The Brandon Hyde era unofficially began this afternoon at Ed Smith Stadium with the Baltimore Orioles in THE WIN COLUMN! Yefry Ramírez took the ball as a starter, and provided some good results in his limited action on the mound. Ramirez’s line: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K.
Perhaps in an effort to highlight the fact that any of these games are in fact open competitions for jobs, Hyde submitted what almost looked like a travel roster for this game. More of the “regulars” such as Davis and Mancini will be in the lineup tomorrow, but Hyde obviously wanted to see what his younger players were going to do today.
Ramriez looking crisp in the first inning was an immediate good sign, as was the fact that Cedric Mullins drew a walk in the leadoff spot after being behind 0-2 in the count. Once Mullins got on base, he stole second and then took third on an errant throw. As I’ve said many times, things can happen when you get guys on the base paths and put pressure on the pitcher.
Later in that first inning Chance Sisco would smack a three-run home run, giving the O’s an early 3-0 lead. Interestingly this Orioles team was supposed to be more about manufacturing runs than anything else. But Brandon Hyde and company will certainly take homers whenever they come. Ramirez would allow his sole run in the second on a Telis run-scoring ground out. One inning later in the last of the third, the Birds in fact would manufacture a run – on Renato Nunez‘s sac fly-RBI.
Yusniel Diaz, the DH this afternoon, would smack a two-run homer later in that third inning, extending the Birds’ lead to 6-1. Minnesota would score in the seventh when Kranson reached on an error in the seventh, and Rio Ruiz would add a sac fly-RBI in the last of that seventh inning. All in all, you’ll take a 7-2 victory however you can get it, especially in day one of spring games.
As I said, Brandon Hyde obviously wanted to get a look at some younger players today, which is presumably why the aforementioned Davis and Mancini were omitted from the lineup today. We’ll see them tomorrow. However the young guns in today’s game atoned for themselves very well. That makes ultimate decisions tougher on management. And that’s exactly how management wants it.
The Orioles will remain at home in Sarasota tomorrow as the Toronto Blue Jays come in for a visit. David Hess gets the start for the Birds, and he’ll be opposed by Toronto’s Sean Reid-Kelly. Game time is set for just after 1 PM.
Birdland Crush 
Can we expect this the rest of the way?
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No. Nothing that happens (good or bad) between now and Opening Day in New York can be looked at as the norm. Good game today obviously, just not anything you can take away and suggest that this is how it’s going to be. Thanks for reading!
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Pitching looks putrid today. Because they don’t pay for good pitchers because they only believe in GREED! GREED! GREED!
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Ah the first Cravetti posting of the spring. Keep in mind that pitchers and pitching staffs often go out in an attempt to work on perhaps one or two pitches over the course of a day. So you can’t really say that things are progressively bad in these games because the pitches being thrown in certain situations may not be what they would normally throw. You have to take this with a grain of salt.
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