The hard part of the schedule just got a little harder.

Goodbye Braves, with your best record in the National League. Hello Rays, with your best record in baseball at 28-7 and obscene plus-115 run differential.

Maybe a lot harder.

The division is out of control. Boston used to be in last place with a record above .500. They won eight in a row before yesterday’s loss in Philadelphia and moved into third place, until the Blue Jays passed them by blowing out the Pirates.

The Yankees are in the cellar but a game above .500. Four of the five teams have 20 wins or more.

ATLANTA – Brandon Hyde didn’t have much to offer the local beat crew before today’s game. Nothing had changed in 12 hours besides his lineup. Morning baseball doesn’t usually bring much news or anything of interest unless the roster is impacted. It just happens, taxing bodies and minds after a late night.

The Orioles’ manager held a cup of coffee, not his first of the day, and joked about his breakfast. Eggs over medium. Nothing is easy around here. Hyde got in a quick workout. And he tried to guide his club to an eighth series win in a row.

Of course, the game would go to extra innings. Baseball has a sense of humor.

It also has walk-off wins for the home team.

Michael Harris II doubled off Cionel Pérez in the 12th to score automatic runner Ozzie Albies with one out and give the Braves a 3-2 victory over the Orioles before an announced sellout crowd of 40,800 at Truist Park.

ATLANTA – The Orioles still have a chance to win their eighth series in a row to draw within one of the club record.

The Braves rallied last night for a 5-4 win on Kevin Pillar’s two-run homer off Danny Coulombe in the eighth inning.

Austin Hays returns to the lineup, batting fifth and playing left field. James McCann is catching a morning game after a night game, and Adley Rutschman is on the bench.

Anthony Santander is the designated hitter and batting second. Gunnar Henderson is the shortstop and cleanup hitter, with Jorge Mateo on the bench.

Manager Brandon Hyde spoke to Mateo at the infielder’s locker after last night’s game, likely to tell him about the day off.

ATLANTA – Mychal Givens hasn’t allowed a run or hit in three innings on his injury rehab assignment at Double-A Bowie. He’s walked one batter and struck out five.

Dillon Tate has appeared in one game with High-A Aberdeen and four with Bowie, and he’s allowed a combined eight earned runs (10 total) and nine hits in four innings.

Givens figured to be ahead of Tate, since he pitched in spring training. He got into four games, allowing only an unearned run and striking out seven batters, before the Orioles shut him down with left knee inflammation.

Tate was experiencing discomfort in his right elbow/forearm area in November, eliminating him from the Opening Day roster. He didn’t progress beyond bullpen sessions, though he mixed in a changeup.

The logical assumption is that Givens beats Tate back to Baltimore. He doesn’t necessarily need to be built up for multiple innings. The last box checked is probably pitching on back-to-back days.

ATLANTA – The Orioles keep coming at you. To call them pesky is too polite. They are relentless and trying to prove to skeptics that they’re real.

Fall behind early, lose a lead, call the bullpen after another start stalls in the middle innings. Summon another rally, turn on the sprinklers in the dugout and keep riding the wave of wins. That’s how it’s worked for most of the season.

The doubters will point to a rotation with seven quality starts in 33 games, and to a bullpen that might not hold up under the burden. That’s the rain on the parade.

Kevin Pillar’s two-run pinch-hit homer off Danny Coulombe in the eighth inning gave the Braves a 5-4 win over the Orioles before an announced sellout crowd of 41,454 at Truist Park. Coulombe replaced Bryan Baker after Austin Riley’s leadoff double and Sean Murphy’s lineout.

On the verge of their 12^th comeback victory and eighth series win in a row, with a chance to go 23-10 and move 13 games above .500 for the first time since the conclusion of the 2016 season, the Orioles finally collapsed under pressure applied by the team with the National League’s best record.

ATLANTA – Ramón Urías returned to the clubhouse after last night’s win over the Braves and received the news. The part-time second baseman, part-time third baseman, would start at first base tonight.

Something he’s never done in the majors.

Something that was brewing after the Orioles optioned Ryan O’Hearn Thursday afternoon.

Urías had a comical reaction to it.

“I feel like it was kind of weird because I’m not a big first baseman,” he said. “I’m good with it, I’m good with the challenge.”

ATLANTA – Ramón Urías is making his first major league start at first base tonight, as the Orioles try for their eighth series win in a row.

Ryan Mountcastle is the designated hitter.

Austin Hays is out of the lineup again with a deep cut on his right middle finger. Kyle Stowers gets the start in left field.

Gunnar Henderson is at third base. Adam Frazier is the second baseman.

Anthony Santander, who's in right field, has hit three home runs in the last two games, including last night's first career grand slam.

ATLANTA – Cedric Mullins was lowered in the order again last night against a left-hander, batting seventh while also being one of the first players credited with a 9-4 win over the Braves.

Anthony Santander homered twice, including a grand slam, but Mullins led off the seventh with a homer against Max Fried.

Mullins is 12-for-43 (.279) against southpaws, with six extra-base hits and 13 RBIs. He slashed .209/.265/.313 last season and drove in only 15 runs.

“Just continue to work,” he said. “I’ve said many times, just how I prepare against lefties going forward. I’ve had a lot of success, so just sticking with it.”

Mullins added a run-scoring single off right-hander Joe Jiménez in the seventh and he leads the team with 28 RBIs.

ATLANTA – One mistake pitch, a meatball in the heart of the plate. Is that asking too much?

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde hoped that Atlanta left-hander Max Fried was due. Or perhaps it was just wishful thinking.

Hyde can recite Fried’s line from the four-hit shutout tossed at Camden Yards in 2021, right down to the zero walks. He knows about the three consecutive scoreless starts this season and the one run allowed in 20 innings.

Fried didn’t locate a fastball in the fourth inning tonight and Anthony Santander sent it over the left-center field fence to break a tie. That was the mistake. Cedric Mullins barreled a sinker leading off the seventh for another home run. That was a mistake.

So was the notion that Dean Kremer would lose a pitchers’ duel with Fried. Or that the harder part of the schedule would crush the Orioles.

The Orioles close out their series in Kansas City this afternoon and board a charter for Atlanta, where they won two of three games at Truist Park in June 2018.

They claimed the series opener, which is their go-to move in 2023.

A win Friday night would make the Orioles 11-0 in the first game of a series, already the longest streak in club history to begin a season, according to STATS.

The old record was seven in April 1974, followed by five in April 1996.

Let us dig a little deeper.

ATLANTA – The decision after Thursday’s game to option Ryan O’Hearn to Triple-A Norfolk takes away a true backup first baseman on the Orioles’ roster.

O’Hearn was bumped by new catcher Luis Torrens, acquired from the Cubs this week for cash considerations.

“Ryan did a great job for us,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “That was tough to say goodbye. Might just be short term. We’ll see. But did a really good job for us in the role that he was in when he was here, so expect to see him back at some point.”

Hyde might be thinking a little outside the box to give Ryan Mountcastle an occasional break.

James McCann played an inning at first base this week in Kansas City and made six starts with the Mets. Adley Rutschman played first in college and the minors but not with the Orioles. Anthony Santander keeps taking ground balls at first and got some reps in spring training, but his last real game experience was in 2016 with Single-A Lynchburg.

ATLANTA – Austin Hays is out of the Orioles’ lineup again tonight while waiting for the gash to heal on his right middle finger. He’s wearing a soft splint on it.

“It’s improved a little bit more,” he said. “We’re still just trying to be careful with it so we don’t turn it into something worse. But the same, day-to-day. Just trying to give it that little bit of extra time and make sure it’s fully ready to go. But still available off the bench if opportunity shows up where I need to be there.”

Hays was hit on the finger by Corey Kluber’s 88 mph sinker, and a cut opened on the inside knuckle beneath the bruise. The Orioles had it cleaned out Wednesday.

A blood blister formed when the ball caused the finger to get pinched against the bat, and the cut was discovered.

“There was just no way to know that it was there before,” Hays said. “At that point, we couldn’t put stitches in it. It’s not something that needs to be stitched. It just needs to heal and close up a little bit. But it’s right there.”

ATLANTA – Catcher Luis Torrens has joined the Orioles in Atlanta and is added to the 26-man roster for tonight’s series opener against the Braves.

In a corresponding move, first baseman Ryan O’Hearn was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.

O’Hearn appeared in nine games and went 5-for-19 (.263) with a .634 OPS, one double and six RBIs.

Torrens, who’s wearing No. 13, gives the Orioles a third catcher and reduces the risk of putting Adley Rutschman and James McCann in the same lineup. He’s also a right-handed bat for the bench.

Rutschman and McCann could pair up again tonight with Atlanta starting left-hander Max Fried.

The Orioles are two-thirds through their road trip and keep winning more than they lose, which seems like a solid plan the rest of the way.

Is it always pretty? Not even close to that, but what matters is the final score and a 21-10 record.

They didn’t win their 21^st game last season until May 30 in Boston. They had 29 losses and nobody was predicting playoffs.

If there really is a soft spot in a major league schedule, the Orioles zipped past it. They play the first-place Braves, with the second-best record in baseball, in a three-game series before returning home and facing the first-place Rays, who possess the best record at 26-6 and have a plus-114 run differential.

The Orioles won two of three games at Truist Park in 2018. The opener lasted 15 innings and the Orioles prevailed 10-7 after they scored six runs in the top of the ninth and Zack Britton was charged with four in the bottom half to send the game to extras. Manny Machado homered in the 15^th.

KANSAS CITY – After the top of the third today, the Orioles were enjoying an 8-1 lead against the Kansas City Royals and former teammate Jordan Lyles. Maybe this would be their rare laughter - a blowout with no late game or even mid-game drama.

Nope.

By the end of the Kansas City fourth, the Royals were hitting rookie right-hander Grayson Rodriguez hard and their 8-1 deficit was now just 8-6. There was nothing to laugh about now. Would the O’s even hold on and get another series win before heading to Atlanta?

Nope, also.

Or so we thought.

The Orioles are sending Grayson Rodriguez to the mound this afternoon in Kansas City while trying to claim their seventh series.

Rodriguez is working on regular rest after starting Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader in Detroit and earning his first major league win with a career-high nine strikeouts. He hasn’t allowed a run in 14 straight innings going back to Chicago.

Austin Hays is out of the lineup again today. He also didn’t pinch-hit last night, with manager Brandon Hyde choosing Ryan McKenna to bat for Kyle Stowers.

Hays recently returned after bruising his right middle finger on an attempted bunt.

Stowers is in left field again today. Adley Rutschman is the designated hitter.

KANSAS CITY – The Orioles had not been shut out yet this year and ranked fifth in the majors in runs per game at 5.45 coming into this outing. But their offense, which produced 11 runs last night, did not come through for the Orioles tonight.

O’s right-hander Kyle Gibson had been 4-0 this year and the Orioles were 5-1 in his 2023 starts. But he would need run support to win this one and didn’t get it.

Kansas City snapped a 10-game home losing streak, scoring single runs in the fourth and sixth and adding four in the seventh to beat the Orioles 6-0 in front of 10,362 at Kauffman Stadium. 

The time of game was one hour and 59 minutes. 

The Orioles will win a seventh consecutive series if they win the rubber match here on Thursday afternoon.

KANSAS CITY – The Orioles today acquired catcher Luis Torrens, a veteran of 264 major league games, from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for cash considerations. He has not yet reported to the team and manager Brandon Hyde said he wasn’t sure what day that would happen. To make 40-man roster room, reliever Joey Krehbiel was designated for assignment.

Hyde said this afternoon that this move is not about the health of either of his two catchers, confirming that both Adley Rutschman and James McCann are fine physically. However, Triple-A catcher Maverick Handley went on the injured list today with a hand contusion. Mark Kolozsvary was seen here this week and it's assumed that he is the taxi-squad catcher for this series. 

For now, the Orioles may be about to again carry three catchers. Hyde was asked if that was the plan.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Haven’t seen much of him (Torrens),” Hyde said during his pregame media update. “Saw him against Seattle last year. But just know that he is a guy that has hit left-handers well in his career (with a .725 OPS) and done a nice job behind the plate. Besides that, don’t know much about him. Looking forward to getting to know him.

The Orioles made a roster move before tonight’s game in Kansas City, and it didn’t involve calling up one of their minor league players.

Catcher Luis Torrens was acquired from the Cubs in exchange for cash considerations, the team announced. He didn't report to the Orioles today, and manager Brandon Hyde may provide more information to the assembled media.

Torrens, who turned 27 yesterday, was batting .250/.318/.300 (5-for-20) with one double and three RBIs in 13 games. He signed with the Cubs as a minor league free agent in January.

The Orioles are Torren’s fifth organization. The Reds selected him from the Yankees in the 2016 Rule 5 draft and traded him that day to the Padres for a player to be named later who became infielder/outfielder Josh VanMeter. San Diego traded him to the Mariners in August 2020 in a seven-player deal.

Torrens has appeared in 264 major league games and batted .227/.289/.352 with 19 home runs and 78 RBIs in 799 plate appearances. He played in 108 games with Seattle in 2021 and finished with 16 doubles, two triples, 15 home runs and 47 RBIs.

The Orioles will try tonight to claim their seventh consecutive series, two short of the club record set in 1968.

They fell behind 3-0 last night and registered their 10^th comeback victory of the season to improve to 20-9, the second-best record in the majors. They’ve won five of their last six games, 12 of 14 and 16 of 20.

Austin Hays and Gunnar Henderson are out of tonight’s lineup.

Kyle Stowers is playing left field and batting fifth. Ramón Urías is the third baseman, with Adam Frazier at second base.

Ryan Mountcastle is the designated hitter after homering twice last night, and Ryan O’Hearn is playing first base.