Craig Albernaz is experiencing the usual series of firsts as a major league manager. He got a win, he received an ejection, he’s had winning and losing streaks. He was drilled in the face by a line drive for his first broken jaw.

OK, that was unusual.

Albernaz is now tasked with pulling his team out of a spiral.

The Orioles have lost four games in a row and are a season-worst four below .500. They’re in danger of being swept in a four-game series in the Bronx.

Fourth place is their current residency and they’re only two games ahead of the last-place Red Sox.

Laundry cart celebrations and bird hand gestures are fun, but the Orioles are entering a dangerous area. We were reminded in 2025 that seasons can be destroyed in April and May. The Orioles were 13-21 through 34 games last season and are 15-19 going into tonight. They were in a stretch of 14 losses in 16 games, much too late slamming on the brakes and moving in the right direction.

“There’s adversity in this game at all times, and all these guys have been through adversity. That’s how they got into that clubhouse,” Albernaz told the media yesterday in his postgame scrum.

“For me, it’s at a crucial point where, what team do you want to be? We can fold up and just thinking that everything will turn around just by itself, or we’re going to put the work in and really make this happen. I feel like those guys in the clubhouse, I feel it’ll be the latter. These guys will put the work in and we’ll be better as the season goes on.”

The defense isn’t getting any better. Weston Wilson committed an error at third base on a bouncer to his glove side, almost busted his knee sliding into the fence in foul territory while chasing a popup, and almost collided with Taylor Ward on a fly ball that dropped inside the left field line.

Coby Mayo made a diving stop of a grounder with the infield in but lost his grip on the ball as a run scored and an out wasn’t recorded. He moved across the diamond to third base and tried to field a bunt that was about to roll foul, allowing the runner to reach in a seven-run eighth inning.

Plays also aren’t being made in the outfield. Pitchers are being charged with errors, as if PFPs didn’t take hold.

“Yeah, definitely disappointing,” Albernaz said of yesterday’s mistakes. “Like we keep on saying, we can’t give another team 27 outs, especially the Yankees and their lineup. We’ve got to convert those outs all the time, not just today. Like, we’ve got to do it all the time. And we’ve got to stay with our work and stay with our practice and our prep and keep on trying to get where we need to go and continue to turn the dial up on getting better and being the best versions of ourselves.”

Development is messy. Albernaz and his coaches say it all the time. But isn’t just the younger players making the mistakes. Everyone has to clean it up.

The Orioles sound confident that it’s going to happen.

“To me, the defensive side of things, it’s something that you can somewhat control in this game,” Albernaz said.

“All these guys have the ability to catch a ball and make a good throw. Right now, it’s us putting the confidence in them and still putting the work in. I’m bullish on it, but I think we can make some real improvements.”

Gunnar Henderson sat out yesterday for the first time this season, but Albernaz said it wasn’t a health issue.

“He’s been playing every single day,” Albernaz said. “We wanted to give him a day get off his feet, because he’s a guy who plays every day.”

Henderson should be in the lineup against Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler, who’s 4-1 with a 1.51 ERA and 0.744 WHIP in seven starts. He’s walked six batters, struck out 49 and surrendered only one home run.

In his last three starts, he’s allowed one earned run in 20 innings. Right-handers are hitting .113/.154/.177 against him and left-handers are hitting .207/.233/.287.

It isn’t hard to decipher why the Yankees are the best team in the American League.

Schlittler faced the Orioles twice last season and allowed one run in 12 1/3 innings. Henderson and Jeremiah Jackson are 1-for-4 with a double against him. Samuel Basallo is 1-for-5 with a homer.

There are easier spots to stop a skid and turn around a season, but this is where the Orioles need to start doing it. They don’t have the luxury of making out their own schedule. They have to focus on the controllables.

Pitch better, hit better, field better.

“It’s a crucial point and I think our guys are up to the challenge,” catcher Adley Rutschman told the media. “I know our guys are up to the challenge.”