Throughout spring training and even Sunday morning leading into Tyler Wells’ first major league start, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said he would limit the 27-year-old right-hander to three or four innings throughout the year in his conversion back to starting.
Baltimore would have been fortunate to get that many frames out of Wells on Sunday. The Tampa Bay Rays knocked him around in the second inning, scoring all the runs they needed in what became an 8-0 victory to complete a season-opening sweep.
After an initial breaking-in period as a Rule 5 draftee, Wells dazzled in the Orioles’ bullpen to become the club’s closer by late in 2021, a rookie year spent in relief following two seasons in which he didn’t pitch because of Tommy John surgery and 2020′s canceled minor season. But he climbed the minors as a starter and the Orioles believe he can succeed as one in the majors, naming him the third member of their rotation despite the fact that his innings will be monitored throughout the season.
Sunday, Wells needed 22 pitches to get through a scoreless first, but that was an efficient frame relative to what he faced in the second. After two walks, a comebacker ricocheted off his glove, a potential double-play ball turning into a bases-loading infield single. As they did all weekend, the Rays turned outs into runs, with a sacrifice fly and groundout giving them a 2-0 lead. Brandon Lowe (Maryland) doubled that advantage, hammering Wells’ 32nd pitch of the inning out to right field.
The Rays added another four runs in the seventh, but the first quarter was more than enough, with the Orioles unable to string together hits throughout the weekend. Baltimore batters went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position Sunday, finishing 2-for-24 in those situations on the weekend. Their 37 strikeouts in the series were a franchise record for the first three games of the season.
Meanwhile, the Orioles are 0-3 for the first time since 2007 and have lost 15 straight games to Tampa Bay. Since sweeping the Rays in their first series of 2020, they are 2-27 in these matchups, their worst 29-game span against any opponent in franchise history.
Big Bautista
Wednesday morning, Hyde called Félix Bautista into his office and asked a straightforward question.
“Hey,” he recalled Hyde saying, “do you want to come with us to Tampa?”
The answer, of course, was an emphatic yes, with Bautista calling his mom to share the news that he was finally a major leaguer. Through team interpreter Brandon Quinones, he said she began “crying tears of joy.”
Bautista, a 26-year-old right-hander conservatively listed at 6-foot-5, had a long journey to Sunday, when he pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in his major league debut. Signed out of the Dominican Republic as a teenager by the Miami Marlins, he battled control issues and was released, landing in the Orioles’ system in 2016. He opened last year as a 25-year-old in High-A, only to thrive as a reliever across three levels with his imposing build and stuff.
He showed off both Sunday. Entering in relief of Wells, Bautista began his major league career by striking out former No. 1 overall prospect Wander Franco, getting the young star to swing through two fastballs and flail at a changeup to close the second. Back out for the third, he got reigning American League Rookie of the Year Randy Arozarena to chase a slider in the dirt. In all, Rays batters missed five of their 10 swings against Bautista, who got his fastball up to 99.1 mph, according to Statcast.
Fry in the fray
Left-hander Paul Fry’s drastic troubles late in the year against the Rays led to him finishing the year at Triple-A. He perhaps seemed to shake them in Friday’s season opener, entering with the bases loaded and stranding three all three Tampa Bay runners.
But the Rays against pestered him Sunday. After Joey Krehbiel and Bryan Baker combined for three scoreless innings behind Bautista, Baker allowed an infield single to open the seventh, with second baseman Rougned Odor not charged with an error on a poor throw. Fry entered and allowed five of the next seven Rays to reach as Tampa Bay doubled its lead.
Fry followed that stretch by retiring three of the next four batters. Sunday, he allowed three earned runs in two innings against the Rays. In his last five appearances against them in 2021, he surrendered 15 earned runs in 1 1/3 innings.
This story will be updated.
Home opener
BREWERS@ORIOLES
Monday, 3:05 p.m.
TV: MASN Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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