Hyde on the bullpen, progress and rebuild (tied 6-6)

Orioles outfielder Mason Williams is out of the lineup again tonight and hasn't made an appearance since crashing into the fence Tuesday night while chasing Cavan Biggio's fly ball that resulted in a triple for the Blue Jays rookie.

Williams was left with a badly bruised knee that's kept him on the bench. He passed the concussion tests.

Asked if Williams will play again before the season ends, manager Brandon Hyde said, "Yeah, I hope so."

"He's day-to-day and he's sore," Hyde said. "I would think so. I think on the road trip at some point, but I don't know for sure."

The Orioles close their season with three games in Toronto and three in Boston.

Williams has gone 8-for-30 (.267) with a double and two RBIs in 11 games after the Orioles selected his contract from Triple-A Norfolk. They wanted to get a look at him and determine whether he'd be worth keeping in the organization next year.

The Orioles have plenty of outfield options on the expanded roster, with Austin Hays dazzling in center. It's a position with some depth in the system.

They'll go into the winter trying to strengthen their bullpen, which has been an issue for most of the season.

A couple of veteran pitchers who can fit in the budget and handle middle and late-inning relief are on the shopping list. Too many leads and close margins have imploded for the team to stay competitive.

"We talked about this a couple days ago, it takes pressure off the other guys, as well," Hyde said. "I hate to bring him up as an example, but the games that Hunter (Harvey) pitched, he lengthened out our bullpen and every time he went out there, he went out one time to finish an inning with a strikeout and every other time I pitched him with a clean inning. And besides one home run he gave up, he finished the inning.

"It allows guys to fall into roles when there's guys doing their jobs, you know? So we've just been really inconsistent with it this year. And hopefully going forward we'll have some guys in here who are a little bit more consistent out of the bullpen and you know that they're going to come in and throw strikes and you know that they're going to come in and pound the strike zone and attack hitters and have stuff to get guys out. But this it just didn't happen."

Hyde's already has shared this opinion within the organization. It's been obvious to anyone paying attention.

"We talk every single day," he said. "We talk about now, we talk about going forward, we talk about offseason stuff, we talk about 40-man decisions. We're talking a lot about that right now. There's a lot of discussions going on about next year, so that's already started."

Hyde has found some positive developments in the first year of the rebuild, but he also sees where improvements must be made in order to keep it moving forward.

"I think everybody knows that to be competitive in this league, in this division, you have to have pitching and you have to have guys that are able to throw strikes, be able to get guys out in the strike zone," Hyde said. "Have our bullpen guys be able to come in and shut the door or hold leads, keep you in the game, and I think at some point we will get to that.

"That's why I feel great about this year is what has happened in our minor league system and all the guys that have had really good years. How that translates to the major leagues, we don't know, but it's exciting to have a list of guys that have had really good years, especially Double-A down, and guys that sound like they could impact our major league team in the future. I think that's a real positive.

"I think going into this year we wanted to see improvement with our individual players. Love to see some guys step up and establish themselves as major league players and establish themselves as guys that we could look forward to in a couple years of being impact players on a good major league club. And I think that's happened. I feel really good especially about some of our position players. With Trey (Mancini) and with (Anthony) Santander and (Hanser) Alberto, these types of guys who have come in and had really, really nice, solid offensive years and a couple guys having really good years at a fairly young age. I think that's really encouraging.

"So I take that as a positive going into next year. But we have to improve pitching-wise."

It's an area that Hyde, like so many others in the industry, regard as "very tricky." The bullpen is volatile. Examples are spread throughout the majors.

"In the bullpen, a guy could have a really good year one year and then a really bad year the next, and vice-versa," Hyde said. "I don't think our pitching numbers lie. We are who we are right now and we've given up a million home runs. It's just something we have to get a lot better at."

Hyde is hopeful that attendance will improve as the team becomes more competitive. He notices the same empty seats.

"I think fans have every right to do what they want to do," he said. "I do feel like as hard as this year has been, we've played a lot of exciting games and I do feel like we play competitive baseball for the most part. I do feel like we brought an exciting product to Camden Yards. I thought our guys played hard and our guys played to win. We were just short a lot of times.

"Obviously you'd love to have the place sold out and you'd love to have energy in the stadium. It's not great to hear individual conversations behind you in the dugout. I'm not used to that. But I can understand it, too. We're not competing for an American League East title. I hope that when we become a little bit more competitive ...

"I hope the fans do see big picture and do understand this is a little bit of a painful process right now, but we are in this for the long run and we're in this to be continuously good and we're in this to be continuously competing for an American League East title and it just happen overnight. It does take a little bit of time.

"As impatient as I get sometimes, I'm asking for everybody's patience. I think there's a great track record from the guys that are building this team and I want fans to just trust that we're going to get there."

Update: Stevie Wilkerson's two-out double in the second inning scored Renato Núñez and gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead. Richie Martin followed with a two-run double.

Shed Long homered on the first pitch thrown by Asher Wojciechowski in the third inning and the Orioles lead 3-1.

Update II: J.P. Crawford's RBI single in the fifth cut the lead to 3-2. Wojciechowski left with the bases loaded and one out, and Pedro Severino's passed ball tied the game.

Update III: Hanser Alberto's RBI single in the fifth gave the Orioles a 4-3 lead.

Update IV: Crawford hit a three-run homer off Mychal Givens in the eighth to give Seattle a 6-4 lead.

Update V: Austin Hays' two-run homer in the eighth tied the score.