Nice start by Matusz tonight(5/20)

[Sports Guy]

Not sure if he is done yet but he has gone 7 innings..gave up 4 hits, 3 runs, 1 HR...walked 1 and K'ed 9.

[Moose Milligan]

Pitch count? Obviously must have been pretty efficient if he went 7, but I'm curious.

[Mike B]

Pitch count? Obviously must have been pretty efficient if he went 7, but I'm curious.

Just checked the box on MILB.com. No Pitch count but with 9K you would have to think around 100.

[BaltimoreFan]

These starts by Matusz are nice, but nothing more.

To be certain, I'm definitely not disappointed, but this is not the "fast track" to the majors as was advertised.

[Jagwar]

These starts by Matusz are nice, but nothing more.

To be certain, I'm definitely not disappointed, but this is not the "fast track" to the majors as was advertised.

What the heck do you want? 27 up and 27 down?

[BRob51]

At least there's some encouraging news on my birthday.

[BaltimoreFan]

What the heck do you want? 27 up and 27 down?

As I clearly stated in my post, I am not disappointed at all, but Matusz was touted as an extremely polished pitcher who would breeze through the minors; I'm more than content with simply another quality pitching prospect.

[Lucky Jim]

As I clearly stated in my post, I am not disappointed at all, but Matusz was touted as an extremely polished pitcher who would breeze through the minors; I'm more than content with simply another quality pitching prospect.

Matusz has gone 19.2 innings in his last three starts, giving up 13 hits, 5 ERs, walking 6 and striking out 28.

I'll take a roughly 5:1 K:BB ratio, a H/9 of better than 6, and an ERA floating around 2.25.

That's just me.

In the two starts where he wasn't pitching in 20-40 MPH winds, he's gone 14 innings, given up 6 runs, K'd 23 and BB'd 2.

Seriously, he's starting to come around.

[Frobby]

Pretty good outing. He had a wild pitch in the 2nd inning that allowed an extra run to score. He didn't allow a hit after the 3rd inning. Any time a starter goes 7 I am happy about it.

[AVencill]

He's in his groove right now (as he acknowledged postgame), and he looked dialed in after the homer in the fourth retiring 10 of 11.

Matusz had 83 pitches as of six innings and threw 11 in the seventh. I think Stockstill said recently they like to take guys out on a high note. Striking out your last two batters for number eight and nine of the game in the seventh inning is a high note. ERA jumped just .14 on the outing to 3.09, not that big of deal considering he gave up four hits (I like that) and walked one (love it), and K'd nine.

[Sports Guy]

Matusz has gone 19.2 innings in his last three starts, giving up 13 hits, 5 ERs, walking 6 and striking out 28.

I'll take a roughly 5:1 K:BB ratio, a H/9 of better than 6, and an ERA floating around 2.25.

That's just me.

In the two starts where he wasn't pitching in 20-40 MPH winds, he's gone 14 innings, given up 6 runs, K'd 23 and BB'd 2.

Seriously, he's starting to come around.

He has been pitching better as of late but he certainly was disappointing early on.

[ccbird]

He has been pitching better as of late but he certainly was disappointing early on.

As far as I know we never truely found out if the O's took his curve away earlier in the year. If they did, and he was basically working fastball/change I can't see how you could call his earlier performances disappointing.

[stomperspc]

As far as I know we never truely found out if the O's took his curve away earlier in the year. If they did, and he was basically working fastball/change I can't see how you could call his earlier performances disappointing.

I only saw Matusz pitch once this year, but from what I saw and read, the O's didn't take his curve completely away from him. Rather, he is (or at least was) attempting to work off of his fastball and use the fastball to set up the off speed pitches. In college, Matusz apparently worked "backwards" so at least early on in the season, he was attempting to work off of his fastball more. They didn't take his curve ball away; he was just using it differently.

Still, the point still stands that at least earlier on in the season, he was attempting to pitch different from how he had pitched in college. It isn't a surprise that he didn't have "blow away" starts every time then. Not sure if he is still working off of his fastball more and just got comfortable pitching that way or if he is mixing it up now, but his last few starts have been really encouraging either way (not that I think he was disappointing before).

[hoosiers]

Looks like he is hitting his groove and should put up pretty strong results going forward.

[sangar]

If present trends continue, Bowie by the break?