The Orioles have moved past a hard April, when they went 9-16 after a 3-2 March. Taking two of three games from the first-place Yankees had to feel good. Some of the heat lifted. However, there\u2019s a long way to go. The temperature can fluctuate.<\/p>\n
The homestand continues tonight with a series against the Royals, who beat them twice last month in Kansas City. The Orioles have won back-to-back games once.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been smooth in any way,\u201d manager Brandon Hyde told the media Wednesday night. \u201cTo win a series at home, to get an off-day, hopefully this is how we\u2019re going to play going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
You know what would help?<\/p>\n
* Score more runs.<\/p>\n
The Orioles tied with the Twins for 18th in the majors with 120. All of the metrics and measurements are fine, but the object of the game is to score more than the opponent. You\u2019ll win every single time.<\/p>\n
The .678 OPS was 21st in the majors. The .223 average was 27th.<\/p>\n
Thank goodness that stat doesn\u2019t matter anymore, right?<\/p>\n
* Prevent more runs.<\/p>\n
Also, important. They sort of go hand in hand.<\/p>\n
The 169 runs allowed were last in the American League and 28th in the majors, ahead of the Rockies\u2019 173 and Marlins\u2019 186. Of course, 39 of the Orioles\u2019 runs came in two games. That\u2019ll inflate a total like a kiddie pool.<\/p>\n
The Orioles\u2019 5.47 ERA was last in the American League and 29th in the majors. The Rockies slipped past them at 5.30 but the Marlins were last at 5.89.<\/p>\n
The club record for highest ERA in a season is 5.84 in 2021, when the Orioles finished 52-110 before moving past the rebuild. A 5.47 ERA would be third highest in club history after the 5.59 posted in 2019, per STATS, when they finished 54-108 under new management.<\/p>\n
The rotation is the obvious trouble spot with a 6.04 ERA, last in the AL and 28th in the majors. One guess who\u2019s below them. They won the Yankees series, but Cade Povich lasted only 4 2\/3 innings Wednesday night. Tomoyuki Sugano is the best starter on the staff, but he went only five innings Monday night.<\/p>\n
They were five scoreless, though, and his ERA is 3.00. He struck out eight, one more than his season total going into the game. It felt worthy of being carried off the field on teammates\u2019 shoulders.<\/p>\n
The Orioles\u2019 record for most bloated rotation ERA is 5.99 in 2021, followed by the 5.70 mark in 2017.<\/p>\n
* Lessen the restrictions on F\u00e9lix Bautista.<\/p>\n
Loosen them completely? Probably a little too soon for that, but Bautista\u2019s reconstructive elbow surgery was in early October 2023 and his debridement and ulnar nerve transposition happened on Feb. 9, 2024. Today is May 2, 2025.<\/p>\n
The Orioles took the right approach, resisting any urge to put him on the Wild Card roster or to treat him in spring training as if he never suffered the injury. They haven\u2019t pitched him on back-to-back days or for more than one inning. But Hyde uttered six of the most important words of the young season following Wednesday\u2019s 5-4 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is back to being F\u00e9lix.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how: Bautista hasn\u2019t allowed a run in his last seven appearances and eight of nine. Right-handers are batting .133 with a .502 OPS and left-handers are batting .177 with a .510 OPS. He retired the side in order in the ninth Wednesday for his fifth save. He struck out Trent Grisham on three pitches to finish, including sinkers clocked at 99.3 and 99.2 mph.<\/p>\n
Finally, he\u2019s gone past 98 and is bearing down on triple digits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought his stuff was exploding tonight,\u201d Hyde said. \u201cThat was the best fastball we\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yeah, F\u00e9lix is coming. The rest of the league is on notice \u2013 and in a heap of trouble.<\/p>\n
* Don\u2019t throw at Heston Kjerstad\u2019s head or try to use it as a pogo stick.<\/p>\n
This memo shouldn\u2019t be necessary, but here we are.<\/p>\n
* Heat up Ryan Mountcastle like a plate of leftovers.<\/p>\n
Mountcastle was 0-for-18 before Wednesday\u2019s two-run homer, and he had two hits in his last 34 at-bats. He didn\u2019t collect multiple RBIs in a game since April 7 in Arizona.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe needed that one. It\u2019s been rough for him,\u201d Hyde said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of support around him right now. For him to get one over the fence, to take a good swing, he\u2019s been really frustrated. We know that Mounty can hit. That\u2019s one thing Mounty can do. One, he can defend, and he can hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The left field wall\u2019s new dimensions were supposed to rejuvenate Mountcastle\u2019s bat, eliminate the frustrated turn at first base with the head tilt. His other home run this season was hit on April 13. His last homer in 2024 was hit on July 29.<\/p>\n
Mountcastle is batting .194\/.240\/.301 in 29 games. The offense needs him to be a middle-of-the-order presence. He\u2019s done it in the past. And the Orioles really need him to start abusing left-handed pitching. Which leads us to \u2026<\/p>\n
* Hit better against left-handed pitching.<\/p>\n
The Orioles are batting .172\/.256\/.236 against lefties this season. They signed Tyler O\u2019Neill, Ram\u00f3n Laureano and Gary S\u00e1nchez in the offseason, and only Laureano has avoided the injured list. They\u2019re a combined 5-for-61 when facing southpaws.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s only a month and their production figures to grow, and they shouldn\u2019t have to do it alone. The entire team must become more competitive in these matchups, whether it\u2019s Garrett Crochet, Tarik Skubal, Carlos Rond\u00f3n, Kris Bubic or anyone else holding the ball with his left hand.<\/p>\n
* Get healthy.<\/p>\n
If only it were that simple.<\/p>\n
Thirteen players are on the injured list and they aren\u2019t rushing through that door at the same time. We don\u2019t know how long S\u00e1nchez\u2019s wrist, Jordan Westburg\u2019s hamstring and Tyler O\u2019Neill\u2019s neck will keep them out. Zach Eflin threw a side session Tuesday, but he\u2019s got to face hitters and probably go on a rehab assignment. Reliever Andrew Kittredge threw live batting practice Wednesday and is approaching an injury rehab assignment that shouldn\u2019t take too long, getting him onto the active roster later this month.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going to be much longer for Colton Cowser, Grayson Rodriguez, Albert Su\u00e1rez, Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells.<\/p>\n
The season is going to feel like an eternity if other players go down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orioles have moved past a hard April, when they went 9-16 after a 3-2 March. Taking two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,1196,584,1752,4,125,579,578,1359,775],"class_list":{"0":"post-13910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimoreorioles","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-brandon-hyde","13":"tag-felix-bautista","14":"tag-heston-kjerstad","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-orioles","17":"tag-orioles-featured","18":"tag-roch-kubatko","19":"tag-ryan-mountcastle","20":"tag-tomoyuki-sugano"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114479168517046151","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}