DL Hall wants another shot at being DL Hall in the major leagues.
With the exception of one inning in his recent debut, he didn’t feel like he was being himself.
Hall, a 23-year-old fireballing Norfolk Tides left-hander, made his first big league start Saturday for the parent Baltimore Orioles against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound native of Valdosta, Georgia, allowed five earned runs and five hits in 3? innings, with three walks and six strikeouts. His fastball, which normally approaches 100 mph, averaged 95.4 in the start, which ended in an 8-2 win by the Rays at Tropicana Field.
Now back in Triple-A to work out of Norfolk’s bullpen and increase his value to the contending Orioles late in the season, Hall has performed a full forensic examination of what went wrong.
“The biggest thing for me is not trying to fight the adrenaline, the energy,” he said. “My fastball velo was down because I felt like instead of riding that wave of energy, I was trying to fight it and calm myself almost too much. I start placing fastballs, and that’s not me. I’m a guy that goes out there and lets it rip in the upper 90s. Once you start seeing me droop down a little bit with that, that’s when you know that I was out there maybe doing a little too much thinking.”
Tides manager Buck Britton said Hall will be turned into a “length reliever,” part of a plan orchestrated by Baltimore GM Mike Elias.
“I think it’s a way to kind of manage his innings a little bit,” Britton said. “And then hopefully, he can be a piece for them down the stretch in the big leagues.”
Hall’s brief stay with the Orioles, of course, wasn’t all bad. He arrived in St. Petersburg on Friday and essentially had three days of the big league experience.
The team hotel, he said, was “awesome,” and the postgame spread consisted of pretty much everything, including rice with steak.
“Unbelievable,” Hall said. “It’s everything that you ever picture the big leagues being.
“Plenty of options. That’s the coolest part. You literally pick from whatever you want. But yeah, I crushed the steak.”
In 18 starts since joining the Tides from Double-A Bowie in early May, Hall has gone 2-6 with a 4.76 ERA. He’s walked 44 and struck out 114 — good for third in the International League — in 70 innings.
The sixth-rated prospect in the organization according to MLB.com, Hall became the 12th player to make his big league debut this season for Baltimore, which is finally turning the corner on what’s been a methodical rebuild.
In the second inning against Tampa Bay, Hall struck out the side to show a flash of the pitcher the Orioles thought he could be when they drafted him 21st overall out of Valdosta High in 2017.
Working in relief won’t change any of Hall’s goals.
“I think the task is still the same,” Britton said. “He’s got electric stuff, and he showed glimpses of that, even in his debut.
“I think the overall message is continuing to get through the strike zone and let his elite stuff play.”
Hall said it didn’t really hit him that he’d achieved a lifelong goal until Tuesday, when he rejoined the Tides on the field for batting practice after being optioned and arriving in town a day earlier.
Before Saturday’s start, Hall explored Tropicana Field’s vastness before sitting alone for 15 minutes on the warning track in center field, taking it all in.
The hotel, the spread, the competition, the playoff race — all were elements of major league life that just made him want to live it again as soon as possible.
“It’s hard to really put into words because there were some things that didn’t go my way and didn’t look like myself,” Hall said. “But there were also some good things that I can build off of.
“Just getting that full experience was huge — literally just experiencing it all for the first time so that it can feel a little more normal the next time.”
David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com
