Dietz, IronBirds bullpen baffle Cyclones

At 10 a.m. on Tuesdays, the Cyclone roller coaster at Brooklyn's Coney Island starts its daily operations. Half an hour later, the Aberdeen IronBirds began their preparations to face the New York-Penn League team that shares its name with the iconic wooden coaster for what may have seemed like an early start by the beach.

"It's the same as a 7:00 [p.m.] start, really," Aberdeen pitching coach Justin Lord said of Thursday's 11:37 a.m. game time. "Yeah, we have to get here at a fairly early time, but all we wanted to do was make sure the guys have plenty of time to move around, get in their throwing program. We didn't take [batting practice] on the field, but other than that, it's sort of a normal day. It's still a workday. It just starts at 10:30."

By the time Lord's pitching staff punched in and punched out Tuesday, it had been anything but a normal workday.

Orioles No. 7 prospect Matthias Dietz combined with relievers Daniel Ayers, Andrew Elliott and Jake Bray to throw a one-hitter in Aberdeen's 2-0 win at Brooklyn on Tuesday.

"Really, it just started with the guys throwing strikes," said Lord, whose staff threw 72 of its combined 109 pitches for strikes Tuesday. "They were trusting their fastballs, bearing down and throwing good pitches in good situations.... Dietz set the tone, and then Ayers took it from there and on down the line. It was nothing crazy out of the ordinary. They were pitching to contact, because we don't strike out a bunch of guys, and having success with that."

Making his second professional start, Dietz allowed the Cyclones' only hit on a first-inning double by Desmond Lindsay. He calmed down to last three innings in the shutout, having given up the one hit and one walk with one strikeout.

The 20-year-old right-hander shot up Draft boards this spring after a star turn at John A. Logan Community College in Illinois, where he owned a 1.22 ERA with a 10.2 K/9 in 103 innings this spring, and was selected in the second round (69th overall) by the Orioles in June. It hasn't taken the 6-foot-5 hurler to impress his first pro pitching coach.

"He's got a good arm and is a big, strong kid who's certainly competitive," Lord said. "He pitches with the fastball well, which I always like to see, and has got a two-seamer that has some good late movement to it. He threw some good sliders today, and it's that secondary stuff that seemed to help him today."

Those sliders could be a determining factor in Dietz's future. His fastball has always been a strength and was given a plus grade from MLB.com in its midseason prospect update last month. The slider, however, was considered average with a 50 on the 20-80 scale, and it was Tuesday's outing in which Dietz had to lean on the pitch after his abbreviated two-inning debut July 26.

"When you only have two or three innings to pitch, you usually just go with what's working," Lord said. "For him, I think he threw all fastballs that first time, which is fine with me at this level. But today, he faced a few more right-handed hitters and needed something else against them. He just got a feel for a breaking ball and had success with it, so we'll build on it."

Lord added that Dietz will stay part of the IronBirds' six-man rotation for the foreseeable future with the club keeping an eye on his innings after his lengthy junior college campaign in the spring.

Even though Dietz got the start, Ayers might have been the IronBirds' most impressive hurler Tuesday. The 21-year-old left-hander struck out two and allowed one walk in his three hitless frames of relief. Ayers, who earned the win and improved to 1-1 on the season, threw 22 of his 36 pitches for strikes and forced five groundouts. That 2013 25th-rounder entered the day with a 1.83 WHIP and eight walks allowed in 7 2/3 innings this season with Aberdeen.

"It's more about what Daniel has put in over these last two weeks than what he did today," Lord said of Ayers, who now owns a 1.69 ERA in 10 appearances (10 2/3 innings). "These guys, you spend hours with them every day, and with that time you invest, it's good to see guys who you know work hard get the results they've worked for. With Daniel, he kept the fastball down in the zone, got some groundballs and had really good success today with pitching to contact. He's staying focused, and it's showing."

Elliott struck out two and allowed one walk between the seventh and eighth before Bray earned his first save of the season with a perfect ninth.

Orioles No. 20 prospect Preston Palmeiro, son of legendary slugger Rafael Palmeiro, went 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored as the IronBirds DH and cleanup hitter. He's gone 6-for-17 (.353) in his first five games with the short-season club.