Wondering what's next for Morton and whether Orioles can get hot

DETROIT – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde doesn’t know whether he can count on Adley Rutschman for tonight’s series opener against the Yankees. The catcher’s swollen right hand makes it hard for Hyde to write his name in the lineup.

Jordan Westburg can add his hamstring to the list of reasons why he’s described as “banged up.” Cedric Mullins has sinus pain that he tried to ignore through 18 innings of Saturday’s doubleheader.

Eleven Orioles are on the injured list when you count pitchers Trevor Rogers and Chayce McDermott, with the latter making his first rehab start yesterday for Double-A Chesapeake and allowing a run with three walks and three strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings. Catcher Gary Sánchez was hit twice by pitches yesterday and stayed in the game. Maybe the club’s luck is changing.

The rotation doesn’t stay the same.

The Orioles announced that Tomoyuki Sugano will start tonight, as expected, but Cade Povich is moved back to Wednesday. The assumption is that veteran Kyle Gibson will make his grand return to the team on Tuesday.

Gibson has made three rehab starts, the most recent at High-A Aberdeen on April 20. He’s thrown bullpen sessions to stay sharp but that’s quite a gap between games.

A fifth starter isn’t needed until May 10, which raises questions about Charlie Morton’s role. Does he stay in the rotation anyway or move to the bullpen to provide a much-needed long man?

The loss of Albert Suárez to a right subscapularis strain is an underrated blow to the club. He’d be starting or covering multiple innings at a time in the ‘pen.

Morton worked in relief in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader, with Keegan Akin serving as the surprise opener. Morton took the loss to make him 0-6 in six outings. He’s only the second pitcher in Orioles history, and the 30th in the majors, to begin a season losing each of his first six appearances.

Kevin Millwood set the record for most consecutive losing decisions to begin his Orioles career with eight in 2010, according to STATS. Danys Baez lost seven between 2007-09, and Mark Thurmond lost six in 1988.

Morton holds the record for most consecutive games earning a loss to begin his Orioles career, three more than Bob Kuzava in 1954, Thurmond and Pete Harnisch in 1988, Jamie Moyer in 1993, Jaret Wright in 2007, Ubaldo Jiménez in 2014 and Alex Cobb in 2018.

If you’re curious, Mike Morgan holds the major league record for most games earning a loss with a new team with nine while pitching for the Athletics in 1978-79. Save it for "Pop Culture Jeopardy."

Morton hadn’t pitched out of the bullpen in a regular season game since his rookie season with the Braves in 2008. He reminded reporters that he also came out of the ‘pen for the Astros in the 2017 World Series. Changing his routine and role might be the way to lower his 10.36 ERA and 2.219 WHIP.

“When you are a reliever, you don’t have as many opportunities to put that work in and have the days in between because you have to be available so often,” said pitching coach Drew French. “I don’t think anything is off the table. Certainly, we want to get this turned around, and nobody in this clubhouse feels good about where we’re at. But we’re fighting to be consistently good and that’s in all three phases of the game.

“We haven’t done our part on the mound and I think everything is on the table. However, right now, the conversation with Charlie is, 'What’s it gonna take for you to feel comfortable, what’s it gonna take for you to leverage counts a little bit more often, and then what’s it gonna take for you just to know that your curveball is nasty and just trusting it?'”

Morton threw his hardest pitch of the season Saturday at 97.3 mph while striking out his first batter, but he walked five in 3 2/3 innings and Riley Greene hit a three-run homer on a first-pitch fastball. Morton said afterward that he was trying to make some adjustments with his arm, timing and positioning.

French cited where he found improvements with the 18-year veteran, beginning with the bender.

“Curveballs, more zone, more competitive,” French said. “It’s his pitch. There’s got to be utility in every at-bat, at least potentially. The fact that he landed more, increased the zone percentage and more competitive, I think we started to draw some chase and certainly some in-zone swing and miss, which is really good.

“I still believe in his fastballs, I really like where his changeup is at, but the curveball is something he has to have. I like where it’s at.”

French doesn’t endorse the theory that the sole reason for Morton’s struggles is related to his mechanics.

“I think it’s just more or less him trying to find consistency with what he wants to feel and see,” French said. “He’s thrown a lot of baseballs in his career, so we know one year is not like the next, but we also need him to be sort of comfortable in his own skin and I know that there’s something that he’s feeling from time to time that he really likes, and I think he’s just trying to recreate that a little more.”

No amount of dissection and discussion is going to change one simple fact: Morton’s curveball is one of the best pitches in baseball, backed by the data, and he needs to find it.

The spin rate and shape aren’t as troublesome as the location.

“Baseball players and coaches, where they start with problem-solving is gonna be different, but when you look at things like that, then you start to wonder like, is it something deception-related?” French said.

“When you look at it, it kind of seems like if he can get it to be more zone more early in the count and be in counts to leverage it for chase, we think it’s gonna show up that way. We keep leaning into that and hopefully that he continues to be more competitive 0-0 and winning two of the first three of the at-bats, and the finisher potential of the curveball and the things that we’ve seen in the past will show back up.”

The Orioles have other issues besides Morton. They’d consider it good fortune for their problems to be limited to one player.

Dean Kremer’s ERA is 7.04. Cionel Pérez let an inherited runner score yesterday and allowed two hits in one-third of an inning, but at least his ERA was lowered from 10.80 to 10.50. The offense isn’t delivering in the clutch, going 6-for-60 with runners in scoring position and stranding 54 since Easter. They’ve scored 12 runs in the last seven games and were shut out yesterday for the fourth time.

And, of course, the injuries and illnesses.

There isn’t a good time to be without Cedric Mullins, Adley Rutschman and Jordan Westburg for the same game, but you really can’t catch a break when it happens against Tarik Skubal.

“We’re going through a tough time right now,” Hyde said, “and hopefully we can get out of this and start playing better baseball.”

“I think it’s going to take every single player on this team,” said Ramón Urías. “I mean, we are the only ones that can make it turn around, and we’ve got to work on that.”