Calm Waters

It's hard to have a blog named "The Bad Oriole" and have to write about the performance of Chris Waters last night in his major league debut.

Waters went 8.0 IP, allowed 1 hit, walked 3, struck out 3 and recorded his first major league win as the O's blanked the Angels 3-0.

It was only the 6th best debut performance by a major leaguer in the modern era, ever.

I was expecting a middling to awful performance from Waters last night. After all he was 3-6 in Norfolk with a 5.70 ERA. His 64/40 K/BB rate doesn't exactly suggest he's a control pitcher either.

But Waters was masterful last night, plain and simple. And the Orioles needed it.

After having to force shaky reliever Dennis Sarfate into the rotation twice and watching him to fail to get out of the 4th inning twice, Waters was a breath of fresh air. Whether or not he'll be able to do it again is anybody's guess, but you can't take what Waters did last night away from him. It's been written in the record books and that's where it'll stay.

However, if Waters can pitch to a 5.00 ERA or under for the remainder of the season, he might actually serve a role on this team. The O's are always in need of good arms and Waters could potentially become a lefty-specialist out of the bullpen if his gig in the rotation doesn't work out.

In short, what Waters did was kick down the door of possibilities after being just another name on the Norfolk Tides pitching statistics page.

The Bad Oriole salutes you, Chris. If you keep it up I may be forced to change my name to the Good Oriole.

But I have a feeling I won't have to worry about that.