BALTIMORE _ All the well-publicized precautions taken to keep Orioles right-hander Dylan Bundy fresh through the second half of the season seem to be paying off, but there was something much simpler behind his masterful one-hit shutout Tuesday.
It turns out Bundy still has the special set of skills the Orioles drafted in the first round six long years ago.
Bundy was in total command in the Orioles' 4-0 win over the Seattle Mariners, allowing just a fourth-inning bunt single to third baseman Kyle Seager and striking out a career-high 12 batters before 13,736 on a cool night at Camden Yards.
Activated off the bereavement list before the game after leaving the team over the weekend for his grandmother's funeral back in Oklahoma, Bundy was as sharp as ever pitching on five days of rest.
After a 32-minute rain delay to start the game, Seattle's leadoff batter reached when shortstop Tim Beckham was charged with an error. But Bundy swiftly navigated out of that and cruised until a pair of walks in the third inning. Seager's one-out bunt down the third base line was the only hit Seattle managed.
From there, Bundy retired 12 straight until another error by Beckham with one out in the eighth. Bundy retired the final two batters of that inning and hit Robinson Cano to open the ninth inning, but sat down the final three batters to complete the game on 116 pitches.
Bundy managed a career-high 22 swinging strikes and struck out 10 or more opposing batters for the third time in his past four starts. It was the first Orioles complete-game shutout since Miguel Gonzalez did it Sept. 3, 2014, against the Cincinnati Reds.
He ends the month of August with a 2.00 ERA in 36 innings, with 45 strikeouts and six walks. Bundy lowered his season ERA to 3.94 and improved to 13-8.
Schoop opened the Orioles' scoring with a missile to left field that went for a two-out solo home run in the first inning, giving the Orioles a 1-0 lead and temporarily giving him the team lead with 29 home runs.
It also marked Schoop's 500th career hit, a milestone that was followed in his next at-bat by his career-high 30th walk in the third inning.
With two on and one out in the third inning, Machado hit a ball that was caught at the wall by left fielder Ben Gamel for a frustrating out, and the Orioles ended up leaving the bases loaded.
Machado wouldn't let anything like that happen next time up. He got a fresh slate to open the sixth inning after Beckham was caught stealing to end the fifth, and shot a ball just over the left-field wall that Gamel tried to bring back into play but couldn't.
He added his second home run of the game and 30th of the season to lead off the eighth inning and extend the Orioles lead to 4-0. Between his two blasts, catcher Welington Castillo hit his 15th home run of the season, a solo shot in the seventh.
