The starting pitching woes of their parent club have been well documented, but the Double-A Bowie Baysox certainly cannot relate to the Orioles' problems.
For all the talk about Eastern League Most Valuable Player Lou Montanez and top prospect Matt Wieters, the Baysox's rotation has been the backbone of the Southern Division champions. Bowie will start its playoff run tomorrow as a best-of-five series against the Akron Aeros begins at Prince George's Stadium.
"There's been great continuity," Baysox pitching coach Mike Griffin said. "We've had a core of our pitchers stay here the entire year. They've come up together and they're having success together, and when you're having success as a group, everybody feeds off each other. It's kind of like a competition between the five starters here. They see one starter go six or seven innings and the next guy says, 'I'm going to do that, maybe even try to go one more.' "
Right-hander Brad Bergesen (15-6, 3.22 ERA) started the season at Single-A Frederick, and all he has done since being promoted to Bowie is set the franchise record for victories and earn the league's Pitcher of the Year award. Right-hander David Hernandez (10-4, 2.68) has won five straight decisions and has allowed two earned runs or fewer in 23 of 27 starts this season.
Chris Tillman (11-4 3.18), a right-hander who is widely considered the organization's top pitching prospect, has struck out 51 over his past six starts and hadn't allowed an earned run in three straight outings before giving up two Sunday. Despite giving up five earned runs in his last start, right-hander Jason Berken (12-4, 3.58) is 6-1 with a 2.74 ERA in eight starts since the All-Star break. Zach Clark, a right-hander who attended UMBC, is the least heralded of the group as he has pitched for four Orioles affiliates this season. He has found a home at Bowie, going 4-2 with a 3.60 ERA in 10 starts.
"Just watching them in spring training, [I knew] it was a pretty darn good core, and it's a very darn good core right now," said Griffin, who got only nine starts out of Opening Day starter Chorye Spoone because of injury, but he has had a pretty stable rotation otherwise. "I think the best thing that helped me out is I've never had to one time go to any one of them and say, 'Let's go to the mound, let's go work on something.' They're always there every single day of the baseball season. When you have that as a pitching coach, it's a dream."
