CLEARWATER, Fla. -- His outing hadn’t been particularly clean. Nor was his stuff what he wants it to be. This is also what progress looks like for Dylan Bundy.
“I was three for three,” he said.
Translation: He’d allowed a home run in his first outing in each of his previous three springs. That’s one of the first things he mentioned to Orioles manager Brandon Hyde when he came off the mound after the second inning on Thursday afternoon.
The Phillies and Orioles finished the day tied at 5. In Bundy’s two innings, he allowed one earned run and four hits with no walks and two strikeouts. And no home runs.
Here’s what pleased him: After three straight Phillies opened the bottom of the second inning with singles, Bundy got out of it by allowing only one run. Rather than succumb to a big inning, Bundy got three straight outs. One run came home on a sacrifice fly, but that was it.
“Any time you have the bases juiced like that, you try to limit the damage,” Bundy said. “Overall, I just felt good in general. I was happy with it.”
His manager was also pleased.
“I thought he was good,” Hyde said. “He was really happy with how he threw the ball. I thought the ball was coming out good. He’s got really nice hop on his four-seam. Threw some really good splits. I thought it was a positive outing for him.”
There was a time when Bundy probably thought he’d never even have a day like this one. He had future star written all over him when he made his Major League debut in 2012 at 19.
He would not throw a pitch in the Major Leagues the next three seasons as he sandwiched Tommy John surgery in between injuries to his shoulder and side.
“That was a long time ago,” Bundy said. “I try not to think about that stuff too much anymore. Yeah, there were definitely times of that, but the last three years -- knock on wood -- I’ve felt pretty decent with my body and my arm. Just got to keep pitching and taking care of your shoulder, your elbow and doing all the things you need to do to stay on the field.”
He has made 59 starts the last two seasons and been healthy the last three. He was only 25 last season when he made 31 starts and allowed 41 home runs, most in the Majors. Of those 41, 23 came with no runners on base.
Lesson?
“Locating the fastball,” he said. “I think every pitcher in the league will tell you that. That’s the key thing. You can’t make mistakes with your offspeed pitches when you’re ahead in the count. Today, I had a little bit of trouble with that, getting to two strikes and then prolonging the at-bat.”
All in all, though, it was a good start to a season in which the Orioles have a nearly entire new baseball operations staff along with a roster of youngsters trying to hustle their way onto the team.
“It’s great,” Bundy said. “It’s very energetic. All these kids are excited to play and get opportunities. There’s plenty of opportunities in this organization right now, and they’re at work when the sun hasn’t even come up.”