After Wednesday, will O's clubhouse vibe remain upbeat?

If you think Birdland gets extremely frustrated as losses mount and the Orioles give up a lot of homers and runs, no doubt that is very, very true. Even aware of the team's rebuild mode, it can never sit well with a diehard O's fan to hear Yankees fans enjoying a night in Baltimore.

They pipe down when their team is behind and it's up to the Orioles to put them in that position, but they could not this week at Oriole Park.

So yeah, frustrating time for fans. And think about how it must be for the players and staff that live it every day. It's hard to stay upbeat, positive and play with energy under such circumstances but the Orioles have done that and done so very well this year.

Going in the clubhouse as often as I do, you can see and feel it. The team has remained upbeat pretty much every day.

For me, that might be the biggest success for manager Brandon Hyde and his coaching staff in the 2019 season. It started in spring training when players made it very apparent that the new staff made a great first impression and had created a relaxed, but intense atmosphere in Sarasota.

And you would not have been cynical then to wonder if that positivity could hold up as losses piled up. At some point, would the team become beaten down and that would just lead to more losses? We haven't seen that with this group.

During the Orioles' West Coast road trip, Hyde talked about the clubhouse and how it has been pretty solid all year which helped the Orioles have their recent stretch of winning.

"I don't think the vibe has changed," Hyde said. "Even in tough moments, I feel like our guys enjoy the clubhouse, enjoy competing with each other. I think our guys show up ready to play. I think we're fun to watch. We've had our moments this year where we play really good baseball, but that's part of where we are in this process. I like the way our guys compete and we come to win every day."

Before the Yankees came to Baltimore and swept that three-game series the Orioles were 7-5 the previous 12 games, 10-7 in 17 and 16-15 since June 28. They won series from Cleveland and Boston and split with Washington. Individuals and the team got better.

Hyde and his staff deserve some credit for that.

Some fans criticized Hyde for his critical comments about the Orioles during the Yankees series. But isn't that honesty refreshing? And he didn't call out any specific player, but the team as a whole. He just spoke the truth when he talked about how the Yankees are so much ahead of the Orioles right now and the team has a long way to go.

Hyde has praised his players numerous times and as any manager would, finds ways to pump up his players in his pregame interviews. He also recently lauded his coaching staff for how they have kept positive during the year.

"I give our staff a ton of credit," he said. "It's very, very easy to, when things aren't going well and you have pitchers not performing or you're not scoring runs or making mental mistakes - whatever it may be - and things that happened to us this year, for coaching staffs to get sour and to get quiet, to get negative at times. And be irritable.

"And I think our guys have done a great job at being the same people every day. Understanding big picture. Understanding the process we are going through right now and staying positive with our guys, and I think you're seeing that is a big reason why our guys play the same way every day - with energy, with great effort. I like to think our coaching staff has done a great job having the players buy into that."

Hyde is a rookie big league manager, yes, but far from a rookie in the game. His vast experience and his experience in player development makes him the right guy at the right time for this young team.

We may never know exactly what happened or was said between Chris Davis and Hyde in the dugout on Wednesday night. Tempers flared and the passion and frustration was evident. Hyde handled himself well in the postgame press conference that night too.

He and the coaches have met the challenges of a losing season with a young team well. Wednesday night provides another one for them.

Minor league honors: The Orioles named Double-A Bowie pitcher Michael Baumann their Minor League Pitcher of the Month for July. They named Triple-A Norfolk's Ryan Mountcastle their Player of the Month.

Baumann, who is 2-2 with a 2.23 ERA, took the loss last night versus Trenton. He gave up five hits and three runs over five innings. Baumann went 2-1 with a 1.38 ERA in five July starts for the Baysox. Over 32 2/3 innings he gave up 16 hits with six walks, 31 strikeouts and a WHIP of 0.67. The month included his nine-inning no-hitter on July 16 versus Harrisburg.

Mountcastle hit .333/.348/.546 in 25 games in the month. For the season over 105 games, the 22-year-old Mountcastle is batting .313/.341/.513 with 27 doubles, one triple, 19 homers, 67 RBIs and an OPS of .853. He ranks tied for seventh in the International League in average and doubles and eighth in RBIs.