NEW YORK — Through two starts with the Orioles, right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez isn’t exactly impressing fans of his new team after signing a four-year contract in March.
Jimenez lasted 4 2/3 innings during Monday’s 4-2 loss to the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium and through his first two starts, he has allowed eight runs and 13 hits in 10 2/3 innings. Jimenez also has walked eight, including five on Monday.
Afterward, Jimenez talked extensively about not locating his breaking pitches properly.
“It was kind of tough to throw inside and especially, I couldn’t find any of them to put away hitters,” Jimenez said. “I was able to get ahead, but I couldn’t put any away with the breaking ball because none of them were working.”
The numbers seem to back up Jimenez’s comments. He threw 26 breaking pitches Monday (five changeups, 18 sliders and three curveballs) and missed with 11 of those pitches.
Despite Jimenez’s frustration, manager Buck Showalter gave a more encouraging tone.
“He might not show it to you all, but he knows he had good stuff,” Showalter said. “He was pretty crisp. It wasn’t like he was throwing it all over the ballpark. He was just barely missing with a lot of pitches and actually had some counts very early that were in his favor. You saw. There were some swings. … Nobody really got on him today. There were some balls that fell in that he made good pitches on.”