Albert Suárez makes his second start as the O’s open up a series with a late night (Eastern time) game
The Albert Suárez MLB comeback story gets another part tonight as the Orioles open up a three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels. Do you ever think about why they decided to call the team this so that it’s basically “The the Angels Angels”? Maybe just me? Okay.
There was a bit of Orioles roster news ahead of Monday’s game. Austin Hays’s calf soreness has turned out to be injured list-worthy, and the team put him on the IL earlier tonight. In doing so, the Orioles selected (again) the contract of catcher David Bañuelos from Triple-A Norfolk, and to clear room on the 40-man roster, designated Norfolk outfielder Peyton Burdick for assignment.
Everyone who’s now thinking about Burdick for the first time ever, you’re probably not alone, although I’m the kind of weirdo who had an opinion about him two months ago, the first time the O’s added him to the roster. So I don’t get to count myself in your company.
Back to Suárez. He made his return to MLB after a nearly seven-year absence with a thrilling reintroduction on Wednesday afternoon, pitching a 5.2 inning gem and only being prevented from being the winning pitcher by regrettable bullpen shenanigans. This outing generated the following note as MASN’s Roch Kubatko relayed some pre-game notes today:
Suárez and Mike Wright are the only Orioles pitchers to toss at least five scoreless innings without a walk in their first start with the team.
This is a prime demonstration of why I am going to need to see more from Suárez before deciding that he’s definitely going to be part of the answer in the Orioles rotation for the remainder of the season. Anybody can have a good first start. Wright had two good starts before reality started to catch up to him and he failed his way down into the bullpen, where he also was bad.
After his long exile from MLB, Suárez re-emerging and being at least decent would be a great story. I would love to see that story unfold as the 2024 season progresses. What I also know is that my wanting to will the Orioles, either individually or as a team, into having good stories work out is worth nothing. Nate McLouth didn’t hit the foul pole. The 2014 ALCS was just… you know. Zack Britton didn’t pitch in the wild card game. Just last year, the O’s did not win the whole dang thing in honor of Brooks Robinson. I wanted all of these things and that had no bearing on what happened.
The Angels lineup should be a good second test for Suárez because while they’re better than the horrible Twins hitters that he faced for his first start, they’re also not great. Mike Trout is looking like he’s back, and three other players in tonight’s lineup are hitting pretty well so far. The rest of the Angels, uh, they’ve got some problems. And at the risk of looking too far ahead, the next start for this turn in the rotation would be Sunday against the Athletics, who also have a crappy offense to date.
Orioles lineup
- Gunnar Henderson – SS
- Adley Rutschman – DH
- Jordan Westburg – 3B
- Anthony Santander – RF
- Ramón Urías – 1B
- Cedric Mullins – CF
- James McCann – C
- Colton Cowser – LF
- Jorge Mateo – 2B
No Jackson Holliday in this one, which is no surprise to me given that this is a matchup against a tough lefty – or at least one who’s been doing well very so far this year – in Angels starter Reid Detmers. Also absent is Ryan Mountcastle, who you might generally expect to see in against a lefty, with what manager Brandon Hyde described as a “precaution” absence with a sore knee.
Angels lineup
- Nolan Schanuel – 1B
- Mike Trout – CF
- Taylor Ward – LF
- Miguel Sanó – 3B
- Mickey Moniak – DH
- Jo Adell – RF
- Logan O’Hoppe – C
- Ehire Adrianza – 2B
- Zach Neto – SS
I kind of have to appreciate a lineup that has Mike, Miguel, and Mickey all in it. We know all about Trout. Sanó has an .810 OPS so far this season. Moniak is not doing so hot, batting just .156.
Detmers looks like he might be taking a big step forward this year in his age 24 season, after finishing with a cromulent but unremarkable 4.48 ERA a year ago. It’s a 1.19 ERA through four starts for Detmers. The Orioles just did some good work in inflating Cole Ragans’s ERA on Saturday night, so maybe they can find a way to do the same for this lefty now that they’ve arrived in Anaheim. That would surely help Suárez be able to have a more comfortable second outing, not that he needed any run support to pitch well in his first either.