Orioles pull starter David Hess during seventh inning of no-hitter

Baltimore Orioles starter David Hess was poised for an accomplishment very few would have seen coming from his team. The 25-year-old entered the seventh inning Monday with a no-hitter intact, and seemingly well within range of finishing the game at 74 pitches.

And then the Orioles pulled him after he hit 82 pitches.

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Hess exited his start against the Blue Jays after 6.1 innings, a career-high eight strikeouts, one walk and, obviously, no hits. It was his 20th career start.

As Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, who was managing his fourth career game, walked to the mound and informed Hess of his decision to take him out of the game, Hess was more than a little incredulous. It would have been hard to blame him for thinking Hyde was playing a very mean April Fools joke.

Even the Toronto crowd was booing Hyde’s move.

The no-hitter would die just two batters later, when reliever Pedro Araujo surrendered a homer to Randal Grichuk. The Orioles would go onto win 6-5 after holding off a late, 5-run Blue Jays charge, but Hyde still had some major questions to answer after the game.

Why did the Orioles pull David Hess during a no-hitter?

So, clearly, this decision from Hyde is not going to popular with many fans.

Hess seemingly had plenty of pitches to work with when he was pulled, 18 short of the arbitrary but widely observed 100-pitch threshold. He was a young pitcher going for the accomplishment of his life on a team that has absolutely no designs of coming even close to .500 this season. That usually adds up a legitimate shot at a no-hitter.

And yet, there’s probably a reason for why Hyde decided to pull Hess, and you should be quite familiar with it if you’ve followed the managing career of Dave Roberts.

82 pitches isn’t a ton, but it might have been in the context of Hess’ season. WNST Orioles reporter Luke Jones noted that Hess was pitching on abbreviated rest from two innings of long relief work against the New York Yankees on Opening Day. In all likelihood, he had a hard pitch count and the decision was supposed to be out of Hyde’s hands.

It’s also worth noting that it’s April 1, and some pitchers are still getting stretched out at this point of the season.

Hyde and Hess said as much after the game, chalking up the hook to prioritizing Hess’ health over the rest of the season.

Of course, just because there are reasons behind a decision doesn’t mean the decision has to be popular. For Hess, a fifth-round draft pick who never reached higher than 15th on Baseball America’s top Orioles prospect list, throwing a no-hitter would have been a great story and an unquestionable highlight for an Orioles season that is widely expected to be a slog. Instead, we got another reminder of the influence that front offices and pitch counts hold in today’s dugout.

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