchers more rest
The Baltimore Orioles snapped a dubious streak with Saturday's 8-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing fewer than five runs for the first time since June 2 to end a dreadful defensive run that lasted 20 games and tied a 93-year-old record.
It all hinged on a strong start from Dylan Bundy, who's scuffled a bit following an impressive April in which the 24-year-old right-hander boasted a 1.65 ERA over 32 2/3 innings. In three June starts prior to Saturday's win, though, Bundy had put up an ugly 6.64 ERA over 20 1/3 innings.
The budding star for the Orioles underwent Tommy John surgery in 2013 and has battled durability issues for much of his young career. Over the course of May, though, Bundy pitched 39 innings - the 11th most in baseball over that span - leading some to question whether his workload was manageable and if his struggles could have been prevented.
"There's something called the eyeball test," Buck Showalter told Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports prior to Saturday's game. "We've got something set up all the way through fifth starter post-All-Star break, but it can be adjusted depending on what we see tonight."
When pressed about providing his starters with more rest, the Orioles manager said: "We've got a plan. We actually consider that with just not Dylan, either."
Heading into Saturday, Baltimore's pitching staff had the worst ERA in the majors. After Bundy's strong start on Saturday, perhaps the Orioles will rethink resting him specifically going forward, but Kevin Gausman (6.47 ERA) and Ubaldo Jimenez (7.26 ERA) are both certainly candidates to see future starts skipped.
"Physically, I'm great," Bundy told Kubatko. "I think that's 16 starts and last year I made 14 ... 16 starts in and I'm feeling stronger than I did after the first start of the year, so I feel good about it."
Bundy is just 10 2/3 innings away from matching his career-high workload set last season.