Every start we get farther removed from Chris Tillman’s fiery but abbreviated Opening Day, there’s more and more evidence to question whether that version of the Orioles’ top starter was a mirage or the real thing
He was close to that guy in his next start four days later, but there were signs Thursday in the Orioles’ 6-3 loss to the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Stadium that at least on that night, he wasn’t the same pitcher.
In that first start, when Tillman threw 17 of his 22 pitches for strikes, rode his fastball up to 97 mph (with an average of 95 mph) and struck out five, the key statistic was four swinging strikes on 15 fastballs — a small-sample-size driven whiff rate of 26.