Cole Irvin’s head was slightly bowed coming off the mound. His left hand curled up into a quiet, celebratory fist pump the entire walk back to the dugout, having narrowly escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning of a tight game.
There was some relief in getting to that point, considering the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the Orioles’ usage of the left-hander this month.
Monday marked his first start back in the rotation after he was moved to the bullpen, where he made his previous two appearances before taking the mound against the Red Sox to begin a homestand. It’s a back-and-forth that jumbles his routine. Though he has some experience in that role, having transitioned to the bullpen on multiple occasions last year, it is a difficult task, Irvin said. Instead, he “has to find a way to make it easy.”
Irvin made it look effortless, throwing 92 pitches, including 61 strikes, while striking out six, walking three and allowing four hits in five scoreless frames in Baltimore’s 11-3 thrashing of Boston to earn the win and improve to 5-2.
Irvin admitted it took him a few innings to return to form as he had not started a game since a May 10 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“Cole gave us everything he had,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I mean, his workload has been interrupted. He went [56] pitches in St. Louis and then four days later he gets up over 90 pitches and goes five complete innings for a shutout. So, awesome job by Cole keeping them off balance.”
Irvin’s only sign of trouble came in that fourth inning with the Orioles clinging to a 2-0 lead.
“Funny enough,” Irvin said, “that was probably the inning that I felt back to normal in terms of how I like to execute pitches.”
Boston’s Rafael Devers and Garrett Cooper stacked no-out singles. When Romy Gonzalez spit a grounder up the middle, Irvin scooped it up and fired the ball over to third for the force out — a mental jolt evident in his smile to Jordan Westburg. But the left-hander walked Vaughn Grissom to load the bases with one out.
Irvin got ahead 0-2 against the next batter, Dominic Smith, before striking him out on the seventh pitch. The punch out came off a 93.3 mph four-seam fastball on the high, outside corner. Irvin then threw three consecutive curveballs to Rafaela Ceddanne, all between 77 and 79 mph, for the final out.
“Made some good pitches that fell for hits but all in all, getting out of that jam was huge,” Irvin said. “Getting a couple strikeouts there, it was definitely big for me to get through it.”
Not only was it a confidence booster for Irvin but it helped Hyde keep his bullpen pieces in order. If he hadn’t escaped the jam, particularly with the game in the balance, Hyde would have had to fish around the bullpen on a day that he said he’d “love to stay away from some people,” such as back-end relievers Craig Kimbrel, Danny Coulombe and Yennier Cano.
Much of Irvin’s recent success has been his consistency among the unfixed pieces around him — and finding a routine in both.
Irvin opened this year in the rotation with John Means and Kyle Bradish on the injured list. But in that time, he has been a consistent force no matter what spot he pitches from. “The mound doesn’t move,” he joked. “That’s a good thing.”
There was the lengthy scoreless streak of 22 2/3 innings that ended with his previous start earlier this month. Then, when Grayson Rodriguez returned from the IL, Irvin was temporarily moved to the bullpen, with Hyde saying the club would soon employ a six-man rotation. But injuries to Means and Dean Kremer last week forced Irvin back into the rotation sooner than originally planned.
Managing the two daily routines is Irvin’s guiding light. He has thrown 5 1/3 relief innings over two outings, giving up one and six hits, respectively. More notably, he has allowed only two runs in his past 31 1/3 innings as a starter.
“He’s kept a great mindset,” Hyde said. “He’s stayed positive. He’s really a team-first guy. I’m sure he wants to start. I’m sure he wants to know the routine that he’s gonna be on. But he’s putting himself in position to have success because of a really good mindset and helping out the team any way he can.”
