David Hess probably thought new Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was pulling an April Fools Day joke on him last night in Toronto.
Hess was working on a no-hitter in the seventh inning when Hyde made the stroll out to the mound to take him out of the game.
Hess is visibly in shock that he is being taken out. He had thrown only 82 pitches to make it through six and a third innings. “I was shocked,” Hess said. “I knew my pitch count was decently low, so I was kind of more just trying to figure out what was going on.”
Hyde defended his decision after the game, saying “For David’s health, and for one of hopefully thirty-plus starts, it was the right thing to do.”
After the bullpen took over, the Blue Jays quickly scored two runs in the 7th and one in the 8th. The Jays had a runner on third in the bottom of the 9th with two outs, but Richard Bleier ended the game with a strikeout.
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