On days like Sunday, when a team has to shut down two All-Star relievers for rest the way the Orioles did, seldom few have the luxury of calling on a third to pitch the ninth inning of a close game.
That’s the kind of bonus piece Darren O’Day has been to the Orioles’ building of one of the game’s best bullpens over the last few seasons, and that’s what makes what happened for him Sunday so hard to fathom.
When looking for an explanation — other than the one that seemed to be a consensus in the Orioles clubhouse, that it was an early-season outing where O’Day missed a half-dozen pitches by a shade on the outside half and could have easily gotten through with a different umpire or less patient hitters — it emerges just how much O’Day has made go right for himself in these last five years, and how fine he has to be to sustain that.