CINCINNATI — A little more than two weeks ago, John Means couldn’t even make it out of the first inning in Triple-A.
The veteran left-hander allowed five runs on five hits — two of which were homers — and recorded only one out in a minor league rehabilitation game against a team nicknamed the Jumbo Shrimp. The outing raised questions about whether Means would be inserted back into the rotation when it was time for him to return to Baltimore.
In his season debut Saturday night, Means proved something that didn’t need proving: When he’s healthy, he’s capable of greatness every night he takes the mound. After spending the first five weeks of the season on the injured list, Means reemerged as a force in Baltimore’s rotation, dominating the Reds to lead the Orioles to a 2-1 victory.
“I felt pretty good,” Means said. “This team is playing so well. You just want to join ’em, feel that energy that they’re feeling. To be back and be able to feel that, it’s pretty incredible.”
Means, who missed most of the past two seasons recovering from Tommy John elbow reconstruction, dazzled with seven spectacular scoreless innings and eight strikeouts. He needed just 85 pitches to stymie the Reds in a similar fashion as fellow southpaw Cole Irvin did in Friday’s win.
“That was unbelievable,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “I know he feels amazing right now. To go out and do that and pitch seven shutout innings, first time off of rehab, not being on a big league mound for a while, that was way more than we anticipated and expected. Just shows you the competitor Meansy is and how off-balance he can keep big league hitters.”
Closer Craig Kimbrel entered with a 2-0 lead in the ninth, hoping to save a shutout for the second straight night. But Kimbrel looked less like the Kimbrel who closed out Friday’s win and more like the Kimbrel who blew two saves against the Oakland Athletics last weekend.
He allowed three of the four batters he faced to reach base, the final on an RBI single by Spencer Steer to cut Baltimore’s lead in half. Hyde brought in Yennier Cano instead of sticking with his veteran closer, and the sinkerballer rewarded his manager and bailed out his teammate.
After a walk to load the bases, Cano struck out Christian Encarnacion-Strand for the second out and got Jeimer Candelario to fly out to left field to slam the door for his first save of the season.
“Unbelievable job by Cano,” Hyde said. “Once we got into an up by one, ground ball double play situation to end the game, Yenni is a great option. … He got a huge punchout after and then a fly ball. I just felt like Yenni gave us our best opportunity at that point.”
Baltimore’s pitching staff had gone 20 straight innings without allowing a run and looked poised for its fifth shutout in 13 games before Kimbrel stumbled. Still, the Orioles have allowed two or fewer runs in six straight games for the first time in a single season since May 1989. They’ve given up only seven runs in their past six games, going 5-1 in them, and have a 2.23 ERA over the past 13 contests.
“The game plans are great right now, and the execution might be even better,” catcher James McCann said about the pitching staff’s success. “Our offense hasn’t quite put up the runs that we probably should be putting up. … The fact that we’ve been able to grind out some of these wins is big.”
Jorge Mateo and Adley Rutschman provided the offense with solo home runs to left field in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, off Reds left-hander Andrew Abbott. The Orioles lead the major leagues in homers with 51 — seven more than any other team. Rutschman went 3-for-4 to improve his batting average to .321 and OPS to .831. Mateo, who is gaining more playing time with top prospect Jackson Holliday back in the minors, is hitting .265 with a .837 OPS.
Baltimore’s 22-11 start is the second-best in club history. The only Orioles team with a better mark through 33 games was the 1970 club that won 108 games and defeated the Reds in the World Series to claim the second of Baltimore’s three championships.
With the win, the Orioles maintained their standing as the American League’s top team, one game ahead of the Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees. The two wins against Cincinnati (16-17) extend the Orioles’ regular-season streak without being swept to an AL-best 102 series — the majors’ longest since World War II — although Baltimore was swept out of the postseason last year.
After surgery and setbacks, Orioles’ John Means has learned to smile through the tough times.
“At the end of the day, I’m pretty content with where life’s taken me. I believe this is the plan for me. I’m just going to trust in that.” https://t.co/7fpFrsd5Nl
— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) May 4, 2024
After a brief delay for rain that never fell, Means stepped on an MLB mound for the first time since September. Last year, after spending more than 16 months recovering from surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, he started four games down the stretch and recorded a 2.66 ERA. But his elbow flared up before the postseason, and the setback caused him to begin his offseason throwing program late and miss the first month of the Orioles’ season.
Almost exactly three years ago, Means no-hit the Seattle Mariners in the most iconic start of his seven-year career. His outing Saturday wasn’t quite to that level, as he scattered a measly three hits without a walk, but it’s perhaps been that long since he was this dominant. The 19 swings and misses Means generated are the fourth most in a start in his career. The last time he eclipsed that number was May 5, 2021, when he struck out 12 and totaled 26 whiffs in his no-hitter.
“That was great,” McCann said. “I have a lot of respect for John Means, the journey that he’s been through to get to this point. He’s going to be a big part of our rotation, a big part of our team. I know I’m not alone in saying that we’re very excited to have him back.”
In September, Means took a no-hitter into the seventh in Cleveland, but McCann said his stuff was even better Saturday, as the 31-year-old mixed his fastball, changeup, slider and curveball to fool the Reds. The last out he recorded was a line drive that shortstop Gunnar Henderson leaped high off the ground to snag. Henderson then turned a double play on his own to help left-hander Cionel Pérez bridge the game from Means to Kimbrel.
Means said he felt confident heading into the start — his first at Great American Ball Park, which Hyde called a “bandbox” — after throwing seven scoreless innings in his final rehab outing. That one went far better for him than his one against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, although Means said he wasn’t concerned after not making it out of the first inning 17 days before.
“There’s something about rehab starts with me,” he said with a smile. “I don’t know what it is. I wish I could tell ya. It’s something about being up here that feels comfortable. I’m just going to ride with that.”
The Orioles are more than fine riding with that, too.
Orioles at Reds
Sunday, 4:10 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
