Leftovers for breakfast

The Orioles have come up short on victories early in the season, but they aren’t running low on reasons why and theories on how to turn it around.

Having nine players on the injured list, including top two starters Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez, outfielder Colton Cowser and relievers Albert Suárez and Andrew Kittredge, set up the club to begin slowly. The depth took a hit, especially with pitchers Trevor Rogers and Chayce McDermott also on the IL.

The rotation posted a 5.54 ERA that ranked last in the majors before Dean Kremer held the Guardians to one run in 5 1/3 innings, and 79 2/3 innings from the unit were tied with Cleveland for 29^th. Bullpen usage is tricky with Félix Bautista unable to work back-to-back days or go multiple innings, and with left-hander Cionel Pérez carrying a 14.21 ERA and 3.158 WHIP in six appearances. The offense sputters. The defense breaks down randomly, offering the best and worst last night.

The problems don’t go ignored.

“We’re talking about it every day and trying to figure out how we can help these guys, give them confidence. Be honest about how we’re playing. Nobody’s hiding from it,” manager Brandon Hyde said before a 9-1 win.

“We’re off to a slow start. Those things happen. We’ve gotten off to good starts the last couple years. But it’s a lot of things. It’s not just the offense. We need to do a better job out of the rotation, and we need to play better defense, too. We’ve just got to be a little better all the way around.”

Hyde noted how younger players have a tougher time letting go of poor at-bats and games, which presents another set of issues.

“Things can kind of steamroll,” he said.

“I think that happened last year the second half a lot. We kind of let our offense struggle for a while or guys struggle for a while and they had a tough time turning the page or forgetting about what happened yesterday - especially young, really, really good players. They expect so much of themselves and they feel a lot of internal and external pressure.”

Counseling becomes just as important as managing and instructing.

“You just try to get them to relax as much as possible,” Hyde said. “That’s what I feel like with our club right now. We have a lot of guys that put a ton of pressure on themselves and they feel it. I think you just try to get them to believe in themselves. ‘There’s a reason why you went first round. There’s a reason why you’re here in the big leagues already.’

“There’s a reason why we won 90-plus games and 100-plus games back-to-back years because of contributions that they’ve made and they’re only going to get better, but you have to be able to slow down the game a little bit and know you’re going to have bad games and tough weeks and forget about it quickly and not be so internal.”

Drivers are instructed to release the gas pedal of a car that’s skidding on ice and steer in the direction of the slide. How does it work with a team that’s in a tailspin?

“I think there’s a bunch of different ways to go about it and look at it from our standpoint,” Eflin said. “Just show up and play hard and make sure we’re all pulling on the same rope and in the same direction. It’s not rocket science, you know? Just show up every day expecting to win.”

Starter Charlie Morton, in his 18^th season, suggested that it’s wise to be irrational in order to achieve great things.

“I think you have to give yourself a little more credit than maybe you deserve on a day-in, day-out basis,” he said, “because it’s just such a long season.”

A reporter relayed the message to Eflin yesterday.

“I don’t think there’s an exact way to go about it,” he said, “but I think that’s an amazing thought and something that could catch on with a lot of guys here for sure.”

First baseman Ryan O’Hearn offered his own suggestion about snapping out of a collective funk. The less said about it, the better.

“Seriously, not talking about it 24/7 is a good way,” he said.

“We’ve got to go out there and play. That’s what it is. We need to go out there and have the attitude that we’re here to kick somebody’s ass, and go out there and have fun doing what we’re all capable of doing. I think if you talk about it all the time, you kind of have like a fake rah-rah type attitude. I think that can be detrimental, and we’ve just got to go out there and play.

“No offense to you, but not worried about what the media says, not worried about anything, but go out there and do what we’re capable of. I know I’m talking about it right now, but I think as a group, we’ve just got to go do it. We’ve got to have fun, we’ve got to be ourselves. Baseball’s a crazy game. When you try harder it doesn’t necessarily translate to success. We’ve just got to stay the course.”

O’Hearn, who homered last night, prefers to shield himself from the noise, something that he can control to a certain degree.

“I don’t have Twitter during the season,” he said of the social media platform renamed X. “Fans are passionate fans and I appreciate them. We love our fans, and they have every right to freak out because they’re fans. I freak out about the Green Bay Packers, but I don’t think that the people inside the locker room give a (crap) what I have to say in Green Bay. That’s just an example.

“Everybody here is dedicated to the team and to our craft and to the season. We have all the motivation in the world. We just have to go put it together.”

* Heston Kjerstad hit into some tough luck last night.

Kjerstad lined to deep right field at 104.7 in his first at-bat and followed with a 104.3 mph line drive to left. He flied to the track in left field at 103.2 mph in the sixth inning.

That’s a loud 0-for-3, but the Orioles will take those at-bats and overlook the results.

They also will get excited by them. In his fourth at-bat, Kjerstad lined a two-run single into right at 106.7 mph.

“I definitely felt great every AB today,” he said. “Hit a lot of balls hard, caught a lot of barrels. That’s the game of baseball. Sometimes it doesn’t fall, but if I keep showing up and taking good ABs and hitting balls hard, it’s gonna equate to what you want to do.”

* Fun fact: Gunnar Henderson had three or more hits and scored two or more runs in his last two games against the Guardians last season. The only other Orioles to do that in back-to-back games against Cleveland are Cedric Mullins in 2021, Javy López in 2004 and Jim Gentile in 1962.

Henderson had two hits in Tuesday’s series opener but went 0-for-4 last night.

* Is it too early to start thinking about the draft?

Obviously not. Baseball America already published it’s 2.0 mock.

BA has the Nationals selecting high school pitcher Seth Hernandez with the first-overall pick. Shortstop Ethan Holliday, younger brother of Jackson Holliday, is projected to go third to the Mariners.

The Orioles are projected to take Mount Vernon (Wash.) High School third baseman Xavier Neyens.

“His raw power and batting eye are among the best in the high school class,” writes BA’s Carlos Collazo.

The Orioles also have the 30^th and 31^st picks as compensation for losing Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander in free agency, and the 58^th pick in the second competitive balance round. BA predicts that the club will select Arizona State outfielder Brandon Compton 30^th and Auburn catcher Ike Irish 31^st.

* The career course of pitcher Luis González remains windy and at times treacherous.

González had a large gap between signings with the Orioles and finally, and unexpectedly, made it onto the 40-man roster in November at age 32. He turned 33 in January.

Baseball life was good for González as he crept closer to making his major league debut, but he posted a 5.79 ERA and 2.143 WHIP in four appearances at Triple-A Norfolk, went on the seven-day injured list and was designated for assignment this week to make room for reliever Scott Blewett.

It got worse. The Orioles released González Tuesday afternoon.

* This leftover really needs to be heated.

In Kremer’s previous start in Kansas City, he received a mound visit from Hyde and an athletic trainer but remained in the game. Kremer flexed his right hand before they came out of the dugout and appeared to be injured.

I asked Hyde about it the following day.

“I’ve known Dean for a while and I’ve never seen him do that, so when it’s 40 degrees outside, he’s not wearing sleeves, being tough, I didn’t know what that was, so we just went out and made sure,” Hyde explained. “He said it was fine.”

Kremer’s start last night didn’t raise any health concerns, just hopes that he can get on a roll.