Hyde: "Our focus is on us"

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde is fielding playoff questions again.

His club is a half-game behind the Yankees for the last spot and a game behind the Astros. Six wins in the last eight. Again an interesting national story.

Is there scoreboard-watching among the players and staff? Or at least the 2020 version of it?

"I think we're focused on the Orioles right now and we need to win as many games as possible," Hyde said this afternoon in his Zoom conference call. "I'd be lying to say I didn't know what was going on around the league and I didn't watch highlights at night and check scores and watch MLB Network the next day just to see what's happening. But I think our main focus is, it doesn't matter what the league does if we don't win.

"Our focus is on us. Try to win as many games as possible, try to win tonight. We're still in the one-game-at-a-time mentality and focusing on what we need to do."

Remaining competitive would have been a nice reward for enduring such a traumatic summer. Now there's the possibility of major disappointment over missing out on the postseason, with the carrot still dangled and a bit closer to being within reach.

"I'd be disappointed if we didn't play well the rest of the year, and I think whatever happens happens," Hyde said. "Obviously, we'd love for our team to continue to experience these games that matter the last two weeks. I think these guys who haven't been in this situation ... we don't have many in that room who have been in a pennant race, so I think continuing to play games that matter is really beneficial to our guys. But there's still a lot of baseball, for me, to be played and there's still a lot of teams that are right there, also. And we have a very difficult schedule going forward.

"I just want to see us continue to play good baseball the rest of the way."

Hyde really wants to keep taking smaller steps while everyone tries to push him along. Finishing at .500 or above would be a huge accomplishment. Making the playoffs would be an amazing achievement for a team picked to finish with the worst record in baseball.

He just wants to win tonight, see more progress from players viewed as essential pieces of the rebuild and move on to the next game.

"I think we came into this short season not really knowing what to expect, not knowing what teams were going to look like, really focused on us," he said.

"Mike (Elias) has been really transparent about having as much talent in the organization as possible, and that's been our mindset, and he's done an amazing job of doing that these first couple years and developing the guys that we have. And I think we've done that fairly well. We're still trying to develop the younger players that we have on our team right now, as well as the guys at our secondary site that we're really excited about. But right now we're less than 20 games to go, we're hovering around .500 and I'd just like to see us play well these last few weeks."

The regular season is down to 19 games. The finish line is now visible. But it still seems so far away for a manager who has to make numerous health checks each day, knows the challenges in the remaining schedule and understands how easily it all can crumble again.

The Orioles follow a four-game series in the Bronx with a homestand featuring the Braves and Rays - including a doubleheader. There's also another trip to Buffalo to play the Blue Jays.

"We're less than three weeks away, but I know that we still have a long way to go, also," Hyde said. "Still a lot of games to be played. We're still playing really good teams

"I, obviously, would love to play well and have these guys experience a postseason, what that feels like. I think that would be an incredible achievement for the guys in our clubhouse. Really, I am just taking this day-to-day, to be honest with you, and trying to win tonight and wake up tomorrow and see where we are. Continue to do that for the next few weeks."

Outfielder Austin Hays was supposed to play in his first simulated game today at the alternate camp site in Bowie, but it was canceled due to rain.

"He should take a week or so of at-bats and then be back with us, hopefully," Hyde said.

Hyde suggested that Alex Cobb could return to the active roster by the end of the week. Cobb is on the injured list for unspecified reasons, which suggests he's undergone COVID protocol.

The starters for the Yankees series are listed as TBD beyond Keegan Akin on Thursday.

Reliever Shawn Armstrong has started to throw at the secondary camp site and Hyde is hoping that the right-hander will return to the active roster before the season concludes.

Armstrong was placed on the injured list retroactive to Aug. 26 with left SI joint inflammation in his lower back. His return was anticipated much earlier.

For the Mets
Brandon Nimmo CF
Michael Conforto RF
J.D. Davis 3B
Dominic Smith 1B
Robinson Canó 2B
Pete Alonso DH
Jeff McNeil LF
Andrés Giménez SS
Robinson Chirinos C

Rick Porcello RHP