Leftovers for breakfast

Ryan Mountcastle slowed for an instant yesterday as he prepared to pull into second base with a double, saw that Twins right fielder Kody Clemens bobbled the ball, and sped up to try for the triple. Clemens, playing his third position in four innings, fired to third baseman Royce Lewis for the out.

Mountcastle rose from the dirt, his uniform covered in it, and headed back to the dugout. The Orioles were down three runs, and Mountcastle’s elevated production at the plate and spot in the lineup couldn’t give them a lift. But he tried.

Manager Brandon Hyde had Mountcastle second in the order in both games of Wednesday’s doubleheader and again yesterday, moving up one of the few hot bats on the team. Mountcastle has hit second 77 times in his career.

“I can’t remember the last time I did it (before Wednesday),” Mountcastle said. “I’ve done it before. I like it. I like batting second with a guy like Gunnar (Henderson) behind me and Jackson (Holliday) in front of me. It’s a good little spot to hit.”

Any spot is bound to work for Mountcastle when he’s cooking.

Mountcastle brings a 10-game hitting streak into tonight’s series opener against the Nationals at Camden Yards. He’s followed a .194/.240/.301 March/April by going 15-for-48 (.313) this month. He’s also hit safely in 17 consecutive games against the Twins to break Miguel Tejada’s team record.

Better at-bats lately or just better luck?

“It’s a little mixture of both,” he said. “Seeing better pitches and some balls are starting to fall. I was hitting the ball pretty hard at least once or twice a game early on, just wasn’t falling. But finding some holes.”

Mountcastle won’t do anything different when he’s behind the leadoff hitter. He doesn’t take extra pitches or make any other adjustments.

“I just stay with the same approach,” he said. “Just a different spot in the order.”

* The Orioles had a short bullpen after the doubleheader, forcing manager Brandon Hyde to avoid using certain relievers.

Yennier Cano had the day off after throwing 20 pitches in Game 2 and allowing three runs to squander a 6-5 lead. He has a 13.50 ERA and 2.357 WHIP in six appearances this month, with seven runs and seven hits, four walks and three homers in 4 2/3 innings. He’s also struck out eight.

Cano didn’t allow an earned run in 11 games and 9 2/3 innings in March/April.

“You trust the track record,” Hyde said. “He’s been so good for three years. I mean, excellent. I’ve tried to use him in the appropriate situations to try to make him have success. Unlike (Wednesday), he normally he faces the toughest right-handers in someone’s lineup and that’s an extremely challenging job to do with a lead or tight game the majority of nights he pitches. And he’s come through 90-something percent of the time.

“Just a little bit of a hiccup for me. You just pat him on the back, we love you, we need you. And he’ll figure this out.”

* Hyde was asked yesterday about the specific points of interest for him when examining the offense. What he concentrates on among all the stats and data.

“Definitely not exit velocity,” he replied. “Looking at competitiveness of at-bats, the ability to swing at strikes. … The ability to stay on the baseball, too. I think that’s something that we’ve struggled with the second half of last year into this year is being able to not try to do too much and be able to use the whole field, use whatever the pitcher’s giving you, be able to go with it. Hence, the runners in scoring position situation we’ve been in.

“But those are the things I look at. I don’t look at how hard we’re hitting balls or anything like that. I think that’s great and sexy, but for me that’s not winning baseball.”

Ryan O’Hearn also seems to have little use for some of the advanced stats. The “expected” numbers don’t impress him because they don’t influence scores and standings. If they did, the Orioles probably would be out of last place and winning more games.

“I think expected stats and all that is maybe feel good a little bit, in my opinion,” he said. “I’ve been a guy before that’s hitting the ball hard and it’s not translating. Pull-side on the ground might look good on an expected stat, but it doesn’t really play.

“Guys got to keep going through the struggle that they’re going through, keep trying to figure out their swing, keep trying to get up there or keep trying to do whatever it is they’re trying to achieve, and then, get out there and forget about all that and compete, battle. It doesn’t always look pretty up there in the box, but you’ve got to get the job done.

“I believe in our guys. I’m not going to waver on that at all. We have a lot of really good players, and it sucks, it’s not fun. But we’re going to keep going.”

* The Orioles pushed back Cade Povich from Tuesday night to tonight following the rainout. He’s going to pitch against the Nationals on nine days’ rest.

Moving Povich to Wednesday’s doubleheader would have left the Orioles searching for a Sunday starter. The shift lines up Kyle Gibson for Saturday and Zach Eflin for Sunday.

There’s a little more to it.

Povich already faced the Twins May 6 in Minnesota and he allowed five runs in six innings against a lineup heavy in right-handed bats. He faced the Nationals on April 24 in D.C. and earned the win after surrendering one run in 6 2/3 innings.

The Nats lean a little more to the left, which statistically should present a more favorable matchup for Povich. Left-handed hitters are batting .222 with a .674 OPS against Povich in his brief career, and right-handers have a   .284 average and .852 OPS.

The splits are more dramatic this season. Left-handers are hitting .200 with a .565 OPS and right-handers are hitting .322 with a .927 OPS.

The series opener is a rematch from the April 24 game, with the Nats again starting left-hander MacKenzie Gore.

Gore allowed two runs and struck out eighth batters in six innings and lost the pitching duel. The Orioles scored twice in the fifth and won 2-1.

* Double-A Chesapeake right-hander Patrick Reilly, the No. 10 prospect in the system per MLB Pipeline, underwent right elbow UCL reconstruction surgery yesterday with Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, Texas.

Reilly left his last start after one inning with elbow discomfort and recently went on the full-season injured list.

The Orioles acquired Reilly from the Pirates at the trade deadline for outfielder Billy Cook. He had a 1.86 ERA this season in three starts with the Baysox over 9 2/3 innings.