Any baseball conversation with Orioles bench coach Donnie Ecker reveals an interesting facet of his personality. Of a belief that he carries through each day of his life.

He prefers to deal in the present.

The rare media scrums don’t always allow it, or at least make it easy on him. The group can bounce in every direction. He understands the reasons why questions about 2027 are surfacing with the Orioles and he tries to oblige. But to be clear, the schedule shows three games against the Blue Jays beginning tonight and three at Yankee Stadium.

The likelihood that the Orioles scatter for the offseason keeps increasing, but they haven’t been eliminated. That can’t occur before Tuesday.

Asked yesterday what needs to happen next season for the Orioles to avoid similar disappointments that again dumped them into last place, Ecker said, “Actually, I understand where that question is coming from and some of what I’ll say will be baked into a future version, but it comes back to discipline.”

“This is Game 156. Game 1, Game 10, Game 15, no matter what your personnel is, you have to attack. Today is the most important day in the world and that’s where competitors live. They live in the space between winning and losing. So as we continue to build the behaviors that we think it takes to build a championship, a lot of that comes back to having the disciplined approach that today is the most important day.”

Staying in the present, Ecker is asked whether he’s seen that approach waiver over the course of a long and trying season.

“Yeah, I think it’s a skill that needs to be trained,” he said. “A lot of team discipline, a lot of environmental discipline, it comes from the accumulation of individuals.”

Yesterday’s example was facing Jacob Misiorowski to conclude the series against Milwaukee. Trying to avoid a sweep by the best team in baseball, and with the future National League Cy Young Award winner on the mound.

“Can everyone in this building, from the warehouse to the kitchen to the laundry room to the strength and condition staff, everybody’s attention should be on competing to win today,” Ecker said.

The Brewers shortened Misiorowski to three innings and the Orioles managed one baserunner against him.

Jumping back into the past and tying it to the present, the Orioles were 30-16 in one-run games in 2013, when they posted the best record in the American League, and 32-23 in 2014, when they reached the American League Championship Series. They were 29-9 in 2012 while ending a 14-year playoff drought.

They fell to 17-24 in one-run games this year after Saturday’s 1-0 loss, and the .415 winning percentage tied for 26th in the majors.

There isn’t one reason for it.

“We’ve had a bunch of games where we’ve been down by more than one and then clawed back and lost by one. But to the real one-run losses, yeah, it’s the little stuff,” said manager Craig Albernaz.

“It’s being able to move the runner, to take the extra 90 feet, to limit the extra 90 feet, to not shoot ourselves in the foot, make good decisions with the baseball, throw strikes. All the above. There’s a lot of meat left on the bone as far as those areas where we can get better at.”

The offense keeps disappearing, and often times in the clutch. The Orioles were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position Saturday and 0-for-3 last night to make them 9-for-65 in the last eight games. They didn’t produce more than two hits with RISP since Sept. 11 in Toronto.

The Orioles struck out at least 10 times in eight consecutive games until Saturday, the longest stretch since a franchise-record 10 games from Aug. 30-Sept. 10, 2025.

“It’s frustrating,” said outfielder Rece Hinds, who doubled Saturday for one of the club’s four hits. “It’s part of the game, though. You kind of have to roll with the punches and keep fighting.”

Albernaz has expressed frustration over the inability to execute in certain situations, to do the little things like laying down a bunt. The consequences can be enormous.

“I think it gets overcomplicated, but if you want to sprint faster, you’ve got to practice sprinting,” said Ecker, who was hired in November after serving as bench coach and offensive coordinator with the Rangers and previously serving as a Giants hitting coach.

“With any skill in this game, if you’re not deconstructing it and isolating it and practicing on it, it’s a really difficult thing to execute between the lines. So with anything tactical that we believe it, whether it’s delayed steals, bunting, double play turns in the shift, that’s something we just have to continue to define it, tell the truth and then isolate it and train it better.”

Albernaz talked last night about needing to do those little things consistently right, calling it the separator between good and bad teams with bad records.

“And we have a bad record,” he said.

“The little things, it’s something that we can control, and that’s where the series go awry. Like this one, we just didn’t control, but when we play our best baseball we are on top of little things, and that’s the inconsistency that we have right now.”

“I think some experience in situations I feel like is a big thing, and just obviously being aware of I guess the situations,” said Gunnar Henderson. “But just obviously being able to take your breath and realize the situation and what kind of approach and mental mindset you should have and that, and I feel like that comes with experience, but also just being aware of the situation and how to handle.”

The coaching staff experienced some turnover under a new manager, a typical outcome in sports. Ecker noted how everyone is “pulling on the same string,” and emotions are tugged by a record that stands at 75-81.

“Nobody’s satisfied, nobody’s excited about where we’re at,” he said. “And quite frankly, any day that ends in a loss and any season that ends in a loss is a failure, in my opinion. So that whole room, they’re pushing, they’re finding ways to get better, and the culture of both the clubhouse and the coaching staff room is as good as I’ve been around.”

Ecker and Albernaz overlapped with the Giants, who employed the latter as bullpen and catching coach. President of baseball operations Mike Elias confirmed Saturday that Albernaz will return next season as expected.

“I get to see everything, and it’s been great to watch him navigate a whole new situation, an environment,” Ecker said. “And as much as you can rely on experiences in the past, you have to, and all of us have to, we have to approach everything as like a beginning, right? You’re working with new people at all times, so him navigating Year 1, new front office, new players, all kinds of volatility on the roster, it’s been great to watch how consistent he is. And that’s why the clubhouse is so damn strong.

“It’s because he never waivers off what he believes in. And most importantly, that’s just taking care of the players and the coaches.”