Rich Dubroff

Orioles pitching coach Holt gives credit to Means after no-hitter; López stays in rotation; Santander healing

BALTIMORE—Orioles pitching coach Chris Holt has been given much credit for John Means’ development, particularly his go-to pitch, the changeup.

It led to Means’ no-hitter on Wednesday, which would have been a perfect game had catcher Pedro Severino not dropped a third strike on Seattle’s Sam Haggerty in the third inning. Severino then threw out Haggerty attempting to steal, which is why Means faced the minimum of 27 batters. Twenty-six of those received first-pitch strikes and 12 struck out.

Means has been exceptional all season — 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA after the masterpiece against the Mariners. Holt pointed the  praise at his left-hander on Friday.

“You work to give them accurate information and lead them in the right direction,” he said. “John Means is a self-made, self-motivated guy who took a little information and ran with it. He’s one of the most consistent, hard-working athletes I’ve ever encountered.”

Holt enjoyed his mastery of the Mariners.

“You’re always surprised by a no-hitter or a near-perfect game,” he said.  “He’s been amazing with how he’s been consistent, with how he’s approaching his outings, with how he’s been attacking hitters consistently.

“I think we saw just a notch above that with the no-hitter, obviously. Surprised at an amazing performance, no? He’s been very consistent, but a nice treat, and what an amazing, amazing performance that that was and the first of its kind.”

Holt, who was in the organization,working mostly with minor league pitchers in 2019, met Means during spring training that year but isn’t sure when.

“It’s tough to remember exactly,” Holt said. “The bigger piece here is, I saw the potential in what he has available to work with, similar to discussions I have with any pitcher, and having an opportunity to meet with him, get to know him, see where he felt like he was good and working to again just take a step forward in what he has available.”

Holt isn’t one who is campaigning for dropped third strikes to be called out automatically, which would have given Means a perfect game.

“You have to accept things the way they are at the time,” Holt said. “With the evolution of the game and things perhaps changing and some rules that are being discussed, that is one of those rules that will continue to get looked at. As far as the effect of that rule on this particular outing, I think you have to really not look at that but look at the amazing performance that Johnny and Sevy put together despite anybody’s talk about a dropped third strike.

“To appreciate this outing and not to let that be a piece of the narrative is really the most important thing. Phenomenal appearance from start to finish … There was never any notion that he was protecting a no-hitter or anything like that, so to bring in the dropped third strike and make that a big piece is really not doing justice to the bigger piece of the narrative there, which is how phenomenal a performance that really was on both his and Severino’s part.

“As the game continues to evolve and rule changes come and go, that’s certainly one that’s on the table, it seems like.”

López stays in rotation: Despite his difficulty in getting through five innings, Jorge López remains in the starting rotation. He is scheduled to start Monday against Boston.

“I’m not ready to give up on him,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I really like this guy’s arm. He’s been a starter almost his entire career. I’d just like to push him a little bit. I’d like to make it easy on him one time and give him a lead and let him kind of go, but I’m not ready to give up on a starting spot yet.”

Injury updates: Rightfielder Anthony Santander, who’s on the 10-day injured because of a sprained left ankle, is improving, according to Hyde. “He’s very close starting baseball activity,” Hyde said. “He’s walking, he’s jogging now. He’s really close from a baseball standpoint. Once he gets started there, it’s about getting at-bats and getting in game shape. Hopefully, he’s a week or two weeks away.”

Right-handed relief pitcher Mac Sceroler, a Rule 5 pick who’s on the 10-day injury list because of tendinitis in his right shoulder, was scheduled for a side session on Friday.

“He’s doing well, he’s throwing well,” Hyde said. “He’s progressing, also. Both of those guys are heading in the right direction.” 

Saturday starter still TBA: Hyde hasn’t named a starter for Saturday and said because of the uncertain forecast for Friday night, he would wait on a decision.

Rich Dubroff

Rich Dubroff grew up in Brooklyn as a fan of New York teams, but after he moved to Baltimore, quickly adopted the Orioles and Colts. After nearly two decades as a freelancer assisting on Orioles coverage for several outlets, principally The Capital in Annapolis and The Carroll County Times, Dubroff began covering the team fulltime in 2011. He spent five years at Comcast SportsNet’s website and for the last two seasons, wrote for PressBoxonline.com, Dubroff lives in Baltimore with his wife of more than 30 years, Susan.

View Comments

  • Et tu IchRay? How does one drop a wild pitch that bounces in the dirt in front of you? 10 or 15 IchRay? Et tu?

    • AR-Watch 2021, I’ll apologize ahead of time if you take this the wrong way, because I simply could be wrong. It seems to me that you take affront to any criticism of players you like as if it’s personally aimed directly at you. I just don’t see it that way. Those of us who are older (I’m assuming you’re much younger than me and I’m 61), simply want to see Oriole baseball played once again the way we grew up on it and we, at least a few of us, don’t think they’re fielding their strongest team right now. So if I criticize Severino or Urias please don’t take it personally, because believe me it’s not. I’ve posted in the past that I really wanna see Richie Martin given a long look at SS as in my opinion he was the most improved player on the team from beginning to end of season in 2019. I wanna see AR called up sooner rather than later. Those two things would mean getting Seve and Urias far less playing time. Again, nothing personal to you. I’m sure we all want the O’s winning,

      • My guess is he's (BrooksPJs...AR-Watch-2021 or whoever he is) on the the low end of 30. Maybe I'm a decade off and he's in his lower 40's.

        Either way, our new know-it-all "Millie" Homer appears to be here to stay.

  • Hyde is not ready to give up on him! This guy has a ERA of 8.15 and he not ready to give up on him. FYI, Hyde, your team will need to score 10 (TEN) runs per game to win when this guy pitches. Now I will say that you may not be making this decision, it probably came from Genius1. As a matter of fact, I'm sure you didn't make the decision to keep this guy, no real Baseball guy would.

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