Work on extra-inning situations continues at Camden Yards

The Orioles closed yesterday's workout by again simulating an extra-inning situation. A runner on second base and no outs. Pressure applied to the hitters and the defense.

Be satisfied with an RBI or a putout, depending on your point of view.

John Means wasn't subjected to the same treatment during Tuesday's night's intrasquad game - it was reserved for the four relievers - but the Orioles demonstrated one technique for scoring in a similar situation.

Chance Sisco led off the fifth inning with a single and moved up on a pitch in the dirt. Austin Hays bunted him to third, Hanser Alberto pushed a bunt to the right side and Sisco beat the flip home.

Cedric Mullins swiped third base in the first inning with Hunter Harvey on the mound, but it was wasted energy. Dilson Herrera hit a three-run homer. Herrera scored in the second inning on José Iglesias' error. Can't always count on those.

Andrew Velazquez trotted home in the third inning on Mullins' triple to center field.

If that was part of the drill, the Orioles executed it to perfection.

"I think it was just something we wanted to look at and work on, not only offensively but defensively," manager Brandon Hyde said yesterday. "We did some stuff earlier in the day, some situational offensive drills and kind of took that into our intrasquad. First-and-third offense, runner at second base, nobody-out offense. And we worked on our defense during the intrasquad."

This is a whole new baseball world in 2020 and the majors are borrowing the extra-inning idea from the minors in an attempt to avoid taxing pitching staffs. A different sort of health-and-safety concern.

Games should be ending at a more reasonable hour, with fewer 17-inning affairs featuring position players on the mound.

At least, that's the theory.

"I think you saw (Tuesday) night how challenging it is to not let the guy score," Hyde said. "There's so many things that can happen. And I wanted our pitchers to come into the game with that mindset, but I also wanted our defenders to see what that looked like and how we're going to defend in that situation.

"I thought it went well, I thought we executed fairly well offensively. I was happy about that. I thought a couple of our guys out of the bullpen did a nice job trying to limit the damage. So we're going to continue working on that here the next week. We're going to continue to put guys in game situations."

Yesterday's workout, which ended early in the afternoon, included situational drills for the infielders and outfielders.

"We're trying to cram in as much as we can here the last week," Hyde said.

The Orioles might need to also find ways to communicate important information in a silent ballpark. It's fine now for intrasquad games, but the opposing dugout has ears.

"It's going to be unusual not having fans in the stands and probably being able to hear things going on in the other dugout," Hyde said. "I have never been a part of an empty-stadium game. I've been in the Florida State League, so that's kind of close at times. But I don't know what it's going to look like."

The scene for workouts and intrasquads includes executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias sitting behind home plate and assorted team employees spread out in the stands. Pitching coach Doug Brocail took his turn yesterday holding the radar gun.

Spectators include Jennifer Grondahl, senior vice president of community development communications, and senior manager of baseball communications Jim Misudek. Some members of the grounds crew also have watched from the seats.

"We're going to miss the fans. Playing these intrasquads, when you've got Jim, Mike and Jennifer in the stands, it's not quite the same," Hyde said with a laugh.

"We love having the fans there and having an atmosphere, so it's definitely going to be strange. I think it's going to be easy to talk on the field, communication on popups and those types of things should never be an issue, because you can hear everything. So I just think we're going to do the best we can.

"Everyone's going through the same thing and it's not ideal. We're going to have to bring our own energy, for sure. We really wish the fans could be there, for sure."