Orioles Pitching

BOSTON -- A crisis is the Orioles starting 26-year-old rookie Richie Lewis in the second game of a doubleheader last night at Fenway Park -- after wasting a Mike Mussina start and losing the first game.A crisis is Todd Frohwirth standing in the clubhouse between games, shaking his head and saying, "I don't know what's gone wrong."A crisis is Alan Mills coming out of the bullpen to make his third career start today because manager Johnny Oates has no other choice.Proclaiming the Orioles in crisis might sound extreme with two months left in the season, but can you name one area of the Orioles' pitching on which Oates can depend right now?

Well, the Orioles certainly know how to make a splash. Moments after they beat the Yankees 3-2 in 10 innings on Nate McLouth's walk-off home run, news broke that the team was calling up pitching prospect Kevin Gausman from Double-A Bowie to make his major league debut Thursday in Toronto . It's not a surprise that Gausman is making the jump from Double-A. Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette made that clear last week when he said that Double-A was the proving ground where the organization wanted to see him succeed.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- So far, so good. No warts on any pitching hands. No career- threatening neck and shoulder injuries. No line drives caroming off foreheads.The Orioles' starting pitchers are cruising through a spring season as uneventful and effective as last year was calamitous."I'd say we're due," said former pitching coach Mike Flanagan, temporarily in uniform these days as a spring instructor.Sure, it's way too early to get excited. Grapefruit League innings pitched against obscure opponents wearing offensive linemen's numbers are hardly a meaningful barometer.

Orioles closer Jim Johnson can be depended on to always be at his locker to answer questions anytime he becomes a focal point of a game following a blown save. Those times have been rare, until recently, as Johnson has blown three consecutive ninth-inning leads that all ended in losses.Following the Orioles' 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees in the 10th inning on Monday at Camden Yards, Johnson put the team's season-high six-game losing streak in perspective. “Well, three of them are my fault,” Johnson said.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Sorry, but the answers scheduled for today's column have been postponed. This is spring training. It's too early for answers. They're all at the beach.But as the Orioles establish themselves as the official flops of early spring, sinking to the bottom of the heap with 0-21 authority, it's not too early to ask a few questions.So, let's go ahead and cut right to the biggie: Do the Orioles really have enough pitching to beat out the Blue Jays and Yankees?It's not clear that they do. And not just because their pitchers are getting hammered down here as consistently as the noonday sun is hot.Even before the first tobacco juice splatter hit the dirt in mid-February, it was clear that the Orioles' pitching would be their biggest obstacle.

Orioles manager John Oates apparently likes a good mystery. He kept the makeup of his starting rotation a secret all spring, which is an indication of how much the pitching staff has changed for the better.It was the first time the Orioles rotation has kept anyone in suspense since 1989.The team finally had enough pitching depth to force a few hard choices, but the air of mystery will remain until the Orioles can shake off the residue of two very discouraging seasons. The spring has been very promising, but these kinds of promises have been broken before:* Second-year starter Mike Mussina opened the spring with 10 1/3 hitless innings and was the most effective pitcher on the staff for much of the exhibition season.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Orioles pitching prospect Steve Bechler, who made his major- league debut five months ago at Camden Yards, died yesterday morning of multisystem organ failure caused by heatstroke. He was 23. Bechler was rushed to North Ridge Medical Center toward the end of Sunday's spring training workout after becoming pale and disoriented on one of the back fields of the Orioles complex. He was attempting to complete his final conditioning run. His body temperature later peaked at 108 degrees, a team physician said.

The waiting is the hardest part. Manager Johnny Oates spen 4 1/2 hours in the Orioles dugout last night, wondering when his supposedly improved offensive lineup would find its way home.He still is wondering. The Chicago White Sox finally scored a run in the 14th inning to outlast the Orioles, 2-1, before the 65th consecutive sellout crowd at Camden Yards.White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas drove home the deciding run with a sacrifice fly off reliever Alan Mills and laid to waste two of the brightest Orioles pitching performances of the season.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - When they played together for the Orioles in 1971-72, Davey Johnson asked Pat Dobson a lot of questions about pitching, and Dobson's knowledge impressed him.Dobson knew mechanics, offered sound logic in his approach to pitching to hitters, and Johnson thought Dobson possessed a veritable master's degree in the art of throwing a slider. Dobson had to know something about pitching, Johnson figured, because he didn't have a great arm and still figured out a way to win.Every time Johnson interviewed for a managerial job, he thought about hiring Dobson.

It's 9: 30 a.m. and Ray Miller already has laid his cards on the table. Spread about his suburban apartment are the tendencies of Ken Griffey, Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez and every other Seattle Mariner who might do his pitchers harm. Less than two months into Miller's return home, the cards are dealing.Back in Baltimore after a 10-year tour of the National League, Miller's return as Orioles pitching coach has coincided with one of the game's most remarkable transformations. In a place transfixed by longball a year ago, ground-ball outs, quality starts and first-pitch strikes have become the rage.

BOWIE -- Orioles pitching prospect Kevin Gausman has hit some rough patches through the first few weeks of his first full professional season while pitching at Double-A Bowie, but the 22-year-old right-hander's steady development continues to be more important than any pitching line. Gausman, who is ranked the No. 2 prospect in the Orioles' organization and No. 26 in all of baseball by Baseball America, will enter his fifth start of the season on Sunday against Harrisburg with a 1-2 record and a 4.74 ERA and has allowed four or more earned runs in two of his four starts.

Orioles top pitching prospect Dylan Bundy remains shelved after experiencing right elbow and forearm tightness in late March. He has yet to throw off a mound and is instead doing strengthening exercises at the club's spring training complex in Sarasota, Fla. There is no set timetable for when he will pitch in his first minor league game this season at Double-A Bowie. Orioles director of player development Brian Graham said the 20-year-old Bundy is not feeling any lingering soreness, but the club is purposely taking it slowly with him. "We are being cautious," Graham said.

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The stability of the Orioles starting rotation - in which four pitchers essentially had spots locked up  - and a Grapefruit League schedule that included a heavy dose of American League East opponents was possibly the best thing that could have happened to Orioles pitching prospect Kevin Gausman. In Gausman's first spring camp, he's had a chance to compile innings in major league games because the Orioles didn't want to pitch their established starters against division competition.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter hasn't announced the winner of the team's No. 5 starter competition, but this week's pitching schedule, which was announced Saturday, would indicate that right-hander Jake Arrieta appears to be in line for the spot. Arrieta, who was initially slated to start Tuesday's game against the Twins in Fort Myers, will now pitch in a minor league game at Twin Lakes Park on the same day. Pitching prospect Kevin Gausman will now start against the Twins. Over the past few weeks, Showalter has sent most of his entrenched starters to minor league games so that they won't be overexposed facing a bevy of AL East opponents and the Twins, who is the Orioles' home opener opponent.

Here is the roster of pitchers who will throw one inning each in Saturday's exhibition opener against the Minnesota Twins at Ed Smith Stadium: Zach Britton Jake Arrieta Tommy Hunter Steve Johnson Dylan Bundy T.J. McFarland Todd Redmond Zach Clark Adam Russell Seven pitchers have been announced for Sunday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Dunedin: Jair Jurrjens Troy Patton Mike Belfiore ...

Wednesday will mark the first of two consecutive days of Orioles intrasquad games leading up to Saturday's Grapefruit League opener against the Minnesota Twins at Ed Smith Stadium. The Orioles will play a pair of three-inning intrasquad games Wednesday starting at 10:15 a.m. Each pitcher is scheduled to throw one inning. The games are open to the public. On Field 3 at the Ed Smith Stadium complex, Steve Johnson, Zach Clark and Mike Wright will pitch in the top half of innings, and Todd Redmond, Dylan Bundy and T.J. McFarland will throw the bottom half of innings.

Orioles closer Jim Johnson can be depended on to always be at his locker to answer questions anytime he becomes a focal point of a game following a blown save. Those times have been rare, until recently, as Johnson has blown three consecutive ninth-inning leads that all ended in losses.Following the Orioles' 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees in the 10th inning on Monday at Camden Yards, Johnson put the team's season-high six-game losing streak in perspective. “Well, three of them are my fault,” Johnson said.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Orioles manager Buck Showalter purposely made sure he steered away from watching pitching prospect Kevin Gausman's first bullpen session of big league camp on Thursday. Showalter said he didn't want his eyes to add any pressure as the 21-year-old first-round pick tried to make an impression in his first major league spring training camp. When Gausman, the Orioles' first-round pick (No. 4 overall) in last year's draft, threw his second bullpen session on Saturday, Showalter couldn't resist sneaking a peek.