Tyler Wells took to the mound in the final Sunday afternoon game at Ed Smith Stadium this spring for the Baltimore Orioles, this against Atlanta. The fact that’s even “a thing” might be a bit of a reach, but work with me. Wells looked good today, as we enter the last week of Grapefruit League play. Wells’ line: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 6 K.
Wells gave up a solo homer in the top of the first inning to Austin Riley, which was his only hiccup on the afternoon. But Wells kept Atlanta scoreless for the rest of his outing. They would tack on what they thought was an insurance run in the seventh on Evans’ RBI-single, extending their lead to 2-0.
However last year, this was a team that did its best work after the seventh inning. And today, albeit an exhibition game, proved to be no exception. Reserve outfielder John Rhodes immediately tied the game with a two-run homer in the seventh. One inning later the Birds would bat around, and blow the top off the ballgame. Gunnar Henderson’s eighth inning RBI-double gave the O’s a 3-2 lead.
But in showing something else in common with last year’s team, the 2024 Orioles weren’t going to just assume the lead was safe. Michael Perez would smack a two-RBI double later in the inning to extend the lead to 5-2. But they still didn’t take their foot off the gas.
Rhodes would come up to bat again in that eighth inning, smacking another two-run homer Coby Mayo would add an RBI-double running the final to 9-2. You could argue that things got out of hand in a sense. But good teams win games like that. And the Orioles are going to be a good team.
The Birds are off tomorrow, their final off day of the spring. They’ll head to Dunedin on Tuesday to take on Toronto.
Birdland Crush 