As the rotation continues to deliver shortened starts and the bullpen fights to catch its collective breath, the Orioles must bank on their offense to keep the line moving and the team from shutting down.

Ryan Mountcastle homered again today, Ryan O’Hearn celebrated his return to the majors with two rewarded bases-loaded at-bats in the first three innings, and Adley Rutschman homered on Trevor May's second pitch in the ninth to give the Orioles an 8-7 victory over the Athletics and the series win.

A grind from beginning to end.

Terrin Vavra and O’Hearn singled off Zach Jackson to open the eighth and they moved up on a passed ball, but Jorge Mateo popped up with the count full, Cedric Mullins flied to right field with the count full, and Ramón Laureano threw out Vavra at the plate.

With his team on the verge of extras, Rutschman launched a four-seam fastball over the fence in right-center field, measured at 405 feet, for his first career walk-off.

Asked what he’s looking for today from starter Cole Irvin, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde didn’t miss a beat. He blurted out a response with an impressive exit velocity.

“Nine,” he said.

Every inning is appreciated.

“I’d love to have Cole go as deep in the game as possible,” Hyde said. “Maybe we can swing the bat and give him some run support and play better defense than we’ve played. That’s been bothering me. We need to play better defense, really how we did last year. We played great defense last year and we’ve got to get back to that.

“I want to see Cole go as deep as he can and give us a chance.”

The Orioles are down to two catchers on their active roster.

Anthony Bemboom was designated for assignment this morning, and the Orioles selected Ryan O’Hearn’s contract from Triple-A Norfolk.

O’Hearn, who is wearing No. 32, gives the Orioles a backup first baseman and corner outfielder. He’s another left-handed bat with the club facing at least four consecutive right-handed starters.

O’Hearn was batting .300/.349/.725 (12-for-40) with three doubles, a triple, four home runs, 11 RBIs, three walks and 13 strikeouts in 43 plate appearances with Norfolk. He was lumped in the last roster cuts in spring training after slashing .375/.444/.650 with two doubles and three home runs in 18 games.

Today’s move puts O’Hearn back on the 40-man roster. The Orioles acquired him from the Royals on Jan. 3 for cash considerations and designated him for assignment two days later while claiming Lewin Díaz off waivers.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde kept rookie Grayson Rodriguez on the mound Tuesday for 99 pitches, the right-hander’s highest total in four years dating back to A ball. It wasn’t a test of strength and endurance. It wasn’t intended as a professional life lesson.

The club just needed the length.

“I can’t continue to pull our starters in the fifth inning,” Hyde said afterward.

Rodriguez was gone after walking the bases loaded and retiring only one batter in the fifth, the failure to put away hitters with two strikes coming back to bite him. But the stuff is filthy and the leash is long enough to reach Chicago, where he’ll start again Sunday afternoon.

What happens after that is the mystery, with Kyle Bradish pitching Friday night at Double-A Bowie and lined up for an April 19 return in D.C. if he stays on turn.

Part of Dean Kremer’s rise to effective major league starter last season, with the periods of dominance, was attributed to his stinginess with the home run ball. Eleven allowed in 22 games, fewer than one per nine innings.  

Opponents hit seven against Kremer in spring training this year, mostly solo shots, and have slugged five in his first three outings since the Orioles left Florida.

Brent Rooker, the cleanup hitter in Oakland’s punchless lineup, delivered a three-run shot tonight in the first inning. Kremer turned to watch the completion of the ball’s 420-foot trip to center field, waited for a new one and went back to work. Hopeful that he’d settle in and the offense would pick him up.

A bigger influencer in Kremer’s turnaround has been his ability to limit damage and prevent a game from spiraling out of control. Carlos Pérez led off the fifth with a homer after Kremer retired 11 of 13 batters, and the right-hander was removed with one out and his pitch count already at 90.

The Orioles had Kremer’s back in the same way that they did with rookie Grayson Rodriguez the previous night, scoring twice in the seventh inning to tie the game. But Oakland loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth and scored three times in an 8-4 victory before an announced crowd of 10,181 at Camden Yards.

The national media attention is swelling around the Orioles, who were largely ignored through the rebuild years.

They had lots of room to conduct their work. No one crowded them.

Ryan Mountcastle had everyone chirping after his nine-RBI night that tied the club record. More rays of favorable light shined on the team. It’s seen or heard on television and radio.

MLB Network ran a segment this morning promoting “Brandon Hyde’s Landscaping Company,” with Mark DeRosa explaining why players belonged on the crew. Mountcastle is mowing lawns, Adley Rutschman handles the stone work, Austin Hays is raking, Kyle Gibson trims the hedges, Félix Bautista is blowing leaves instead of leads, and Jorge Mateo gets dirty as the mulch guy.

Everyone gets a water break, of course.

Anthony Santander is out of tonight’s Orioles lineup due to some back soreness. Manager Brandon Hyde said the outfielder should be available off the bench.

“It’s really not a huge deal,” Hyde said.

Santander is batting .186/.265/.279 with no home runs in 11 games, and his 17 strikeouts rank among the league leaders.

Cedric Mullins is healthy and also out of the lineup. Ryan McKenna is playing center field and Adam Frazier is in right.

Catcher James McCann is making his 66^th start as the cleanup hitter. Adley Rutschman is the designated hitter.

The parade of opposing left-handed starters this week has created a new set of lineup challenges for Orioles manager Brandon Hyde.

Gunnar Henderson sat out Monday night’s series opener against the Athletics, but left-handed hitting Adam Frazier started at second base. Only one catcher played. Ryan McKenna made another start in right field.

Last night’s 11^th game of the season produced the 11^th different order. Frazier moved to the bench. Henderson started at third base. James McCann was the first of four designated hitters used - it felt like a record of some sort - and his first Orioles hit was a tie-breaking double in the fourth inning.

Who knows what tomorrow brings – besides another lefty starter for Oakland?

The streak will run to four southpaws in a row, counting the Yankees’ Nestor Cortes on Sunday. Thursday afternoon’s spot remains TBA, but Oakland is expected to send right-hander Adam Oller to the mound. Oller’s two appearances this season have been in relief.

Grayson Rodriguez’s major league tour moved the organization’s top pitching prospect from his home state to his home ballpark.

What are the attachments to Chicago, where he’s pitching over the weekend?

Tonight provided another slice of the dream. Standing on the mound at Camden Yards, five years after the Orioles drafted him in the first round. The white uniform. His parents nervous spectators within a more supportive crowd that wore orange T-shirts with “Welcome to the Show” across the back.

Rodriguez jogged out of the dugout with his teammates, began to warm up and heard the applause. He missed with fastballs clocked at 97.6 and 98 mph, ran the count full and issued his first home walk.

There are always firsts.

Kyle Bradish will make an injury rehab start Friday night at Double-A Bowie, perhaps the final hurdle before his return to the active roster.

The Orioles, ideally, would like Bradish to work four or five innings.

Bradish is on the 15-day injured list with a bruised right foot, the result of a 104-mph line drive from the Rangers’ Jonah Heim on April 3. He’s eligible to return on the 19^th in D.C., which would be normal rest following his appearance with the Baysox.

“His side (session) went really well,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “He’s feeling a lot better. I just walked past him in the weight room. He looks great, feels good. We got lucky there.”

Grayson Rodriguez makes his second major league start tonight, and his first at Camden Yards. The Orioles have resisted having a six-man rotation, but there’s going to be excess if Rodriguez impresses, as he did Wednesday in his final four innings in Texas.

Grayson Rodriguez makes his Camden Yards debut tonight, sans the gas cans in the stands.

Rodriguez remains in the rotation while Kyle Bradish is on the injured list with a bruised right foot, and he could stay depending on his results and how the Orioles could create room for him. Bradish is expected to begin an injury rehab assignment this week.

The Orioles called up Rodriguez to make Wednesday’s start in Texas, and he retired 13 of the last 15 batters after a two-run first inning. He kept the Rangers scoreless over the last four innings.

Adley Rutschman, who’s homered in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, is catching again tonight. James McCann is the designated hitter.

Austin Hays is leading off, with Cedric Mullins moved down to ninth.

The switch began a few days before Heston Kjerstad left major league camp in Sarasota. Ground balls and other drills at first base, a position he hadn’t played except for three games in college before the 2020 draft. Nothing as a professional.

The activity increased over at Twin Lakes Park, and Kjerstad, normally a right fielder, played first base twice with Double-A Bowie last week and spent one game as the designated hitter.

The Baysox were off the past two days, and Kjerstad could return to the outfield tonight when they begin their first homestand against Akron. Or maybe he's slipping his hand inside a mitt again.

“We had this plan all along, for him to get exposure to first base,” said Orioles director of player development Matt Blood. “He just adds another club in his bag, for a metaphor, so that he’s got more options to play on the major league team. Whether they need him in the corner outfield or if they need him at first or to DH, it’s just going to give him another slot of opportunity for the major league team. But that was the plan all along.

“We weren’t going to put him in his first game in a major league spring training game. But as soon as he got out of major league spring training, he started playing in minor league games there at first base. You’ll see him playing at first base and in the outfield in Bowie.”

If there’s a soft spot in a major league schedule, the Orioles could clutch theirs like a body pillow.

Fresh off two losing series within their division, the Orioles began a stretch tonight of playing 19 of 22 games against sub-.500 teams. An opportunity, perhaps, to offer another interpretation of liftoff in Baltimore.  

Of course, the Orioles weren’t going to turn up their collective noses at anyone. They’d see how many teams are above them in the East.

They, too, had fewer victories than defeats after 10 days. But the Athletics and Tigers were tied for the worst record in the majors at 2-7, and the Orioles would see them in 11 of the next 19 games.

Kyle Gibson ran up his pitch count early but found his economical stride and made it into the seventh inning, Ryan Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman conquered the left field wall while others were less fortunate, Austin Hays took the safer route by homering to center, and the Orioles stayed hydrated and happy with a 5-1 victory over Oakland.

Orioles starter Kyle Bradish is expected to begin an injury rehab assignment later this week.

Manager Brandon Hyde said this afternoon that Bradish should be joining an affiliate within the next couple days. Double-A Bowie is home and seems like a logical spot.

Bradish is on the 15-day injured list after being hit on the right foot by a line drive last Monday in Texas. He’s eligible to return on April 19.

A bullpen session on Saturday left Bradish and the team encouraged. The bruise remains but his discomfort has subsided.

This is pretty much the extent of today’s news. The roster is unchanged since yesterday, and Hyde said Gunnar Henderson is just getting a day off against Oakland left-hander JP Sears.

The Orioles begin a new series at home tonight, with the Athletics sending the first of three consecutive left-handed starters to the mound.

Ryan McKenna is starting in right field against Oakland’s JP Sears. Anthony Santander is the designated hitter, with Austin Hays in left.

Gunnar Henderson is out of the lineup. Ramón Urías is the third baseman.

Adley Rutschman is catching. He's batting .389/.476/.556 (14-for-36) with two home runs, six RBIs and six walks in nine games. Still no doubles.

Kyle Gibson has won his first two starts while allowing six runs and 12 hits with one walk in 12 innings. He’s 5-3 with a 4.05 ERA in 10 career starts against the Athletics.

Grayson Rodriguez had a hunch that he’d be starting Tuesday night. The four scoreless innings to close out his major league debut in Texas. How he remained on the active roster, with option rules prohibiting a call-up unless replacing an injured player. No off-days that might cause him to be skipped.

The T-shirt giveaway in his honor.

So many clues.

The Orioles confirmed Saturday that Rodriguez would face the Athletics in the second game of the series.

“I guess I’m excited, first off, just being able to pitch in Camden Yards, something I’ve dreamed of ever since I was drafted,” Rodriguez said yesterday morning. “I guess it’s going to be another little dream come true for me.”

One fly ball should have been caught. Two others were destined to make a safe landing from the moment they left the bat.

Tyler Wells was burned three times this afternoon at various degrees in his first start of the season, which resulted in a 5-3 loss to the Yankees at Camden Yards.

Adley Rutschman had four hits, including his second home run, but the Orioles dropped the series and are 4-5 while waiting for the last-place Athletics to arrive for four games.

Wells allowed four runs and six hits with no walks and six strikeouts in six innings. He retired the side in order in the second, fourth and sixth, and threw 61 of his 89 pitches for strikes. Kyle Gibson is the only other starter to record an out in the sixth.

"I love the way Tyler throws," Rutschman said. "He's a competitor, he does stuff the right way and he's a great teammate. I know he's going to go out next time and compete and do his thing."

Catcher James McCann didn’t make it to Baltimore for Opening Day, his injury rehab stint beginning that night at High-A Aberdeen. He needed only two games to convince the Orioles that he was ready to join their active roster.

Better to be a little late than spend most of the summer away from Camden Yards.

“I was watching on TV when I was in Aberdeen,” he said this morning after attending a meeting and getting ready to catch Tyler Wells in the series finale against the Yankees.

“I was excited for the win. It looked like a fun atmosphere, and hopefully we can get a few more days like that.”

McCann had two hits as the IronBirds’ designated hitter and two more yesterday while catching the first game of a doubleheader. The discomfort in his left oblique didn’t do the same damage to his season as in 2022 with the Mets.

James McCann is behind the plate this afternoon for the series finale against the Yankees, on the day that he was activated from the injured list.

Adley Rutschman is serving as the designated hitter.

Jorge Mateo returns to the lineup after sitting out last night’s 4-1 loss. He’s been getting treatment on a sore ankle.

Gunnar Henderson is the third baseman and Ramón Urías is at second base.

Tyler Wells makes his first start of the season after working five scoreless and hitless innings Monday in relief. Wells replaced Kyle Bradish, who was hit on the right foot by a line drive, and the only baserunner against him came on an error.

The Orioles have decided to carry three catchers on their 26-man roster.

Veteran James McCann was activated this morning from the 10-day injured list after two injury rehab games at High-A Aberdeen. As the corresponding move, outfielder Kyle Stowers was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.

Anthony Bemboom remains in the majors, providing a second backup to Adley Rutschman.

McCann could be in today’s lineup with the Yankees starting left-hander Nestor Cortes.

Stowers has barely played this season. He received only six plate appearances in three games.