Orioles’ ‘deep’ bench working to master the art of pinch hitting ahead of playoffs: ‘Every man on this roster is important’

The Orioles’ series against the Los Angeles Angels, on paper, didn’t look too enjoyable for Ryan O’Hearn and Adam Frazier.

On the docket for the Angels were left-handed starting pitchers for all three games, meaning O’Hearn and Frazier would spend most of the series on the bench.

But the two veteran left-handed hitters knew their numbers would be called sometime at Angel Stadium. They were Tuesday, and they both delivered clutch hits to spark a comeback en route to a critical September win.

“We’re able to do that platoon thing, which isn’t necessarily fun if you face three lefties in a row,” Frazier said. “But it’s honestly impressive how deep the bench is for us. I think that’s a big reason why we’re so good. We can swing matchups in our favor and we’ve got good players coming off the bench.”

The art of pinch hitting isn’t easy. After riding the pine for most of the game, the player must quickly get loose and face a relief pitcher, who is often throwing upward of 100 mph with a nasty breaking ball.

The Orioles rank in the middle of the pack among MLB teams in pinch-hit OPS, but the clutch hits Tuesday weren’t the club’s first. And if the Orioles achieve their goals to end the regular season and in the playoffs, they won’t be their last.

O’Hearn, in his first year with the Orioles, said he’s never been on a team with a bench as deep as Baltimore’s. Against left-handed starters, Baltimore’s bench almost always has O’Hearn and Frazier on it, while catcher James McCann, shortstop Jorge Mateo and outfielder Ryan McKenna are available against righties. Ramón Urías, Jordan Westburg and Aaron Hicks are the other nonregulars who spend considerable time on the bench.

“I don’t know if there are many teams like that in the league that have 13 guys that could potentially play every day,” O’Hearn said.

Despite leading the team in OPS at .834, O’Hearn rarely plays against lefties. Just 22 of his 289 plate appearances this season — and 186 of his 1,360 career trips to the plate — have come off southpaws. His career OPS against lefties is .562 compared with .740 off righties.

Given those splits and his role as a bench bat with the Kansas City Royals the previous couple years, O’Hearn is one of the few players in baseball who has a large sample of pinch hitting. While he said the role “wouldn’t have been my first choice,” his ample experience has made him one of the best in the sport at it.

In his career, O’Hearn is slashing .259/.341/.494 in 91 career pinch-hit plate appearances. His .835 OPS is the third best in the majors among hitters with at least 90 pinch-hit plate appearances since O’Hearn debuted in 2018.

“You’re going to have anxiousness attached to it. It’s just a normal human response to being put in a big situation,” said O’Hearn, who is 4-for-17 with a home run and a team-best six RBIs as a pinch hitter this season. “I think I kind of learned to take those emotions and use them as energy to have great bat speed and use them as a tool instead of as something that can cloud my decision-making process or let the moment get bigger than it is.”

McKenna, the Orioles’ fifth outfielder, has the third most pinch-hit plate appearances on the Orioles with 12, and he’s been their best performer in them. He’s 6-for-11 with a double and three runs.

As manager Brandon Hyde’s go-to defensive replacement in the outfield and sometimes a pinch runner, McKenna spends his time on the bench keeping track of the game’s flow to know when he could be asked to enter.

“I think it starts with just paying attention,” McKenna said. “Being engaged with the game from the first pitch, just seeing what the trends are, what the pitch count is for the other pitcher.”

However, it’s what goes on away from the field — the detailed hitting reports, the video on the dugout iPads, the pitching machines that loosely replicate different types of pitches — that makes the difference in those moments.

“I think just being prepared for the at-bat is equally as important as taking the at-bat,” O’Hearn said.

Entering each game, the lefties on the bench know which right-handed relievers they’re most likely to face, and vice versa for the righties. They know how those relievers’ fastballs move, what their best off-speed pitches are and the zones they throw them in. They practice off the pitching machines that emulate those pitches to get a better feel of what they’re about to face.

But Frazier said while he uses all those tools, he doesn’t want to get bogged down with too much information. The 31-year-old second baseman in his first season with the Orioles leads the team with 20 pinch-hit plate appearances. While he’s 2-for-17 in them, he also rates as one of the club’s best hitters with runners in scoring position and in high-leverage situations.

“Really, for me, I’m trying to simplify things,” he said. “I’m trying to get the body warm, get the body ready to compete. It’s the same thing. If you’re not loose and you’re tight, then your swing and reactions will be a little slower. You just got to get ready and go compete.”

It’s not as important as starting pitching, but as the Orioles approach the playoffs, during which the games are shortened and benches are emptied, the performance of pinch hitters can be the difference between advancing in the postseason and hitting the links earlier than intended.

“There’s no egos in here,” O’Hearn said. “The mentality is we want to win as a group, and whoever’s in the lineup that day does their thing and whoever’s not is ready to come in and help at any point.

“Every man on this roster is important.”

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from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/VR2tHij