Hyde: "I feel good about how our team is playing"

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde proved yesterday that he can play the comedic and straight-man roles in the same sound bite.

Told that his club was 10-11 within its division, Hyde said, "Well, we didn't play good against the Twins, right?"

Laughter ensued, led by Hyde, who suddenly broke character and turned serious.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

Hyde knew because he started it.

The Orioles won't have to face the Twins again after losing all six games by a combined score of 45-9 and being outhomered 23-7. Hyde can't pretend that it didn't happen, but he's able to push it aside while judging his team.

"If you take out those six games against the Twins, which we did not play well in four or five of the six, we're playing competitive baseball," he said before an 8-5 loss to the Red Sox. "I feel good about how our team is playing. I like how our guys approach the game and I think our guys are grinding it out and I think our pitching's improving.

"I think we're growing. I don't think it really matters who we're playing. I think that we're going out there and our guys are competing to win every night, and that's all I've asked of them from Day One."

How Hyde handles the rebuild is one of the more interesting components of the season. He's on board with it, of course, but the word won't pass his lips. He can't stand in the middle of the clubhouse or roam the field during batting practice and give off a vibe that wins don't really matter.

They will always be important to Hyde. It's just his nature.

"Going into this, I just wanted our team to be ultimate prepared, compete every single night to win and play as hard as they can. And we're going to improve over the course of the year just by having that mindset," he said.

"I feel good about how it's gone so far. I'd like to win more games. Obviously I'm pretty competitive and it's tough to lose. There's no doubt. But in this development situation where I really want guys to improve and I want to put guys in spots to have success, there's going to be rough nights. But at the same time this is the big leagues and it's about winning and losing and I just want our guys to compete to win every single night and I think they've done that."

Here's where the conflict really strikes. Hyde wants the Orioles to climb the standings, to get back to and beyond .500, but he also must manage with his focus shooting past 2019.

Hard to do?

"Yeah," he said without pausing.

"You're big-picture minded and sometimes I do things for not just the player but organizationally," he said. "The bottom line is there have been a few times where I might have done something where, letting this guy play for this reason or not pitch somebody for this reason. And it is tough to do, but I feel like I do have the big picture in mind and I do have the best interest of the player at heart and the organization and I want to do what's right."

No matter the circumstances, Hyde still holds his players to a certain standard. If they slip, he's going to call them on it.

And this is where we're learning more about him as a leader.

"I've had a couple closed-door meetings about effort and my expectations with effort and those have gone really well," said Hyde, who was disappointed in the mistakes and mental lapses during the doubleheader in Chicago.

"Besides that, our effort has been fantastic and I think we've run balls out as good or better than anybody. I think we prepare as well as anybody. It's just been very, very few and far between. It's a really good group of guys."

* Reliever Gabriel Ynoa has allowed one run in 11 1/3 innings for a 0.79 ERA. He already possessed the lowest ERA among division relievers with a minimum of eight innings.

"He's been unbelievable," said third baseman Rio Ruiz. "Not just saving the bullpen, but they're quality innings. He's making good pitches when he needs to, getting soft contact and getting outs when he needs them. It's great. It's real fun to see."

Hyde is intrigued with the idea of starting Ynoa, but the right-hander is more valuable as a long man in the bullpen. He's been able to stop the bleeding.

"I'm ready to help in both situations," Ynoa said. "I just want to do my job, regardless of the role. Whenever they call my name I want to be ready and help my team."

* Joey Rickard snapped an 0-for-15 stretch with a double in the second inning, his first extra-base hit since April 24. He turned in his first multi-hit game since April 23.