The banks of lights dimmed at Camden Yards after the bottom of the eighth inning Friday night, then began flickering and pulsating as if in a concert setting. Ryan Helsley\u2019s image appeared on the video board as the bullpen gates swung open and the Orioles\u2019 reliever jogged onto the field. AC\/DC\u2019s \u201cHells Bells,\u201d the second single released from the 1980 album \u201cBack in Black,\u201d blared over the new and improved ballpark speakers.<\/p>\n
It was closing time, and Helsley slammed the door on the Nationals in a 3-1 victory.<\/p>\n
He lived up to the hype video.<\/p>\n
My daughter sat in the club level, making it through an entire game unexpectedly with one of her friends, and texted, \u201cWhat is happening LOL.\u201d<\/p>\n
The long answer is that Helsley is resembling the pitcher who earned a two-year, $28 million contract on Dec. 1 with an opt-out clause for 2027. His season has been as uneven as a dirt road, with lots of traffic in his early outings, seven scoreless appearances out of eight, right elbow inflammation that cost him three weeks, and back-to-back blowups on the West Coast after his reinstatement.<\/p>\n
Any rust buildup is dissolving before our eyes. Helsley retired the side in order in his last two games before last night.<\/p>\n
I texted my daughter that he throws 100 mph, which brought an \u201cOMG!!\u201d reply and shocked-face emoji. Helsley threw only one four-seamer among his 12 pitches, also surprising, but it was clocked at 100.4 mph. Otherwise, he was curveballs and splitters until feeding Dylan Crews five consecutive sliders to end the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just following Sammy (Basallo), you know?\u201d Helsley said. \u201cI told them I was going to follow them and whatever they called, and he believed in it, and obviously I did, too. And just following those guys and being on the same page, and trusting the pitch they were calling.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was a much better version of Helsley after he surrendered home runs on his first two pitches in the ninth inning of a June 17 game in Seattle, his first after leaving the injured list, and allowed two earned runs (three total) in two-thirds while blowing a save at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n
He hadn\u2019t pitched at home since earning a seventh save on April 28 against the Astros.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne, the crowd was awesome,\u201d said manager Craig Albernaz. \u201cAnd I think him, at night, getting his intro, the crowd behind him, that\u2019s kind of where he wants to be. And the velo is there, it was 100.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did a great job. He had a couple slide-step splits, which is pretty unfair. But yeah, he was crisp. He was throwing a ton of strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nine out of 12 pitches, to be exact.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I felt really good in Seattle,\u201d he said. \u201cI was really pleased with how I threw the ball and obviously gave up two homers. The Dodgers, obviously not great, but the last two in Anaheim and last night felt really good. Just kind of got to refigure it out again. I\u2019ve done it a lot, and just get a feel for pitching in those moments and back in a big league stadium. So the last two, definitely on the right track and hopefully keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helsley was the hard-luck loser last night in the 10th inning, with an unearned run charged to him on a seeing-eye grounder into right field that let the automatic runner score. Another batter reached on a dribbler near the plate \u2013 Statcast listed it as going one foot \u2013 but Helsley retired the next three batters and registered another strikeout. Two of his fastballs were 99.4 mph.<\/p>\n
Let the Hells Bells ring.<\/p>\n
The song became his entrance tune after the Cardinals began cranking it during his rookie season in 2019 as a nod to his nickname, given to him by pitching coach Mike Maddux. Helsley put it on the back of his jersey during Players Weekend, he pitched that day, and the rest is musical baseball history.<\/p>\n
Helsley isn\u2019t a fan of the band, inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, but he ran with it during his jogs to the mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never picked a song and the Cardinals PR staff picked it for me and I just stuck with it,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it goes well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be back in black whenever the starting pitcher chooses it.<\/p>\n
Left-hander Grant Wolfram was the set-up man Friday and retired the side in order for his ninth \u201chold,\u201d striking out two batters. His sinker and four-seam fastball were 95.2 mph-96.7 mph.<\/p>\n
Flying low beneath the radar, Wolfram has turned in 12 scoreless appearances out of 13 to lower his ERA from 4.85 to 3.47. Eight of his outings have lasted less than a full inning, with Albernaz picking his spots to bring in his high-leverage lefty. Albernaz chose the fifth on Wednesday after removing rookie Trey Gibson and replaced Wolfram with two outs after Gunnar Henderson\u2019s error.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe means a lot, just like all of our bullpen guys,\u201d Albernaz said after Friday\u2019s game. \u201cThey stepped up huge for us all year and they continue to do so. They\u2019re selfless. They just want to get in and help the team win. And Wolfy in particular, we\u2019ve asked a lot of him and variety of situations, and tonight, I mean, his fastball\u2019s real. He has two shapes of the heater, upper-90s fastball. He did a great job of getting his little slider over early to some of the guys, and also for putaway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he threw nine, 10 pitches and one ball, so efficiency was there. He threw a ton of strikes. That\u2019s where he\u2019s at his best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The banks of lights dimmed at Camden Yards after the bottom of the eighth inning Friday night, then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[137858,363,48262,148834,37962,99],"class_list":["post-731317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-craig-albernaz","tag-mlb","tag-orioles","tag-roch-kubatko","tag-ryan-helsley","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}