Orioles pregame notes on throwing to right bases, Pérez's early struggles, Gordon trade and more

KANSAS CITY – Among the series of pregame drills this afternoon at bitter-cold Kauffman Stadium was outfielder Tyler O’Neill throwing to the bases. The early work is done to sharpen skills and that’s an area where the two-time Gold Glove winner wanted to focus.

The Royals sent nine batters to the plate last night in the eighth inning and scored five times against left-hander Cionel Pérez to expand their lead to 8-2. A sloppy game created its final mess when Vinnie Pasquantino singled down the right field line with the bases loaded and two outs, and all three runners scored.

O’Neill didn’t find a cutoff man, with the first and second basemen also chasing the ball, and fired to second. Bobby Witt Jr., who drew an intentional walk, raced home and dived across the plate.

“Tyler understands,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “We’ve had similar kind, three times now, where we threw the ball to the wrong base on a ball in the corner situation. And that’s a little bit of not understanding batter runners, runners on base. You’ve got Bobby Witt at first base and a ball drops like that, Tyler understands that ball needs to go to the plate. We threw to the wrong base in the left field corner in Toronto. We did it at home, also.

“(O’Neill) has played well, just a couple mistakes there that he understands. But you have to know the runners on base, you have to know the batter runner speed, etc., to make the right decision.”

O’Neill was involved in another odd play in the second inning when he tried to score standing up on Heston Kjerstad’s single. Ryan O’Hearn crossed the plate but O’Neill was tagged out.

The Orioles challenged the call and also whether catcher Salvador Perez illegally blocked the plate. They went 0-for-2.

“I think you’re always going to be more aggressive than not when the field is in the condition that it is,” Hyde said about the decision to send O’Neill. “If we slide, we’re gonna be safe. If you look at the replay, (Seth) Lugo was boxing out O’Hearn to tell O’Neill to slide there. And then the bat boy was boxing out me, so I did not even see the play. So it was good basketball defense by them on that play. Not on purpose, of course. But unusual play, a hell of a play by Perez. More times than not we’ve got to slide there.”

The five runs off Cionel Pérez inflated his ERA to 19.64 in four appearances. He tossed a scoreless inning against the Red Sox but walked three batters.

“I’m working to find my consistency, but I still feel good about all the work that I’ve put in during spring and the offseason,” he said via interpreter Brandon Quinones. “I had a really good spring and I still feel like my pitch quality is still there, so I feel really good about that. I talk to Frenchy (pitching coach Drew French) every day, talk to the manager. They’ve given me that confidence that I’m still doing really good and have what it takes to get the job done, so it’s just a matter of continuing to work through it.

“I know I can’t change the past and what’s happened these first couple outings, but I’m working to get it going here going forward.”

“He’s struggled so far,” Hyde said. “Cionel had a really good camp, he got off to a little bit of a slow start, but people can get off to slow starts and have really good seasons, and I expect that out of Cionel. Just had a couple shaky outings, but he’s got good stuff, he’s been a good reliever for us the last few years, and expect him to bounce back from it.”

The frigid, rainy conditions were a particular hindrance to Pérez, who never appeared comfortable.

“It was very difficult,” he said. “It’s hard to control movements out there. I had a lot of mud stuck under both of my cleats, so it was very hard to control the baseball. And as you saw, some of the pitches were hitting the dirt before they reached home, so I was really just trying my best to control the pitches and throw them in the zone. They also hit some balls that maybe didn’t go my way. That’s baseball sometimes. Still a long season ahead, so last night was a night to forget.”

Pérez declined the opportunity to have the Royals grounds crew apply a drying compound to the mound.

“If I made that decision it would have taken 10-15 minutes and then I would have gotten cold on the mound,” he said. “So rather than just be waiting on the mound and getting cold, I decided to just push through it and make the best of it that I possibly could.”

The rotation must deliver longer starts or Hyde must try to push them a little further. Zach Eflin has completed six innings twice. No one else has done it.

Pérez was left to absorb the punishment last night.

“I wasn’t using (Bryan) Baker and (Matt) Bowman yesterday and I didn’t want to use (Keegan) Akin unless we really needed to in a leverage spot, and didn’t really get to that," Hyde said. "And once we got down a couple runs I wasn’t gonna use (Yennier) Cano or (Félix) Bautista there. You also want to set guys up for success, and so to put guys in the right spots, to have more guys available than not on most days, that allows guys to have some success. So all of those things are important.”

* The Orioles traded infielder Nick Gordon to the Royals for cash considerations.

Gordon was 3-for-28 in spring training and 4-for-13 with a double at Triple-A Norfolk.

* Adley Rutschman is out of the lineup today but he’s fine. The weather also isn’t a factor.

“Day after night game, he caught the last couple,” Hyde said.

* The cold also isn’t the reason Gunnar Henderson is serving as designated hitter.

 “No,” Hyde said. “He just came off a rehab.”

* Double-A Chesapeake placed outfielder Reed Trimble on the injured list and received Hudson Haskin from Norfolk.