Baltimore Orioles Top Prospect Dylan Bundy Allows First Earned Runs of Season

Baltimore Orioles top pitching prospect Dylan Bundy made his first start since being promoted to High-A Frederick on Saturday, an outing that saw him give up his first earned runs of the 2012 season.

He struck out six batters and allowed six hits, throwing 53 of his 78 pitches for strikes, en route to a win in his Carolina League debut—Frederick defeated Salem by a score of 5-3.

The only blemish was a two-run home run off the bat of Travis Shaw in the fourth inning.

Bundy had pretty much been perfect up until Saturday, allowing just two unearned runs in 30 innings of work in the South Atlantic League (Low-A).

Bundy really was dominant with Delmarva, as opponents hit just .053 against him. He struck out 40 batters over eight starts.

Aside from his dominance, the organization wants to give Bundy the opportunity to work on his off-speed pitches at a higher level.

"Last outing, I think I threw three off-speed pitches," Bundy said. "The organization wanted me to throw my curve and changeup a little bit more and I felt like I did a good job of doing that 0-2 or 1-2 and getting some strikeouts on them.

"The past eight starts, I didn't throw them more than three times a game. Today. I think I threw more than 10 and more than half for strikes, quality strikes for swings and misses."

The over-capacity crowd of 9,833, the Keys' largest crowd in six seasons, gave Bundy a standing ovation as he left the mound.

I'm sure he'll be receiving many more of those before his professional career is over, especially if he continues this absurd dominance.