BALTIMORE -- The Orioles spent Saturday morning bracing for the loss of another key pitcher, with right-hander Kyle Bradish joining John Means, Tyler Wells, Danny Coulombe and F¨¦lix Bautista on the club¡¯s growing list of important arms lost for the foreseeable future to elbow issues.

In Bradish, the club is losing its top pitcher from a year ago, when he emerged as one of the best arms in the American League in his second big league season.

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If only the Orioles had another guy like that.

Oh yeah, they do: Grayson Rodriguez. And he may be emerging right before our eyes.

The former top overall prospect gave the O¡¯s exactly what they needed in lieu of the Bradish news, twirling seven innings of two-run ball to pace their 6-2 series-evening win over the Phillies at Camden Yards.

Backed by two Anthony Santander homers and a pair of defensive gems from Cedric Mullins, Rodriguez fanned six and worked around seven hits in efficient fashion, throwing 73 of his 99 pitches for strikes.

¡°I didn¡¯t know how we were going to respond, honestly,¡± manager Brandon Hyde said. ¡°Seeing what happened with Kyle last night, people are down thinking about him and hoping for the best. Grayson Rodriguez today, that was an amazing performance.¡±

The effort continued a very strong run of starts for Rodriguez since returning from the injured list last month. It came amid a backdrop of adversity, against one of the best teams in baseball and in a charged atmosphere, in front of a sellout crowd of 44,555 rife with raucous Phillies fans.

¡°It felt like a playoff game,¡± Rodriguez said. ¡°It was a pretty hostile environment. Having all those Phillies fans, that helped me a lot. Obviously, you want to see the stadium packed out in orange, but there was some animosity in there and it made pitching fun today. Man, that was a fun game.¡±

Said Hyde: ¡°He continues to do what he¡¯s done the last few starts. Not walking people. Fastball command. He made a couple mistakes on a couple sliders. But besides that, that¡¯s a great lineup over there that he held in check for seven innings, so awesome job.¡±

Somewhat quietly, the 24-year-old Rodriguez is growing into the kind of frontline starter everyone predicted he would be. He¡¯s now 8-2 with a 3.20 ERA and 77 strikeouts through 12 starts this season -- but that doesn¡¯t fully speak to how dependable he¡¯s been or for how long.

¡°This year, I¡¯ve done a little bit better job not letting things snowball,¡± Rodriguez said.

Take into account Rodriguez¡¯s past 22 regular-season starts dating back to last Aug. 2, and he¡¯s a stellar 13-4 with a 2.84 ERA, a 1.16 WHIP and a 136-38 strikeout to walk ratio across 130 innings. He¡¯s struck out 9.42 batters per nine and allowed only 0.69 home runs per nine over that stretch.

For most teams, that¡¯s not an in-house replacement. Or a No. 3. That¡¯s an ace.

Few teams have as many in the hole as the O¡¯s do.

¡°This is a fun development story up here,¡± Hyde said. ¡°We see him making huge strides and figuring things out, getting a little better every start. ¡­ He¡¯s really starting to understand how to pitch. He¡¯s come a long way. He¡¯s come a long, long way in a year.¡±