Matt Harvey Is BACK Baby! The First Place Birds Get Some Timely Hitting And Pull One Out Against Boston To Win Their First Series Of 2021
You smell that? That's a Opening Weekend series win in Boston for your first place Baltimore Orioles. Following up John Means' incredible performance yesterday we had Matt Harvey making his Orioles debut. And you know what, he wasn't half bad. There were a lot of jokes made around the signing and how he was done, and he still may be done, but today he was good. Did just enough to help the Orioles win their second in a row.
He didn't get the W because he didn't go 5 but that's fine, that stat stinks anyways. The big thing was 4 Ks and only 1 walk for Harvey. The control wasn't quite there but he was still able to limit the damage from the Sox bats. 6 hits in 4 and 2/3rds and the 2 ER is something I can deal with out of Harvey. He was hovering around 93-95 and would ramp it up occasionally, but he was good enough today. Pretty much what I expected from him, even got the pitch count up there a bit which was good to see.
Maikel Franco came through clutch today with a nice hit up through the middle to score 2 and get the runs started. And of course the Orioles wouldn't have been in that position if it wasn't for this unreal play by Rafael Devers.
Throw of the year for sure. I laughed out loud watching this ball come out of his hand and soar 10 feet over the second baseman's head and roll into the outfield. Hell of a play. I will say Tanner Houck was REALLY good for the Sox today, 8 Ks in 5 IP but the Birds did get 3 runs off him and that proved to be enough. That guy is going to be a monster though, he's a righty Chris Sale. Strikeout machine.
Recent pickup, Adam Plutko, was huge for the Birds out of the pen today after going 2 and 1/3rd only giving up 1 hit and striking out 2. Dillon Tate was REALLY good for an inning, and then we had Cesar Valdez come in during the 9th for his second save in as many days and it scared the shit out of me. He hit the leadoff man after being up 0-2, walked Bobby Dalbec, and then got Cordero to K, Christian Vazquez to fly out, and then Hernandez to ground out. Game over, series win, save #2 for Valdez and the Orioles are undefeated and in first place. Love that. Harvey Day was a success, and don't yell at me because Clem said I could use it. How about a sweep tomorrow, eh?