Some thoughts and opinions on Orioles heading into latest homestand

The Orioles are home tonight for the first time since July 31, one day past the trade deadline. They split four games in Cleveland, lost two of three in Toronto and won two of three in St. Petersburg, Fla., though the finale made it appear much worse. Strange how that works. Win a series and eat and dress in a quiet clubhouse.

The roster has changed. The knack for handling adversity, whether injuries or performance based, is the same. Let’s see how far that goes.  

Let’s also hit the pause button again coming out of the off-day and collect some thoughts.

* The Craig Kimbrel reset lasted longer than expected.

It’s still happening.

Kimbrel’s last save was July 7 in Oakland and his last opportunity was July 25 in Miami. He was charged with the loss the following night after the Padres’ Jurickson Profar hit a tie-breaking, two-run homer in the ninth inning.

Kimbrel has pitched five more times, with three scoreless outings before Sunday but none clean. Cionel Pérez began to warm Friday night after Dylan Carlson cut the lead to 4-1 with a leadoff homer off Yennier Cano in the ninth. Seranthony Domínguez recorded his first Orioles save Saturday after Ramón Urías’ tie-breaking, two-run homer in the eighth.

Burch Smith surrendered a tying home run in the seventh, Cano was charged with a run in the eighth after Pérez inherited two runners and walked the next two batters, and Domínguez finished. Kimbrel never warmed.

“I’m just trying to get Kimbrel going a little bit,” manager Brandon Hyde said afterward. "He got in a little bit of a rough patch and I don’t want to put the pressure on him. … We have a lot of faith in Craig. Like I said, he should have made the All-Star team.”

Hyde added that we’d likely see Kimbrel pitch on Sunday, which we did. And he took the loss by walking three batters (one intentionally) in the eighth and allowing a sacrifice fly to break a 1-1 tie. Four stolen bases also were a bad look, including the double-steal that put a runner on third base.

Again, Kimbrel wasn’t saved for the ninth, whether in a tie or with the lead. When does a reset become something else and is it already happening?

* Gregory Soto still needs to fully earn his new team’s trust.

Soto allowed eight runs and nine hits over his first three appearances with the Orioles totaling only 1 1/3 innings. He retired all three batters he faced Thursday in Toronto, but with a 1-0 lead to protect Sunday and a left-hander desired, Hyde called upon Pérez for the second straight game and the sixth time this month. The advantage was gone after three pitches.

Soto got up in the bullpen and walked around while Albert Suárez was nearing the conclusion of his magnificent start, but he didn’t warm. Perhaps he wasn’t available for reasons unknown. Or a one-run lead wasn’t the right time.

The Orioles traded for Soto to provide another high-leverage lefty in the ‘pen while Danny Coulombe is on the injured list, with his return delayed until maybe late September.

Boy, do the Orioles need him.

* Suárez is one of the best way-under-the-radar acquisitions in club history.

Sound like an exaggeration? He’s had some rough times this season but overall he’s provided seven scoreless starts that are the most in the American League. He hasn’t allowed a run in 11 2/3 innings after replacing Grayson Rodriguez.

He’s a valuable bulk reliever. He’s a valuable spot starter. He’s a floor wax and a dessert topping.

(Only viewers of the original SNL will understand the reference. Google it).

Suárez has gone from interesting spring training story with his last major league appearance in 2017 to being hugely important to the stretch run. To suggest back in February that he’d fit the description would have been a joint-popping stretch.

* The Orioles revamped their hitting and pitching programs throughout the system, with a major shift in techniques and philosophies after hiring Mike Elias as executive vice president/general manager. Makes sense with the heavy usage of data culled in the analytics age.

They also employed a tag-team approach with coaches, including Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte on the hitting side. They moved Cody Asche in the role of offensive strategy coach, a title that further indicates how much the game is changing.

Players are more than just receptive to the information available and the individuals who deliver it. What transpired is a full-on embrace.

“We love getting new players,” Fuller said. “It was one of the things especially for me, Borgs and Cody being younger hitting coaches at the beginning, having guys come in and trust us right away. And we don’t waste time. We make presentations from Day One and we say, ‘Here’s what you’re doing well, here’s where we think we can help,’ and we have never had a guy say, ‘No, let me do my thing.’ They come here, they understand we’re a winning ballclub. And the guys around them, too, they see how they work, they want to make adjustments.”

The Orioles gradually built a reputation for getting the most out of their players, and that includes veterans who had underachieved or lost their way. It’s like the organization is the hot destination spot, which is a 180-degree turn from the not-so-distant past.

“I hope people feel that way,” Fuller said. “Aaron Hicks, Ryan O’Hearn, Adam Frazier … When Hicksy and Frazier left us, they had a ton of good things to say, and hopefully they’re saying those things to other players who are thinking about coming to the Orioles.

“But then, for the minor league guys who have grown up in our system, it’s a really, really proud moment for all of us, not just at the big league level, but for everybody down in the minor leagues, too, to see these guys come up. We understand there’s always going to be a struggle that they go through, but then being able to adjust, and if we need that development in the minor leagues, too, we trust our people down there. It’s just a whole organization working really well, because we know that young players coming up into the big leagues often don’t have success, they don’t live up to their potential. We want these guys to be even better than they thought they can be. And when you can point to Adley (Rutschman), you can point to Gunnar (Henderson) and now Colton (Cowser), Jordan Westburg, these guys, it’s really exciting. So we have great role models, the best workers and the best people.”

* Fuller isn’t necessarily sold on the theory that Cowser’s switch to a bigger bat propelled him into April form. The jury’s still out. But hey, who cares?

The changes are minimal, a half-inch longer and a smidge heavier. But Cowser swears by them.

“Could be placebo, there could be a lot of things. I haven’t taken a deep dive into it to look at the numbers,” Fuller said, smiling.

“The tradeoffs, too, if you have a bigger bat that you’re swinging slower, maybe not the best idea, but that’s why guys choke up with a little bit smaller bat, a little bit more barrel control. But when you have a bat in your hand that feels good, you go up there feeling good, get a few knocks and it becomes a thing. But whatever he’s doing right now, I want him to keep going because he’s controlling the zone really well, setting the table as he says. Just having a really clear plan of what’s my job. Get on base, and if I don’t get on base, have a really good at-bat where I see a lot of pitches and showcase those pitches to the guys behind me.”

A retooled two-strike approach ain’t hurting, either.

“He hates striking out, and like our guys on the team that are really good, they don’t like striking out,” Fuller said. “So going in there and understanding I don’t need to expand with two strikes. I don’t need to have this mental adjustment of, I need to cover everything. He’s so good at staying in the zone and staying disciplined. We want him to be there the whole time. So instead of two strikes, OK, put the ball in play, don’t strike out, and now I start to expand, actually shrink the zone a little bit more so those 0-2 counts feel more like 2-0 counts where he can still put the ball in play hard instead of weak contact or miss underneath. Foul balls off right on the edges until you get a mistake and then hammer them.”

* Zach Eflin comes as advertised and that’s a really good thing.

Eflin has three quality starts in three outings with the Orioles. He’s gone six, 6 1/3 and seven innings and walked only two batters against 17 strikeouts. And he fits in a clubhouse that’s welcoming to newcomers.

“It’s been great,” he said. “Everybody’s been so nice.”

Everybody’s appreciative of Eflin’s impact in light of the injuries that battered the rotation.

“It’s huge,” said catcher James McCann. “He eats innings, and you know when he takes the mound he’s going to give you a chance to win. Same thing with a guy like (Corbin) Burnes. It’s a lot of fun as a team going into a game knowing what that guy's going to give you."