O's pregame notes on the offense, Bautista and more

OAKLAND – The search for offense to match their strong pitching continues for the Orioles today in the third game of this series in Oakland. They’ve lost the first two games, scoring just two runs in the series.

Last night they hit seven balls 100 mph or more that were caught and turned into outs. Since the Statcast era of data began in 2015, just twice have the Orioles hit more. On both Sept. 3, 2017 and Sept, 21, 2019 they had opponents turn eight balls hit 100 mph or more into outs.

Does manager Brandon Hyde have concerns that his hitters will get frustrated that even when they square up balls like they did last night, the results still don’t come?

“I think we have quite a few guys pressing a little bit and they want to see results,” he said ahead of today’s game in the Baltimore dugout. “I was encouraged the way we swung the bats, especially the first half of the game. We drove a bunch of balls into the big part of the field and (center fielder Christian) Pache made a bunch of nice plays. The ball wasn’t really carrying last night.

“I know our guys want to see results and want to see some numbers being put up. We’ve started the season in a bit of an offensive funk and hopefully we get out of it soon. Maybe last night is a good sign that we hit so many balls hard that we’re on our way. We’ve also faced some good pitching, too, at this point. Hopefully, we get it going today.”

Even the skipper and coaches can feel pressure with a team struggling so much. They want to make a move or provide a tip to help the players. But Hyde said he’s liked the club’s pregame work and preparation on offense.

“I think our process has been really good, our meetings are good. Our pregame work has been excellent. So, you want to think it’s going to carry over in the games sometime soon,” he said.

Today’s lineup does not include Jorge Mateo at short or Austin Hays in the outfield, and it’s just a rest day for both, with Chris Owings and Ryan McKenna getting starts.

Last night’s strong pitching featured another good outing from 26-year-old Dominican-born right-hander Félix Bautista. He is quite the story. He was released in 2015 by the Marlins and finally last year made big progress on the O's watch, pitching at three levels on the farm. Now he's throwing gas in the majors and featuring a splitter currently producing a 66.7 percent whiff rate. 

He has allowed one run in five innings with two walks and eight strikeouts.

“He is a great story, and hats off to our player development people for getting him to be able to pitch in big spots in the big leagues right now," Hyde said. "It’s fun to watch him. He’s a great kid. He’s fun to be around and everybody likes him. He throws 99 also, which helps, with a really good split. I’m enjoying watching him have success and I’ll continue to throw him out there in big parts of games."

The latest Adley Rutschman update is that the O's are not yet ready to tell us when Rutschman can play games at Triple-A. But that still seems about a week away, at least.

“He’s progressing well," said Hyde. "There have been no setbacks. He’s throwing, he’s hitting, getting in game shape. Cross our fingers there are no setbacks and he’ll be playing games soon.

“He’s down there with the extended group and he’s taking coaches BP and he’s doing all the stuff defensively. He’s catching pitchers. Sort of like a guy on rehab getting back in game shape. He still has to take a whole spring training of at-bats. Still a process in place and he’s following it perfectly right now, and we’re happy with the progress he’s made."

The Orioles rotation shows Tyler Wells scheduled to pitch tomorrow's series finale here. And the club just announced its weekend starters in Anaheim, and the team will stay in turn. So lefty Bruce Zimmermann goes Friday with Spenser Watkins Saturday and Chris Ellis on Sunday to wrap up the road trip.