Hyde on crafting lineup, pitch counts and walks (tied 1-1)

Before Orioles manager Brandon Hyde could begin jotting down names on tonight's lineup card, he had to more closely study the matchups and video of the opposing pitcher.

Hyde is sitting first baseman Chris Davis, who hits from the left side and is 2-for-22 with nine strikeouts lifetime against Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale. Jonathan Villar is leading off despite being 2-for-12 with nine strikeouts and Joey Rickard is in right field after collecting only two hits in 16 at-bats.

It isn't just a random selection process.

"I do look at matchup history, but there's a lot to be said for sample size," Hyde said. "So if it's nine at-bats and a guy's 1-for-9 with four punchouts, for me that's not telling me much. And we don't have a ton of career history.

"Chris Davis has compiled some at-bats against opposing pitchers who have been around for a while, but everybody else has very, very limited at-bats against a lot of these guys. Real small sample sizes just because we don't have a whole lot of experience and not a lot of guys that played in the big leagues for a long time.

"When you're talking about guys that have 30, 40, 50 at-bats against a pitcher, then you're getting kind of an idea of success level or lack of success. I also watch all of their at-bats. I watched all of our guys' at-bats against Sale last year. I watched his start against us in September last year and get a feel for, one, how he pitched them, and two, how their ABs were before I make the lineup out."

There's more to it.

"You factor in defense, you factor in whether a guy needs a night off," Hyde said. "I'm not normally going to sit Noonie (Renato Núñez) last night, but I felt like he needed a breather and I felt like he needed a night to kind of recharge and he came off the bench and smoked a ball in the ninth inning. There's a lot of things that go into it."

Andrew Cashner is making the start tonight for the Orioles and he's thrown 98, 100 and 99 pitches in his last three outings.

Hyde said there are many factors in determining the length of the leash.

"A lot depends on it," he said. "For me, it's traffic on the bases, stressful innings. Like Cash's last start in Chicago, where it was right around 100 and it was only through four, but the fourth inning was 30-something pitches and was pitching out of traffic the entire inning. So that definitely factors into it.

"If they're breezing through the game and there are a lot of low-stress innings, especially later on, I look to extend guys a little bit, but I'm not going to overextend a guy that's continue to pitch stressful inning after stressful inning."

The season is 36 games old and Hyde will become less protective in the coming months.

"Yeah, 100's not like a limit for me or anything," he said. "It's just kind of what's happened so far a little bit. I don't put a number on anything. It's more we watch with our eyes and talk between innings and check in with guys and monitor the stress level of the innings.

"I think there are certain times when guys can get extended, especially if you can give them like a day or two rest more than they would normally get following a start. That kind of thing you can help that out. But if a guy's cruising along, I'd love to see him continue. I love complete games. I love starters going deep into games. Hopefully we have a few of those this year."

Baseball logic says fewer walks will lead to lower pitch counts - and perhaps more wins.

The Orioles didn't walk a batter in Monday's 4-1 victory and they issued eight free passes last night in an 8-5 loss.

Home runs by J.D. Martinez and Mitch Moreland came immediately after a walk. Evan Phillips walked two batters in the ninth, including Mookie Betts with the bases loaded, and Martinez had a sacrifice fly.

"There's appropriate walks and there's walks that can drive you nuts," Hyde said. "When you're facing a lineup that's got guys who can hit the ball out of the ballpark up and down the lineup, I want guys to be able to pitch to the corners and I want guys to pitch the edges and I don't want to miss in the middle of the plate, something we've talked a lot about in here and out there.

"I think at times maybe we can get too fine, but I'd rather us walk a guy than throw a 1-2 pitch, a slider, in the middle part of the plate to a dangerous hitter. But there's also times I want guys to be aggressive and go get somebody.

"For me, the leadoff walks are a killer, the two-out walks are a killer. The bases-open walks, appropriate at times. But I think we're still finding our way with that and we're still young and inconsistent with our command and execution and sometimes you're going to have games like last night."

Update: Mookie Betts homered with two outs in the third to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead.

Update II: Rickard singled with two outs in the sixth to break up Sale's no-hitter and he scored on Trey Mancini's double for a 1-1 tie.