Trey Mancini on the losing streak: "It's definitely a test"

The good feeling and positive vibes in the Orioles clubhouse that carried from spring training into the regular season continued through the club's 4-1 start. The chemistry, the team being together, the team playing hard and aggressive baseball that was dictated by their manager from the first day under the Florida sun.

But a 4-1 start has been followed by a four-game losing streak where the Orioles allowed 34 runs, got swept by the New York Yankees and saw their bullpen give up nine homers with an ERA of 11.57.

They lost three to New York after losing the series finale in Toronto. But the Orioles' Trey Mancini said the upbeat attitude the team has been playing with has not been quieted by the losses.

"For sure and I don't think that is going to fade, no matter," said Mancini. "We'll go through some struggles, but one thing that will never waver is the camaraderie and energy brought here every day. You can just tell looking around - this is a close team that enjoys coming to the park every day."

But a losing streak can test any club, especially a young one. Especially one that gave up seven homers to the Yankees in Sunday's 15-3 loss.

"It's definitely a test," said Mancini. "Especially this early on and with the start we had. In a lot of the games we won, we did a good job of battling and we still did a good job of that, thought yesterday there wasn't much of a battle there. But we were in those other games the whole time. It's a test, but we've gotten confidence from how we've played. Over half our games have been against the Yankees and we showed out pretty well. We gained confidence that we can hang with the MLB big boys."

Mancini is hitting .333/.359/.722 (12-for-36) with four home runs, two doubles, nine RBIs and eight runs scored in nine games. His 1.081 OPS ranks eighth in the American League and his .333 average is tied for 11th in the league among qualifying hitters. His six extra-base hits are tied for sixth, while his four infield hits are tied for fourth-most in the majors.

He told me today he's not that worried about how pitchers will react to him as a hot hitter in a lineup with not many hot hitters or power hitters around him. Will he start to get pitched differently?

"I think possibly. But I'm not really thinking about that too much. I'm honestly just going up there and sticking to a plan. If you get ahead in counts, you'll get pitches to hit no matter what. So that has been my focus.

"I think pitching backwards is a trend around MLB. There are not many hitters' counts anymore. So yeah, it's been different but just going up there with a plan and sticking to it. If it ends up without a hit, I can say I had a plan and tried my best," he said.

Mancini took some time today to throw some props to the Orioles defense. They have made only two errors, the fewest of any team in baseball and are tied with tonight's opponent, Oakland, for best fielding percentage in MLB at .994. The O's 14 double plays are tied for the most in the AL and second-most in MLB. They are the only team in the majors not to have had a base stolen against them.

"What have we had just two errors this year? It's been really good and fun to be part of. We've been fundamentally sound and that started in spring. In our very first meeting Hyder (manager Brandon Hyde) talked about how we need to be fundamentally sound and things like that and we have been so far.

"I think our shifts have been good and that has helped too. The coaches have done a great job of studying up and the advance scouts have placed guys in the right spots too. We have a plan there too, as far as defensive alignments. We know where to be at all times and I think being on the same page helps that a lot also," he said.