Depth is a wonderful thing to have isn’t it? You never realize how truly important it is until both of your corner outfielders hit the disabled list, your entire lineup slumps and 2/5 of your rotation begins to decline.
Down on the farm on Thursday night, Chris Tillman got the best of rehabbing Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka in their head-to-head matchup in Pawtucket. Tillman threw eight frames of shutout baseball, surrendered one hit, walked one and struck out nine. He threw just 100 pitches, 68 for strikes.
It was Tillman’s best start of 2012 with the Triple-A Tides.
The Orioles have seen glimpses of greatness for the hard-throwing righty, but he has yet to prove he can command all of his pitches. At 6′ 5″, it’s my belief that Tillman’s struggles stem from issues of consistently keeping his arm angle in the right spot. When he can do that, like Thursday, his stuff is deadly. But when he can’t, he puts far too many balls over the middle of the plate.
Newly acquired reliever J.C. Romero also appeared the the Tides 2-0 win against the Paw Sox. Romero surrendered his first hit with the Tides in 4 innings of relief work over five games.
Actually Zach , his success is determined by who he faces,,,,,,he is not capable of being competitive against the better teams in the league , especially when they throw a quality pitcher at him,,,,,,,,,,,face it Zach , he just isn’t that good……….
Well,,,,,,maybe give him a chance up here. It would be better than watching Arrieta for another below-par performance. If they ain’t cutting it, get someone else to do the job and Brit and Tilly have the inside track.