Dylan Bundy

[ Down the stretch is a daily Orioles Insider blog that will set up the coming day for the O's and their American League competition as the push for the postseason continues. ] About last night O's shut out for the first time in 49 games, lose to Jays Schmuck: Now is not the time for Orioles to panic Dylan Bundy makes his home debut Hoes and Bundy win top minor league awards Randy Wolf (elbow) could be lost for the season Jason Hammel (knee)

The Orioles didn't have to make any extra travel plans for their top minor-league award winners for the first time in 20-plus years. On Tuesday, as part of minor league appreciation night, the organization honored current Oriole right-hander Dylan Bundy (Jim Palmer Prize) and outfielder L.J. Hoes (Brooks Robinson Award) during a pre-game ceremony at Camden Yards. Only two other times in the club's history have both of its top minor league award winners been with the Orioles in September: Anthony Telford and Leo Gomez in 1990 and Mike Mussina and Chito Martinez in 1991.

Technically, our curiosity, as Orioles manager Buck Showalter likes to say, was satisfied on Sunday, when uber-phenom Dylan Bundy faced two batters and retired both in his big league debut. But, for what was left of the announced crowd of 30,205 at Camden Yards on Tuesday, there was plenty of curiosity remaining when Bundy took the mound against the Toronto Blue Jays in the ninth inning for his home debut. He faced four batters and threw 22 pitches, only 12 for strikes. He went to a three-ball count on three of the four batters he faced and afterward called his fastball command “brutal.” Yet he didn't give up a run, thanks to Colby Rasmus' decision to swing on a 3-0 pitch, hitting it to J.J. Hardy for an inning-ending double play.

Top pitching prospect Dylan Bundy finally got into a major league game Sunday, making his major league debut in a relief appearance in the eighth inning of the series finale between the Orioles and Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Bundy was recalled from Instructional League early Wednesday morning as bullpen insurance after the Orioles needed 18 innings to vanquish the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field. He was not needed that night and there was some speculation that he might not pitch at all during the final two weeks of the regular season.

- It seemed almost unfair that in this storybook season for the Orioles, 19-year-old pitching prospect Dylan Bundy did not get the storybook ending that was supposed to come with his major league debut on Sunday afternoon at historic Fenway Park. He came on in the eighth inning to get his team out of a jam and leave himself within a modest ninth-inning rally of earning a doubly significant first career victory in the thick of the American League pennant race, but it was not quite to be. The Orioles' late-inning luck ran out when Jim Thome's pinch-hit liner into the right field corner bounced over the low fence near the "Pesky Pole" for a ground-rule double and kept Mark Reynolds from streaking home with the tying run. There were two more chances with the bases loaded to turn the game around with one swing, but Red Sox closer Andrew Bailey retired Manny Machado and Ryan Flaherty to avert a three-game sweep that would have lifted the Orioles back into a first-place tie in the AL East.

Now that 19-year-old righty Dylan Bundyis with the Orioles, the question is whether he'll be put on the playoff roster (yes, he is eligible) if the club indeed has one. Right now, my guess is no. Simply because the bullpen has a lot of arms, and ones that have been pretty good, so Bundy probably won't be part of the postseason. But you never know. If you had asked me on July 31 if Manny Machado would be a lock for the playoff roster, I would have laughed at you. (The kid is only in Double-A, you clown, I would have said.)

Dan Duquette said the decision to bring up 19-year-old pitching phenom Dylan Bundy to help a bullpen depleted by an 18-inning marathon in Seattle on Tuesday was pretty simple. “We needed a pitcher for tonight, he worked all his life to be a big leaguer, he is on our [40-man] roster,” Duquette, the club's executive vice president, said. “So we thought this was a good opportunity.” Bundy, the fourth overall pick in last year's amateur draft, will be placed in the bullpen for now - an old school move that managers like Hall of Famer Earl Weaver adhered to when dealing with young up-and-coming pitchers like Jim Palmer and Mike Boddicker.

Here's what tonight's bullpen probably looks like after the Orioles' 18-inning game and the call-up of top pitching prospect Dylan Bundy: Long relief Bundy Zach Phillips (L) Middle relief Luis Ayala Brian Matusz (L) Closer Jim Johnson Against the Mariners on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning after starter Wei-Yin Chen was only able to go 5 1/3 innings, Jake Arrieta went 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Matusz faced just two batters and threw 12 pitches, Darren O'Day went 1 2/3, Pedro Strop pitched an inning, Steve Johnson threw three innings, Tommy Hunter threw two and Johnson closed out the win, facing three batters and throwing 13 pitches.

Anyone who has been around Orioles manager Buck Showalter's pregame news conferences has noticed how often he asked about Dylan Bundy's minor league outings during the course of the season. Some of it is Showalter's deadpan shtick, but you could defeinitely tell that the Orioles skipper was itching to kick the tires on the organization's top pitching prospect this season. The Orioles' sudden summoning of Bundy today to add bullpen depth shouldn't be too surprising. A few weeks back, Showalter announced that the 19-year-old phenom would not be a late-season call up, but instead participate in the organization's instructional league in Sarasota, Fla. But until then, all signs pointed to Bundy joining the big club in September.

The major league call-up of Orioles 19-year-old phenom Dylan Bundy to help replenish the club's bullpen after an 18-inning game Tuesday night is a surprise. But it's being made for the right reasons, according to franchise's most heralded and successful pitcher. “It's a prudent move, it's not a knee jerk reaction,” says Jim Palmer, MASN color analyst and the Orioles' Hall of Fame pitcher. “Because of the condition of the bullpen there is a need. It makes sense to me.” Bundy, the club's fourth overall pick in last year's draft, was in the organization's instructional league in Sarasota, Fla., after a season in which he was 9-3 with a 2.08 ERA in 23 starts at three levels.