Shintaro Fujinami, the Orioles’ lone bullpen addition ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline, brings tremendous upside. Wednesday’s outing showed his downside.
Inheriting two runners from rookie starter Grayson Rodriguez with two outs in the sixth of Baltimore’s matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays, Fujinami issued a four-pitch walk, then hit consecutive batters, allowing both of Rodriguez’s runners to score before an error by shortstop Jorge Mateo brought in another. The three scores in a hitless inning provided the final margin in Baltimore’s 4-1 defeat at the Rogers Centre.
“I wanted to get an out so bad,” Fujinami said through interpreter Issei Kamada. “Grayson was doing a great job today. I didn’t want to give up a run, and I just put too much pressure on myself.”
At the cost of sending No. 30 prospect Easton Lucas to the Oakland Athletics, Fujinami was a tantalizing acquisition for the Orioles (66-42), with his high-velocity fastball and wicked splitter making him an enticing option to add to manager Brandon Hyde’s All-Star late-inning tandem of Yennier Cano and Félix Bautista. But the right-hander has at times struggled to harness his devastating stuff, seemingly needing to settle into his outings.
Including Wednesday’s performance, the first two batters to face Fujinami across his first six appearances with Baltimore have gone 1-for-6 with a home run while walking five times and getting hit once. Asked whether the trend will affect how he deploys Fujinami going forward, Hyde responded, “Well, we really need him.”
“He just didn’t have his command,” Hyde added. “His last few times out, he was really, really good, and hopefully, he can get back to that.”
Rodriguez allowed two hits, one run and no walks through 5 2/3 innings before issuing consecutive free passes in full counts, the latter coming in a 10-pitch battle with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Coming off a three-outing span in which he struck out seven with two walks over 4 2/3 scoreless innings, Fujinami entered and threw four straight balls to load the bases before his fifth pitch hit Matt Chapman. After a mound visit, Fujinami got ahead 0-2 on Danny Jansen, then hit him, too, later saying he was working too quickly with his slide-step motion and affecting his timing.
He seemed to get an inning-ending grounder right to Mateo, but the infielder booted the ball to allow another run to score. Mateo led all American League shortstops in Statcast’s outs above average last year with 11 but has been worth 2 OAA in 2023, including a minus-3 mark in July. Offensively, Mateo entered Wednesday, in which he went 0-for-2, batting .159 with no home runs and a .415 OPS since the start of May.
“Guys are going to make errors. We’re not going to be perfect in the field, and we were pretty close, especially these last couple of weeks,” said Hyde, whose team has just three errors in the past two weeks, all since Saturday.
The inning at last ended on a line drive to third baseman Gunnar Henderson. Overall as an Oriole, Fujinami has allowed four runs (three earned) in 6 2/3 innings with five walks, two hit batters and nine strikeouts.
“First couple outings were a little wobbly,” Fujinami said. “I had three good outings, and today, I kind of lost my command again, so hopefully, my performance is going to be better, and I can pitch in a good situation again.”
Both of Fujinami’s hit batters added runs to Rodriguez’s line. The only other score off Rodriguez came in the fourth, when Brandon Belt doubled for Toronto’s first hit and George Springer scored him with a bloop into center. Those were the only hits the rookie right-hander allowed.
In four starts since rejoining the Orioles’ rotation after being optioned back to Triple-A Norfolk with a 7.35 ERA, Rodriguez has a 3.57 ERA and held opponents to a .195 average. Both he and Hyde said he didn’t have his best command Wednesday, which made his performance more impressive.
“Got away with some fastballs that kind of ran back in the middle, but he’s got such good stuff that he lasted for a while,” Hyde said. “He pitched very, very well.”
Ryan Mountcastle continued to have success since coming off the injured list with two singles and two walks, accounting for almost half of the nine times an Oriole reached base Wednesday. Baltimore’s lone run came on Adley Rutschman’s infield single in the fifth.
The defeat, which ended with rookie infielder Jordan Westburg getting picked off first base, marked the Orioles’ first in their past seven games at Toronto (60-49). They’ll look to win the four-game series Thursday behind right-hander Jack Flaherty, making his team debut after being acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday for three prospects.
With Flaherty and Fujinami in the fold, the trade deadline passed and exactly a third of the regular season to go, the Orioles will rely on the players they have to hold on to their lead in the AL East, which remained at 1 1/2 games over the Tampa Bay Rays despite Wednesday’s loss. Rodriguez said the clubhouse believes in its ability to get where it wants to go.
“We’re really confident,” he said. “Obviously, we have to take it day by day. Each game presents a different challenge. but there’s a lot of guys in there that are really looking forward to what the rest of the season holds. We’ll worry about the postseason when we get there. But for right now, we’re ready to rock. We’re pretty confident with what we have in the locker room.”
Around the horn
- Orioles closer Félix Bautista was named the AL Reliever of the Month for the third time. In July, he did not allow a run over 14 innings, striking out 25 of 48 batters faced. “He’s just been unbelievable,” Hyde said.
- Baltimore promoted outfielder Dylan Beavers, its No. 22 prospect according to Baseball America, to Double-A Bowie. The No. 33 pick in last year’s draft, Beavers went 2-for-4 with a double with his Baysox debut Wednesday.
Orioles at Blue Jays
Thursday, 3:07 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Source: Berkshire mont
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