BALTIMORE—The Orioles have two struggling relievers with 11 All-Star appearances between them, Craig Kimbrel and Gregory Soto.
As the Orioles begin a two-game series with the Washington Nationals, manager Brandon Hyde looks to get better performances from the two.
“We’re going to need both of them, so I’m going to have to find a way,” he said.
Kimbrel, who has nine All-Star appearances, has been with the Orioles all season.
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“Craig had that All-Star first half,” Hyde said. “When he had a little blip, we found a way to get him back rolling again and I’ve tried to do that again this second half.”
On Sunday, Kimbrel walked three batters, one intentionally, and allowed what turned out to be the winning run at Tampa Bay. In his previous outing, he pitched a scoreless inning, allowing a hit and hitting a batter at Toronto on August 6th.
“That inning was more like him,” Hyde said of his appearance against the Blue Jays.
“The way we were in the ‘pen a couple of days ago, I wanted to give him that eighth inning, his command just wasn’t good unfortunately,” Hyde said of Sunday’s outing. “Hopefully, he can rebound from that. We’re going to need him the last two months, big time.”
Soto was acquired from Philadelphia on July 30th, and in four appearances, he’s allowed eight runs on nine hits in just 2 1/3 innings. He was 2-4 with a 4.08 ERA and two saves for the Phillies this season.
“Having a rocky season so far in Philadelphia,” Hyde said. “The stuff is there, so I gave him a couple of low-leverage spots, and I put him in a sixth-inning spot.”
On August 6th, Soto faced five Toronto batters. He retired just one, allowing four hits and a walk.
“A little bit of trouble with command there,’ Hyde said. “Those are the situations that I’m going to need him to pitch in. If we’re going to do anything down the stretch, we’re going to need not just [Yennier] Cano and Seranthony [Dominguez].
“Seranthony’s been unbelievable. We’re going to need six to eight guys to be able to pitch in big spots. Everybody wants me to pitch the same guys every single night. It’s not doable. I’m not going to do it. They’re going to blow out by the time the season’s over, so we’re going to need all eight guys, whoever that is in the ‘pen to be able to get different kinds of outs throughout the game.
“We did a good job of that last year and the year before. It’s important for us this year.”