Brandon Hyde on the search for rotation innings and more

HOUSTON – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde believes the start by right-hander Kyle Bradish against Houston last night was the best of the year by an O’s starting pitcher. Bradish threw eight scoreless innings, allowing just two singles on 96 pitches in the 2-0 series-opening win.

He gave the Orioles quality and quantity. He shut down a great offense and also went deep into the game. It was the longest outing by an O’s starter in 2022.

“For me it was for sure (the best this year),” said Hyde this afternoon. “How cool is that, one of our young starters being able to do that. Our guys are growing in front of us. They’re developing. They are getting great experiences.”

Now the next step is to get the O’s starters to pitch deeper into games. They have gotten that the last two nights with outings of seven and eight innings back-to-back. Hyde wants and needs more of that and he used the example of tonight’s opponent to show what that can mean.

Houston’s rotation leads the AL in ERA at 3.07 but also in rotation innings at 744 1/3. The O’s are 13^th in innings at 615 and 11^th in rotation ERA at 4.42.

“That was one of our rare deep starts last night and that is something we’re going to have to improve on going forward,” Hyde said. “And into the next years after. Look at a team like this (Houston) and what their starters can do. You have guys in your rotation that are able to go six, seven innings, eight innings and maybe nine on a real good day to benefit the bullpen longterm.

“Our guys have done an amazing job out of the bullpen with the situations we’ve put them in. Look at our rotation, we have Jordan Lyles, who has pretty much done that (covered a lot of innings this year) but everyone else is young and inexperienced. So hats off to everybody on our pitching staff for what they have been able to do. Our rotation has done the best they possibly can and will only get better with these young guys and our bullpen picked up a lot of tough innings out of the bullpen. But going forward, we’ll look for more length out of our starters next couple of years.”

While Hyde has said he has definitely reached the point of the season to do some scoreboard watching. Last night, the skipper tried to watch the end of the Cleveland at Seattle game, which went extra innings. A Mariners loss would have pulled the O’s within 1.5 games of the final wild card spot, but Seattle pulled out a win.

“Yeah, watching what is going on around the league. I did fall asleep last night, I’ll be honest with you,” said Hyde. “But the first thing I looked at this morning was the Guardians-Mariners score. But yeah, end of August, we’re in this thing and interested in what is happening around the league.”

Hyde was reminded that the Orioles have not faced Seattle since June and won’t play them any more this year.

“Well there are other teams also too. Still a lot can happen with 30-some games to go. We do need to focus on ourselves honestly and focus on this series and then the Guardians coming up. But I do check to see what is going on everywhere else. But we need to take care of what we need to take care of or it doesn’t matter.”

Hyde is starting Ryan McKenna in center field tonight with Cedric Mullins as DH.

He is trying to get starters rest when he can and get bench players on the field without sitting for too long. McKenna has shown an ability to be a solid bench player. He recently went 9-for-24 during a seven-game hitting streak, plays solid defense, brings speed to the lineup and has a .903 OPS against lefties. In games when McKenna gets a hit, the Orioles are 17-9.

“I think it took him a while. Like any young player, if you don’t have a lot of at-bats in the big leagues to go back on and reflect on, it’s not that easy of a role. It’s not that easy as a veteran. And Mac’s done a great job," said Hyde. "He stays ready. He prepares like he is playing every day. I just want him to do what he’s doing honestly. When he gets that start, just be able to help us win. Whatever that may be. Take the best at-bats you can, play the great defense he plays and run the bases well and he’s done all those things. Just want to see it continue."

After Bradish's outing, Hyde said his bullpen is in better shape for tonight's game.

“It’s a lot better than yesterday. Dillon Tate was someone I did not want to pitch last night. So best case scenario stay away from him but we should be good to go," he said.