Orioles manager Brandon Hyde described his bullpen usage in Saturday’s victory over the Washington Nationals as a case where everything “goes to script.” In his first year on the job, the figurative script often ended up in tatters.
Instead, this season, an improved Baltimore bullpen has the Orioles capable of holding the leads that so often escaped them in 2019′s late innings. The step forward has shown itself in the standings: At the one-third point of 2020′s 60-game season, the Orioles are 12-8.
Before Tanner Scott, Mychal Givens and Cole Sulser combined for four scoreless innings in which they allowed one hit among them to close a 7-3 win, the Orioles’ bullpen ERA was already a full run better than the league-worst mark the 2019 corps posted.