Rutschman provides lone offensive highlight in 5-0 loss

Offensive support from the Orioles wasn't in vogue again today. Manager Brandon Hyde is trying to remain patient while wondering when it might come back in style.

The Orioles were no-hit today in Dunedin, four walks their only noise, until Adley Rutschman's two-out double in the seventh that completed a 10-pitch at-bat against Blue Jays reliever Jordan Romano.

Rutschman fouled off five in a row, per the Gameday pitch tracker, and drove a slider to center field in a 5-0 loss. He's 3-for-9 with two doubles, an RBI, three walks and four strikeouts.

"Deep count, he took some really good swings, fouled some balls back, fouled some tough pitches off and got something he could handle and put a good swing on it," Hyde said on his Zoom call.

"We've got to do more of that collectively, but that was a really nice at-bat by Adley."

The game lasted eight innings. The Orioles didn't have a rally in them.

Spring training numbers can be deceiving and need to be processed in the appropriate manner, but the Orioles are slashing .202/.304/.295 in 13 games. The average and OPS rank last in the majors and their 45 runs are tied for 25th.

"I think certain guys are swinging the bat better than others," Hyde said. "We've talked a lot about our approach, our hitting guys have talked to our guys about our approaches here the last few days, just because we feel like they're really over-swinging and not making a whole lot of adjustments throughout an at-bat. They're not committing to a two-strike approach and that's just something we've got to get better at as a club.

"There are certain guys who are. It's not everybody. I still think Cedric Mullins is taking really good at-bats, Austin Hays is taking good at-bats, (Pedro) Severino's not getting results, but he's been taking some good at-bats. We're not scoring a whole lot of runs right now. We've just got to have a little bit better keep-the-line-moving mentality.

"I think we have got a lot of guys who are trying way too hard and swinging way too hard. No matter the count they're trying to put their A swing and hit the ball as hard as they can instead of managing an at-bat and middle-of-the-field approach and kind of battle mode with two strikes. We're swinging hard, and a lot, and I do think that's inexperience and youth, especially with our younger guys who don't have a whole lot of major league time. ... The guys that have some more experience have been taking a little more professional at-bats."

The Orioles can snap out of it by opening day. They can make exhibition statistics appear meaningless. But is it red-flag territory for Hyde at the moment?

"I think we have over two weeks to go," he replied. "We're addressing different things every day with our club, especially when we're home, and we've just got to get better."

Meanwhile, Wade LeBlanc's return to the Orioles was interesting. The club signing Félix Hernández and Matt Harvey was more newsworthy.

They brought the names, the achievements, the comeback stories. LeBlanc was pushed into the background.

He's trying to stay on the roster.

Today offered LeBlanc an opportunity to strengthen his case for the rotation or bullpen after tossing two scoreless innings in his debut. He worked through the third in Dunedin and allowed two runs and two hits with three walks and two strikeouts.

LeBlanc had a 1-2-3-4 first inning, the extra batter due to catcher Severino's passed ball on Bo Bichette's strikeout. But Randal Grichuk walked with one out in the second and scored on Cavan Biggio's double, and Alejandro Kirk singled for a 2-0 lead.

LeBlanc threw 15 pitches in the first inning and 29 in the second.

Two Blue Jays walked in the third and Grichuk came to the plate with two outs. LeBlanc struck him out on a cutter on the 22nd pitch of the inning. Only 36 of the 66 were strikes.

"Actually, stuff felt a little bit crisper today than it did in the outing against the Braves," LeBlanc said in his Zoom call. "It was just, really the second inning kind of got out of whack mechanically, which is going to happen this time of year. So I'll take the good, kind of take the positives and work on the negatives between outings and go from there."

"I thought Wade did a nice job," Hyde said. "I thought he changed speeds. It was the first time he's (pitched) in a game in a while, but he got through three innings, located his fastball fairly well. Off-speed stuff was good, he got some swings on changeups, so I thought he did a pretty good job. He just left a couple pitches up that got hit pretty hard, but besides that he did a nice job."

The board now shows LeBlanc with two runs and three hits in five innings this spring, Hernández with five earned runs (six total) and six hits in 4 2/3 innings and Harvey with three runs and four hits in two innings in his lone start. He threw a three-inning simulated game Wednesday morning on a back field.

Robbie Ray retired 12 of 14 batters, walking Hays and Chance Sisco in the fourth. A scoreless and hitless afternoon.

Francisco Liriano walked Rylan Bannon and Yusniel Diaz in the fifth. Still no runs or hits. Rafael Dolis retired the side in order in the sixth.

Left-hander Tanner Scott labored in the fourth, allowing a run on George Springer's sacrifice fly. Scott gave up a hit and walked two batters.

Making the club "is definitely repeatable," Scott said in his Zoom call. He's allowed one run and two hits in three innings. He's right.

"I'm very confident in that," he said, "and should build off it."

Ashton Goudeau struck out the first two batters in the fifth, walked Grichuk, surrendered a two-run homer to Biggio and struck out another batter in a fickle inning. Goudeau retired the side in order in the sixth and Eric Hanhold did the same in the seventh.

Conner Greene got the last three outs, stranding a runner after Mason McCoy's throwing error.

The Orioles are 3-9-1.