This, that and the other

Gunnar Henderson batted cleanup last night, relinquishing the leadoff spot to Jordan Westburg in a right-handed heavy order. Cedric Mullins stayed in center field, but Jorge Mateo played second base instead of Jackson Holliday. Ramón Urías, batting .343 with a .410 on-base percentage, sat on the bench.

A decision also was made to withhold Heston Kjerstad against Guardians left-hander Logan Allen and put right-handed hitting Ramón Laureano in left field.

The Orioles played their 16^th game and used a 15^th different lineup. They could blow past the 144 last season.

The evolution of settling on a lineup has carried the process well beyond a manager sitting in his office with the card, a pencil and a hunch. Analytics are a major factor, of course. Where haven’t they infiltrated the sport? And it’s become more of a group effort.

“I am not involved with lineups,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said yesterday.

So, not everyone.

“Our front office produces information that helps Brandon (Hyde) and the advanced team that works with Brandon to choose the lineups on a nightly basis, but our philosophy is that the guys in the clubhouse should be deciding that, and they're the ones that are the closest to the information that have a feel for the players on a night-to-night basis,” Elias said.

“Now, they use a lot of statistical information that we provide in making those decisions. It's not something that we do. That said, I’m in total support, and what I've seen from the lineups that we've had make sense to me. We’ve got a roster that has a lot of diversity on it, a lot of right-handed players, a lot of left-handed players, a lot of players with some positional flexibility. And we're going to need that, and we're going to need to keep that warm throughout the season.”

Mullins and Henderson were the only Orioles with hits off Allen in 5 2/3 innings and they bat from the left side. Laureano and backup catcher Gary Sánchez, signed over the winter to strengthen the offense from the right side, are a combined 3-for-32. Sánchez had an RBI single last night in the eighth inning.

Hyde talked last night about believing in track records.

“Some of those right-handers had some pretty good numbers against left-handed pitching and it just hasn’t happened this year for whatever reason,” he said. “Keep doing the best we can.”

Guessing along with the Orioles is easier on some days than others. What happens behind closed clubhouse doors often stays there.  

“There are all kinds of things on a night-to-night basis behind the scenes that we don't report,” Elias said. “Guys are banged up, there's injuries, they’re sore, they're tired, they're in a funk mentally. There's 162 games, we play so much baseball, we've got to rotate players through, and we have to rest guys. And so it makes sense to do that sometimes when the matchup is a little softer, it's a good day to get your lefty seated and get your righty in the game, or vice versa, or what have you. So it is a balancing act.

“We've got a lot of young, hopefully frontline hitters that are better against opposite-handed pitching right now, which is natural. They do get exposure to same-handed pitching in the minors, but doing it at the major league level is a totally different thing and balancing that exposure versus all the stuff that I just said before, it's, I guess, more art than science and you try to pick your spots.”

Holliday swung a hot bat early but fell into an 0-for-17 slump that lowered his average to .213 with a .570 OPS. He’s likely to play tonight against Guardians right-hander Gavin Williams.

“He’s gonna go through ups and downs and that’s just part of any player, but especially a young player,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “He hit the ball on the nose his last at-bat (Sunday). Really happy with the improvement defensively. Just want him to try to take the best at-bat he can right now.

“It’s not an easy league and you’re gonna go through periods of struggle. For the last week maybe it hasn’t been his best, but I can see him bounce back.”

How Holliday responds to the adversity continues to impress Hyde. Everything done by the first-overall draft pick in 2022 is illuminated much brighter than many young players.

“I thought he handled everything incredibly well last year,” Hyde said. “I thought the pressure was overwhelming and pretty ridiculous for somebody that young to try to perform at this level with the amount of attention and hype. I thought it was unfair a lot of times.

“I think he’s handled everything really well again this year. I think he’s more comfortable. You can see that.”

* The Orioles are expected to make another roster move Saturday that sets up Brandon Young for his major league debut. A fifth starter is needed and Young was moved from Triple-A Norfolk to High-A Aberdeen.

The travel just got a lot easier.

A reliever will be dropped to make room for Young. Scott Blewett joined the team yesterday after a waiver claim and tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings, but he’s out of options and would have to be designated for assignment – something he’s gotten used to in recent years.

Blewett stood at his Orioles locker and said he was grateful for the opportunity.

“I’ve watched this team from afar,” he said. “Young, talented team, so I’m excited to get going and help this team anyway I can.”

Blewett chose free agency after the Twins outrighted him last week. He’s learned to stay ready and expect anything.

“Yesterday, I was throwing into a net at a local Little League park (in Woodbury, Minn.) and here I am today,” he said. “I’m back in a big league clubhouse. So you’ve got to be grateful for that, and whatever role they put me in, I’ll be ready for it.”

* Cionel Pérez has been a high-leverage lefty in the Orioles’ bullpen who’s making earlier appearances in an attempt to pull him out of a slump.

Pérez entered a game in Arizona in the fifth inning and he replaced Charlie Morton last night with no outs in the sixth. He allowed a run in 1 1/3 innings after letting an inherited runner score but lowered his ERA to 14.21. That’s how bad it’s going for Pérez.

Hyde let Pérez face Kyle Manzardo leading off the seventh and removed him after a popup.

“Well, this is a contact team, and I think that we can all take a little lesson at times on how they really stay on the baseball and they get enough of the baseball,” Hyde said. “The first hard hit the other way, but besides that, it was a lot of stay on the ball, get enough of the bat to kind of get it through the infield. And that’s what happened to him tonight.

“I was happy that he went back out there for that inning, got the lefty out. I’m hoping that kind of boosts his confidence a little bit. It’s a confidence thing, too. Cionel was up and down last year, but he had a couple really good years for us and he’s still got really good stuff, so you try to put him in spots to try to get some confidence going. I’m going to try to continue to do that.”

Morton has allowed four or more runs in a career-high six consecutive starts dating back to Sept. 20, 2024, the longest active streak in the majors.