This, that and the other

BOSTON – Suggesting ways that Brandon Hyde might attempt to revive a lagging offense, the baseball equivalent of using jumper cables on a stalled car, won’t come across as fresh ideas to the manager. Move guys up or down. Sit some and start others.

“I’ve tried all those things,” he said after Sunday’s 2-0 loss to the Rays.

Hyde had a few more tricks up his sleeve yesterday. Or combinations on his lineup card.

The 127^th different order in 145 games had Cedric Mullins hitting second for only the second time in his career, Liván Soto at second base instead of Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo at third base instead of collecting splinters on the bench.

Anthony Santander hit his 40^th homer and drove in all three runs in a 12-3 loss to the Red Sox. They’re now below .500 since the break.

The Orioles went 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position in the Rays series and left 22 on base. They went 11-for-40 with 32 left on base in the White Sox’s series, and 2-for-11 with 11 stranded last night.

The team that hit .287 with runners in scoring position last season was batting .251 before last night.

“I think we haven’t put as much pressure on defenses as we want to,” Mullins said yesterday afternoon. “Not really just putting the ball in play, making things be in motion to open things up like that for us. That’s something we did really well last year, and for us to do what we need to do once playoffs come around, we need to do that.”

There’s also the other pressure, the kind that envelops a team playing around .500 ball since the break and in a tight battle with the Yankees for first place. The reflex reaction is to start pressing.  

“I think it comes internally,” Mullins said. “Just wanting to do it for the team in those moments really takes away from the approach sometimes, so being able to get back to what we were doing, take a step back, understand we’re good and when we’re all doing what we can to contribute, we’re going to be great. So we have a little time to do it, but have confidence we can.”

Hyde spoke yesterday about the importance of not pressing but also recognizing and responding to the urgency. It’s a tough balancing act.

“You’ve got to learn it,” he said. “We don’t have a ton of experience in our lineup. It’s a skill these guys are going through that they’re going to be better for later on. We are taking some frustrated at-bats right now and our guys just need to simplify their process a little bit and do what they do well. And not try to do too much. I think we’re a swing or two away from that happening. We’re just not being consistent with it right now.”

The Orioles won 101 games and the division last season, and they posted the best record in the American League. Hyde nixed a suggestion that the pressing might come from trying to match that level of play or finding it more difficult to do.

His theory made more sense.

“I think injuries honestly have (taken) a toll,” he said.

“When you have guys that would normally be in your lineup that aren’t, people try to make up for it. We’re not scoring runs the way we did the first half or last year. When you don’t have a veteran group, guys just try to do a little bit more than maybe they’re capable of at times. And over time that leads to maybe some numbers you wish you would put up that you didn’t. The bottom line, though, is we’re a half-game out of first place, we have a mountain of injuries, we’re really young and we have whatever, 19 games to go and it’s really in our hands. So if you asked before the season if you’d be in this kind of situation, you’d want to be. And so we’ll see what we’re made of here these last few weeks.”

The Orioles trust that their finest baseball is ahead of them. They also know that it can’t be too far down the road with only 17 games left in the regular season.

Momentum is hard to sustain in baseball. You know, the next day’s starting pitcher. But the Orioles can’t even ignite it.

“I think it’s pretty obvious we haven’t played our best but still finding a way to be a .500 team in the midst of that I think is pretty big for us,” Mullins said. “Being able to catch that hot streak right at the right time is all it takes.”

* James McCann said yesterday that it’s “very special” to be nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award and talked about how it’s different from other honors bestowed upon players.

This is about more than baseball.

“It's what you do in the community, what you do off the field,” he said. “What Roberto Clemente stands for, who he was, obviously, as a player and then just who he was to his community, words don't really describe what it is to be viewed in that same light. Being nominated for that, it's a very special award. I'm proud of it, and I feel very strongly that using my platform to be able to impact the community in a positive way is very important."

The award is given to the player who best represents the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.

“He’s done a lot of great things with the community and congratulations to him,” Hyde said. “This is a big award. This is something that’s really, really special. It means a lot to players, so for him to get this nomination and have a chance to win this, it’s a credit to him and his wife for what they do off the field in helping so many people.”

* Reliever Tyler Burch is moving his rehab assignment to Double-A Bowie.

Burch appeared in six games with High-A Aberdeen and allowed one run with no walks and nine strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. His fastball topped out at 98 mph in his final outing.

Bowie’s season ends on Sunday. Triple-A Norfolk plays until Sept. 22.

The Orioles are assigning Burch to the Arizona Fall League. He began the season on the injured list following arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow.

Burch’s ties to the organization go back to the 2021 trade deadline when the Orioles acquired him from the Phillies for veteran shortstop Freddy Galvis. He made 26 relief appearances with Bowie in 2023 and posted a 3.07 ERA in 41 innings.