John Means made his triumphant return to the big leagues this evening at Camden Yards for the Baltimore Orioles – against St. Louis. It’s tough to criticize the outing given that he’s coming off of Tommy John’s. End of the day, Means went five innings. It’s a start. Means’ line: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 1 K.
It was a shake-‘n-bake sort of start for Means. You can’t talk about it without mentioning the length of time he’s been out rehabbing. And personally, I saw one massive bright spot in Means’ outing: he minimized the damage.
Means gave up a solo homer to Goldschmidt in the first, a sac fly-RBI to Walker in the second, and a solo homer to Palacio in the third. However toss those solo homers out for a moment. Solo home runs are going to happen, and generally they won’t hurt you.
However sandwiched in there is that sac fly-RBI. St. Louis loaded the bases in the second inning. This on two softly hit singles, and a fielder’s choice where the runner was safe at first. And the only run that Means surrendered was that sac fly. He minimized the damage, and got the O’s back in the dugout. That stands out to me about his outing, as did the zero walks.
The O’s attempted to make their move however in the last of the fifth. Anthony Santander’s RBI-single cut the lead to 3-1, and Ryan O’Hearn’s fielder’s choice-RBI cut it to 3-2. However Palacios would add a second solo homer in the seventh, followed by an RBI-single by Nootbaar. And St. Louis took game two of the series, 5-2.
The first part is that Means came back. From Tommy John’s. And again, while he wasn’t perfect and he only pitched the five innings, he did minimize the damage. That’s all meaningful.
The series concludes tomorrow night at Camden Yards. Kyle Gibson gets the start for the Orioles, and he’ll be opposed by St. Louis’ Drew Rom (who was acquired from the Orioles in the Jack Flaherty trade). Game time is set for just after 6:30 PM.
Birdland Crush 