Hyde has backing of players who appreciate his support

Manager Brandon Hyde has been scrambling to learn about the players in the organization since he took the job. There's the minicamp in January, phone calls, spring training, plane rides, office visits and the rhythm of a season.

It also works in reverse.

Players are getting to know Hyde, a first-time manager who coached in the National League. His moods and how he communicates. What he demands - like running hard up the line, a message delivered again Monday - and how he's got their backs in tough times.

The latter trait was front and center in the series opener against the Yankees after Jace Peterson was called out at the plate on an attempted double steal. And after a failed challenge as replays from multiple angles appeared to confirm that Peterson was safe.

Hyde vented on the field, from the dugout and in his post-game press conference. He protected Trey Mancini, redirecting him to the bench in order to avoid an ejection while the Orioles were down to only two reserves.

It wasn't lost on his players.

"Absolutely," Peterson said. "Anytime you're in the clubhouse and you're going out and doing your work every day and you go on the field and prepare every day, every game is a battle. And whenever you've got a manager who leads like he does and sets that example and gets just as fired up as you do when something doesn't go your way or whenever something needs to be said, he lights that fire, it definitely makes everybody else in the clubhouse tick. And that's huge.

"We love to see that and we're very appreciative of it."

Mancini bolted out of the dugout after the signal came that the call stood and he screamed at the group of umpires. Lip-readers got the gist of it.

It wasn't a typical response from Mancini, who usually reacts to a disputed third strike by pausing, shaking his head and walking back to the bench.

"I think anybody watching the game could see me and him weren't too happy when the call was upheld," said Mancini, able to smile about it yesterday. "I don't really know how much I can comment on it. After it's reviewed in New York it's final, and you're not supposed to say too much about it, but I think you could tell from my reaction how I felt about it. And it was a big point in the game. It's 1-1. But after it's upheld it's still a 1-1 game and it's our job to not let that shift the momentum or anything like that.

"It's still a tie ballgame. That's absolutely not the reason why we lost, by any means. But in the moment it's a huge play, and I had as good a vantage point as anyone and I thought it was clear as day from my angle that he got in there. But again, it has to be 100 percent, no questions asked, no controversy, to overturn it, and maybe they had different angles or something like that in New York that we didn't get here. I didn't see in person. So that's what the rules are. They're not 100 percent sure, they're not going to overturn it, and I think that's what happened."

Mancini felt Hyde grab him to get him off the field. He wasn't going to resist.

"He gave me a nice little shove back into the dugout," Mancini said with a laugh.

"I saw earlier in the year in Boston, Hyder went out. I remember on a double play ball, somebody on their team popped up and we thought it was interference, and it was upheld and he got tossed after that for arguing. So I'm out there screaming and I know the umpires umpiring the game aren't the ones who made the (challenge) call, but still, it's like kind of getting mad at something. So I was just yelling and he tossed me back into the dugout.

"He did not want me to get thrown out of the game, and I was like, 'Oh yeah, I can't really say much.' So I went back to the dugout, put my head down, ran out to right field and didn't say another word about it or think about it the rest of the game."

Mancini said having a manager who stands up for his players is "the best." Hyde is the latest example in Baltimore.

"That's all you can ask for as a player is to have a manager like that," Mancini said. "He always has our back out there and it's really nice to see."

"I expect nothing less from a manager," said Chris Davis. "That's his job is to rally the guys, definitely stick up for the guys and be behind them, and I think that's something that needs to be remembered throughout this clubhouse is that we're not going out there individually and trying to win the game. It's a collective effort. And when one of the guys gets down or when one of the guys is enjoying success, you want to ride the emotion with him. And I'd expect nothing less from him."

Davis was on the front end of the double steal. Or as he put it, "What double steal?"

It was there and then it was gone.

"I thought it was a no-brainer," Davis said. "Even on the JumboTron a lot of times you can't really tell, but in that situation I thought there was no doubt. I don't know if you saw Arnie (Beyeler) and I just standing at second base. We were basically just standing there talking about the fact that it was going to be an easy one for them to call.

"Even after the fact I went and looked in the video room, multiple angles. He was clearly safe and it was just a blown call by the umpires. Even with replay they still can't get some of them right. But I've always been told that we don't know what angles they have and they don't really have a whole lot of information. They don't have as much information as we probably assume they do. And when it's that close and there's not indisputable evidence, apparently there isn't much they can do.

"It was frustrating, especially at that point in the game. I felt like it would have really given us the momentum for sure, and given us something that we could have kind of rallied around. And honestly, we did a great job of staying in the game and giving ourselves a chance and just couldn't pull it out in the end."

Davis didn't hear Hyde's comments later, but he already knew the level of emotion.

"I saw his reaction, I saw several of our players' reactions, even myself," Davis said. "I voiced my displeasure more than I usually do.

"It's unfortunate because we're obviously not playing for a postseason position right now, but we have a lot on the line as far as development, as far as just trying to do things the right way and play the game the right way. And we actually talked about that before the game, about continuing to keep the intensity up and play the game hard, play the game the right way.

"We know the Yankees are playing for a postseason position. It's frustrating when you feel like there's clear evidence that the call should have gone your way and things don't work out like that."

Small consolation, perhaps, but at least the Orioles got to know Hyde a little bit more. Or gained further confirmation of what they had already learned.

The relationship isn't necessarily in its infancy stages, but there's room to grow in the first season.

"In some ways I feel like there are things I've had to give him some perspective on just because I've been here for several years, and other things that he's given me a little bit better perspective on," Davis said.

"It's a give-and-take relationship, and I think he's done a great job of handling everything that's been thrown at him. I can't imagine how hard it is to manage in the big leagues, especially when a club is going through a rebuild like this. It's got to be tough. But I think he's handled it extremely well."