Orioles ace John Means exits with left-shoulder fatigue in first inning of 10-4 loss to Cleveland
BALTIMORE — Orioles ace John Means left Saturday’s 10-4 loss to Cleveland five batters into the game with what the team said was left shoulder fatigue.
Means, who took the mound among the American League leaders in several categories, surrendered home runs to two of the first four batters he faced, the fourth straight outing he has allowed multiple homers.
After Eddie Rosario followed with a single on Means’ 29th pitch of the first inning, pitching coach Chris Holt visited Means on the mound, and manager Brandon Hyde and head athletic trainer Brian Ebel came soon after. A brief discussion preceded Means walking off the field with Ebel.
Before the game, Hyde noted that he can manage his bullpen somewhat differently when he knows Means will be on the mound the next day.
“You want to bank on that Means is going to five or six, at least,” Hyde said. “He’s become so reliable in that way that — I don’t want to jinx it, but you figure he’s going to go pretty deep into the game.”
Means had pitched at least five innings in 10 of his 11 starts, including a May 5 no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners in which he threw a career-high 113 pitches. Saturday’s outing marked the third time in five outings since that he was pitching on more than the traditional four days rest between starts, having most recently pitched the prior Saturday.
Entering play Saturday, the 28-year-old left-hander led the AL in WHIP and ranked second in ERA, third in batting average against and seventh in innings. His velocity, according to MLB’s Statcast data, was in the range of a typical start.
At two-thirds of an inning, Saturday’s start tied for the shortest of Means’ career. His third outing of 2020 was as brief, coming in his first appearance after rejoining the team following the death of his father, Alan. Means began that season on the injured list, missing his scheduled opening day start with what the team classified as arm fatigue.
Amid his All-Star rookie season in 2019, Means had two brief stints on the injured list, with each requiring him to miss only a couple of starts. The first was a left-shoulder strain, and he returned to allow two earned runs in 12 innings to close out his first half. As he struggled in his first starts after the break, the Orioles put him on the IL with a left biceps strain. He faltered in his first two starts back then worked at least five innings eight straight times, pitching into the seventh in five of those starts.
Tasked with covering 8 1/3 innings after Means’ exit, the Orioles’ bullpen allowed eight runs, though only three were earned.
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The Orioles were dealt an early blow with Means’ injury but used some blasts of their own to try to make up for it.
After a trifecta of first-inning singles from Cedric Mullins, Trey Mancini and Freddy Galvis plated a run, Mullins added Baltimore’s next two with solo shots in the third and fifth. Having never recorded a multihomer game before 2021, Mullins has two of the Orioles’ four this season. He added two more singles for his second five-hit day of the year.
In the sixth, Mountcastle continued his power binge by homering for a third straight game. Projected at 477 feet by Statcast, it was the longest Orioles home run this year and made Mountcastle the franchise’s first rookie with five home runs in an 11-game span.
The Orioles loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth but failed to score, with the bottom four hitters in their order combining to go 0 for 15 entering the ninth.
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Former Indian Adam Plutko replaced Means and retired the first five batters he faced. But an error by second baseman Stevie Wilkerson was followed by four hits among five batters, concluding with Yu Chang’s first home run of 2021, a three-run shot that put Baltimore down 7-1.
