Having thrilled family and friends with a two-hit performance on the second day of his first professional series in his native California, rookie outfielder Dylan Beavers will reach another first when he and the Baltimore Orioles see Justin Verlander in the finale of their three-game series against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
Having hit in tough luck in Friday’s series opener, when a 0-for-3 night included a pair of flyball outs to center field that traveled a total of about 780 feet, Beavers got a couple of balls to fall into left field on Saturday, resulting in the fourth two-hit effort of his 13-game major-league career.
The former Cal standout had plenty of multi-hit games as a collegian, when he hit .303 with 18 homers as a sophomore and .291 with 17 homers as a junior, leading the Orioles to select him in the first round of the 2022 draft.
Beavers, who was born in the Central California coastal city of San Luis Obispo, admitted his first two weeks in the majors have been a whirlwind.
Of course, that’s what happens when you become just the third Oriole ever to hit your first MLB homer in your first plate appearance in front of the new home fans, which he did last Aug. 21 against the Houston Astros.
“I got to get a ton of reps in Triple-A, and I think it just helped coming up here,” Beavers, 24, said. “I’ve got to slow it down. That’s really what I’m trying to think of as the only adjustment that needs to be made, is there’s a lot more going on around (me). So if I can just slow it down, it shouldn’t be much different.”
There’s been nothing slow about the first two games of the series, which have produced 35 runs. The Giants got nearly half of them in a 15-8 cakewalk in the opener, before the Orioles rebounded with an 11-1 thumping in the rematch.
If the series finale includes, as expected, a Beavers-Verlander head-to-head, it would be the first — and potentially last — meeting of their careers.
Verlander (2-10, 4.47 ERA), who made his major-league debut in July 2005 when Beavers had yet to turn 4, will be looking to close the gap on former Giants great Gaylord Perry for the eighth spot on the all-time strikeout list.
Having passed Walter Johnson earlier in the month, the 42-year-old Verlander (3,520) has moved within 14 of Perry. Don Sutton is 54 ahead of him and stands seventh on the all-time list with 3,574.
Asked if he knew who stood immediately in front of him on the heavyweight list after striking out five in his most recent start against the Chicago Cubs, Verlander surprised the media by responding, “Gaylord Perry. Somebody just told me in the food room.”
Verlander recorded his second win of the season in that start against the Cubs, allowing two runs in six innings. He has faced the Orioles 25 times in his career, going 10-6 with a 3.75 ERA.
Baltimore will go for its first series win since a two-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 18-19 with right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano (10-6, 4.06) dueling both Verlander and the Giants for the first time.
– Field Level Media
