Yu Darvish versus Tyler Wells is kind of a weird matchup—and after tonight, it makes me think the Padres will need more pitching to go deep in the postseason. But that’s a problem for a different team. For the Orioles, the big news is that Wells, making his first appearance in 500 days, covered five innings with two runs allowed, helping his team to an unexpectedly easy win, and an unexpected series victory at Petco Park.
The 39-year-old Darvish, recently off the IL with elbow trouble, is still not
quite himself. His control was wonky, as he hit two batsmen in the first inning, not to mention walking Samuel Basallo. Not only that, Darvish served up a whale of a home run to a hot Jeremiah Jackson. Only two questionable calls—to ring up Jackson Holliday and Ryan Mountcastle, respectively—got him out the inning.
Come the third, the Birds made it 3-0 off Darvish on a two-out clutch single by unsung utility man Emmanuel Rivera. Mountcastle and Colton Cowser had set the table with back-to-back singles, bringing Samuel Basallo up to the plate. Age met Youth, and Age won: Darvish slung a mean curveball, and Basallo went fishing. With two outs and Rivera at bat, I had nasty thoughts of “And there went another Orioles run-scoring chance …”
But Rivera proved me wrong! He won a ten-pitch at-bat against Darvish, scoring both Mounty and the Milkman with a single, and even though he got caught up in a rundown, two very important runs scored.
The Orioles tacked on two more in similar fashion in the fifth. After walking Jeremiah Jackson to lead off the fifth, Darvish was lifted after 87 pitches on four innings. Wandy Peralta came to relieve him, but he made it worse. Ryan Mountcastle and Rivera (again!) strung together a pair of singles, and Jackson and Mounty came home to pad the lead.
That made it a 5-2 game, and time to talk about the Orioles’ starter, in what was a memorable night for him. Out of the MASN booth, Ben Wagner and Ben McDonald were pumping up the drama, reminding us how it’d been over 500 days since Tyler Wells had faced a batter, and of all the emotions he must have feeling.
So how’d the season debut go? Big Ben said from the booth: “It’s good to see Big Daddy Tyler Wells doing his thing,” and he speaks for all of us.
Wells looked good. Sweaty, tired, and sometimes tentative, but good. He didn’t go deep in this game, and his fastball velo wasn’t wow, but he was effective. The Wells changeup looks a lot like his fastball, with a velo gap that’s enough to earn plenty of swings-and-misses. Wells’ control was on-point, to boot, with 65 strikes of 85 pitches.
The vibes were definitely immaculate when Wells erased Fernando Tatis Jr., his first batter in over a year, on three pitches. The umpiring crew denied the big righty a quick first inning when the home plate ump ignored an on-the-corner changeup that would have been strike three and first base ump Emil Jiménez forgave Manny Machado swinging through another offspeed pitch.
That might have shortened Wells’ night, as Manny ended up seeing eleven pitches, but it didn’t hurt Wells in the box score too much.
After a clean second, Wells allowed two runs on a Luis Arrárez home run in the third. The big righty allowed a one-out double that was super strange-looking, Dylan Beavers crashing into the wall on a makeable catch. The MASN crew caught a sweet moment in the dugout later where Tyler Wells made a point to tell his rookie outfielder that everything was okay. Anyway, the Padres runs scored when, with a man on, Luiz Arráez turned on an inside fastball and blasted that sucker into the seats. The Padres had sliced the lead to one run before Emmanuel Rivera’s second clutch RBI single made it 5-2.
The Birds would a helpful insurance run in the eighth after Padres reliever Alek Jacob put two on with free passes. The runners advanced on a swinging bunt by Jackson Holliday and the lead runner came home on an RBI groundout by Jeremiah Jackson, who keeps taking good AB’s.
With Wells out after five innings, it was bullpen time, and recently, that’s often been a mixed bag. Shawn Dubin, whom I couldn’t truthfully pick out of a lineup, pitched a solid sixth. But Kade Strowd and his musketeer vibes lost the zone, walking the bases loaded with one out. Strowd’s waywardness gave Rico García a tough assignment. But García has been through worse, and he got a key strikeout and bounceout to keep the score where it was. It was definitely a clutch play.
As for welcome season debuts, it may not top Wells’, but it was really good to see big guy Albert Suárez come in in the eighth to protect a 6-2 lead. Suárez pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, burning Ramón Laureano with heat at the top of the zone. And he came out for three more in the ninth, and got them!
All in all, this was a pretty effortless win for the Orioles, who did one of those confounding impressions of a good baseball team they sometimes do. Many good signs hopefully pointing ahead to next year.
