Bundy reliable over 7, gives bullpen arms rest 

BALTIMORE -- After Monday’s 15-inning, five-plus hour marathon loss, the Orioles arrived at Rogers Centre on Tuesday in need of a bullpen breather and a breezy win.

They received both courtesy of three homers and big nights from Trey Mancini and Dylan Bundy, who led Baltimore to an 11-4 victory over the Blue Jays in his 30th and possibly final start of the season. Unless the Orioles decide to tab Bundy for Sunday’s season finale, his seven efficient innings would conclude a season over which the righty improved by leaps and bounds.

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“He’s been our workhorse all year, from start to finish,” said Mancini, who set a career high with five hits. “He just goes out there and fights every game whether he has his stuff or not, gives us everything he has. He’s definitely our bulldog on the mound.”

That durability stood in stark contrast to the slapdash nature of the Orioles rotation, which was defined by turnover and lack of depth all year. John Means was the comet, but Bundy was the rock, missing all but one turn through to provide the type of stability manager Brandon Hyde called “really valuable.” Though he spent 2019 as roughly a league-average starter, Bundy’s stat line became a common victim of Baltimore’s shortcomings in the bullpen and on the defensive side.

“I hope he takes what he improved on this year, takes it into next year,” Hyde said. “I think his numbers are better than they show.”

They’re certainly better than 2018, in metrics both standards and underlying. Bundy sliced his ERA nearly three-quarters of a run to 4.79. He axed his FIP, turned his slider into one of baseball’s more effective, missed as many bats as ever and generally outperformed his batted ball outcomes. Bundy revamped his pitch mix and, in a year the Orioles became Major League Baseball's first team to allow 300 homers in a season, sliced his total by 12 (in 10 fewer innings) from 2018. No. 300 came via Derek Fisher’s third-inning solo shot Tuesday, after which Bundy held Toronto to one run on two hits.

“He’s gotten stronger as the year has gone on,” Hyde said. “We’ve been terrible at giving up inherited runners. It felt like every time [I] took him out in the sixth or seventh, we gave up those runs. His line always looked worse than how he threw.”

Bundy often did so on a tightrope, the Orioles providing him 2.83 runs of support on average (entering Tuesday) in his outings. That was one of the lower marks allotted to any American League starter. Asked to pinpoint the best part about Tuesday’s outing, Bundy said “the offense,” adding, “it really relieves the starter to go out there and attack hitters.”

Pacing it were Mancini and Dwight Smith Jr., who homered and drove in two runs against his former team. Traded from Toronto to Baltimore this spring, Smith slid down the depth chart in the second half after a hot start, and heads into 2020 on uncertain ground. Neither he nor DJ Stewart were in Tuesday’s lineup until after Toronto scratched Anthony Kay with back spasms, prompting Hyde to make wholesale changes to counter what he assumed would be the string of right-handed relievers to follow replacement Thomas Pannone.

The Orioles pounced on the left-handed Pannone nonetheless, scoring three first-inning runs on RBI hits from Renato Nunez and Smith. Austin Wynns, Smith Jr. and Stewart homered later, while Mancini doubled twice as part of his 5-for-5 night. Mancini is riding an 11-game hitting streak and 22-for-51 (.471) stretch to close the year.

“Obviously, yesterday was a long night and we came out, unfortunately, as the losers in that game,” Mancini said. “It was big for us to come back and respond today. From the first inning, we set the tone. Dylan had such a strong night, and he’s had such a strong second half. It’s been so much fun to play behind him.”