Oriole #975- Brad Brach

After Thursday night's marathon straight doubleheader against the Pirates, the Orioles bullpen was taxed to say the least, so they made a roster move and shipped Evan Meek to AAA Norfolk and called up another righty reliever, Brad Brach.

Brad made his Orioles debut today, and pitched 1.1 innings in relief of Wei-Yin Chen. Things started pretty well as he retired the first three batters he faced before getting knocked around in the next inning, as he allowed three singles and a three run homer to Joe Mauer. He did strike out two Twins hitters, so it wasn't all bad, but his ERA is sitting at 20.25 after his first Orioles appearance.

For a player who has not yet pitched for the Orioles, I've already written a fair amount about Brad, mainly regarding my ordeal with him and his attempts to personalize my autograph. You can relive the story here if you're interested.

Brad was one of the final cuts of Spring Training, and had a 1-0 record with a 2.16 ERA and an 8-1 K/BB ratio over 7 spring games.

Over 12 games for the AAA Norfolk Tides, Brad has a 2-1 record and a 4.85 ERA. He has struck out 26, while walking only 4 batters over 13 innings pitched, but he has also given up 18 hits, so it's been a bit of a mixed bag of results for Brad so far this season.

This is far from Brad's first big league action, as he has already appeared in 109 games, all as a middle relief pitcher, with the Padres between 2011-13, and has a 3-6 record and 3.70 ERA at the MLB level.

Good luck with the O's Brad!