A look at a few slumping bats as the season's end nears

When you think about the Orioles offense in 2021 you think about getting Trey Mancini back and letting him hit in the middle of an order that includes a healthy Anthony Santander and a young Ryan Mountcastle playing in the bigs for a full season. It you can add in a healthy year for Austin Hays, that would be a real plus.

If a couple of the players that have been here since the start of the 2019 season can get their bats going again, that would be a real plus as well. Those players include infielders Hanser Alberto and Rio Ruiz and catcher Pedro Severino.

It can be hard to evaluate players over a 60-game season, but those three are among several O's scuffling at bat as the games and days dwindle. Alberto is 7-for-40 (.175) over his last 11 games. And Alberto, who hit .305/.329/.422 in 2019, now has a slash line of .286/.308/.394.

When Alberto was hitting better earlier this season, manager Brandon Hyde talked about him being the guy that makes the offense go. No doubt his smile and attitude are also a big part of this team, although we can't put any stats on those.

Alberto was a doubles machine during the early part of this year. In fact, he had 11 doubles in 92 plate appearances over his first 20 games. But since that point he has just one double in his last 26 games, and just two over his last 30 games and 121 plate appearances. The doubles have mostly gone away.

Severino is really struggling right now. I mean big-time. It feels like this has gone on for a month, but it has not. On the night of Sept. 8, just two weeks ago yesterday, Severino had two hits and was batting .325/.403/.518 with a .921 OPS. But in the two weeks since, he has just two hits. He's 2-for-37 (.054), dropping his numbers to .258/.333/.404 with a .737 OPS. He has lost nearly 200 points there in about two weeks. He went 0-for-5 last night and left two men on in the first. In the ninth he popped out with the bases loaded to end the game.

Manager Brandon Hyde talked about Severino before Tuesday's game in Boston.

"I see Sevy pressing. I see Sevy pressing to try and finish the year strong," Hyde said. "Just trying to do too much at the plate. Really hoping he gets back to a middle-of-the-field approach and taking the quality at-bats that he did the first month of the season. Then he was really driving the ball to the big part of the field, staying in the strike zone and really being a threat at the plate. Lately he's just expanding (the zone) and just trying to do way too much. When Sevy is up there, I just think there is going to be a ball hit hard somewhere. I do like his approach, just as of late he has expanded the strike zone a little bit and kind of gotten away from that."

Severino has had his share of struggles on defense along with his falloff on offense. Is he still part of the catching group on this roster opening day next year? Probably so, but he is also first-time arbitration-eligible this winter, so the salary escalation will begin. It's way too soon for Adley Rutschman to join the big league team, so Severino's spot is probably secure. Now we find out if he can pull out of this slump with just days to go.

Ruiz looked like an everyday regular earlier this year on both offense and defense. He had an .838 OPS in mid-August and he got off to a great start on defense too. But even though he had two doubles and an RBI last night, his average is down to .220 and his OPS is .718. Ruiz is not yet eligible for arbitration this winter, and that could help his cause as the O's look at third base for next year.

I like his pop and he is third on this team in both homers (9) and RBIs (29). I like his gap-to-gap approach and he's got some solid plate discipline skills. But the slump on offense comes at a time when his throwing has really become an issue. He made a key throwing error last night. Where has that top-notch defense gone?

These three players are in the spotlight a bit here, getting chances for the second season in a row. They are probably all safe to at least begin a third year with the club, but the word there is probably, not definitely. It may not be completely fair to pass many judgements on a 60-game season. If this were a so-called normal year, there would be more than 100 games left to play. No reason for that pressing that Hyde cited. Plenty of time to make the stats look real good.

But that is not so now, with just five games to go.

The Orioles played a clunker last night and didn't look good at all during their 8-3 loss to Boston. They are 23-32 with five games to play. The team-wide slump on offense puts everyone in the spotlight a bit, but especially these three second-year Orioles who have had some real nice moments with this team in 2019 and 2020. Just not many lately.