Leftovers for breakfast

Last night’s game at Camden Yards moved the Orioles a little closer to the trade deadline and identifying as buyers or sellers. The players drawing interest from other clubs mostly are pending free agents and easy to figure out. They knows how it works, their names appearing in various articles and outlets. Tune it out or let it become a distraction.

Tony Mansolino is experiencing another first as interim manager – handling a clubhouse that could undergo many changes before Aug. 1.

He executed a positive spin on the subject during yesterday’s media scrum, before a four-run lead disappeared in the eighth in a 7-6, 10-inning loss to the Mets.

“In a lot of ways, I think all those stories are kind of making my job easier because it’s motivating these guys,” he said. “A lot of these guys don’t want to go anywhere. They like it here, so as every story kind of comes across the desk a little bit or something gets tweeted or however it’s put out there - I don’t really pay attention to a whole lot of it myself – I know it kind of creates a lot of motivation for these guys.

“There’s a lot of chatter in there about trying to stay here, trying to get this thing going, so it’s kind of making my job a little bit easier in some ways.”

The hard part is recovering from again being 10 games below .500 and stuck in last place.

“Obviously, we want to be buyers at the deadline, and I feel like we’re going out each and every day and winning games and proving that we should be buyers at the deadline,” shortstop Gunnar Henderson said earlier in the day. “We’re putting ourselves in a good position to make a good run toward the end of the year and scratch into that Wild Card spot. We’re doing everything we can each and every day to try to get back into that playoff mode, and I feel like we’ve been playing some pretty good ball lately.”

The improved results haven’t lifted the Orioles past any of the seven teams ahead of them for the last Wild Card, which weakens their case to avoid being sellers.

“Obviously, we kind of put ourselves behind the 8 ball to start the year, but the guys that we have in this clubhouse, we’re never just gonna fold over and give up,” Henderson said.

“We’re always gonna go out there and fight and continue to play and take it one game at a time because that’s all you can do right now. Can’t look at it from trying to win 12 games in one. You’ve just got to go out there and try to win one at a time, and if you look up at the end of the year, if you are or you aren’t in that spot, then you know you can lay your head at night knowing that you did everything you can to put yourself in the right position.”

The wins are exhilarating, but every loss pierces the team like a dagger.

“You can’t give a single game away,” Henderson said. “You’ve got to go out there and win, because if you look up at the end of the year and you’re one game back, man, wish we could have gotten that one game back. But knowing this team, we’re not gonna do that.

“The extra-inning games that we’ve won, we go out there and continue to fight each and every day, and I feel like that’s just a good way to describe us.”

* Henderson hasn’t been contacted about playing for Team USA in the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

He’d gladly accept the invitation.

“It would be something I’d love to do, being able to represent the country,” he said. “That would be something I’d really love to do.”

Dean Kremer will pitch for Team Israel.

Team USA will play its first game against Brazil March 6 in Houston and will play Great Britain on March 7, Mexico on March 9 and Italy on March 10.

The quarterfinals will be held March 13-14 in Houston, with the championship round March 15-17.

* I wrote yesterday that Orioles opponents had a .194 batting average in the ninth inning or later this season, the lowest in the majors.

Here’s the rest:

Per STATS, the only time in the last 50 years that the Orioles finished a season with a lower opponent average was 1998 (.190).

* You already know that 31-year-old Ryan O’Hearn was voted the starting designated hitter in his first career All-Star Game.

Here’s the rest:

The only other Oriole to start in his first career All-Star Game at age 30 or older is Steve Stone, who was the America League’s starting pitcher at age 32 in 1980. Stone retired all nine batters he faced in a magical season that culminated in winning the Cy Young Award.