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SEATTLE – The Orioles flew to California after yesterday’s game against the Mariners, invigorated by the sweet smell of success on an undefeated road trip and after winning nine of their last 11 games, finally able to enjoy playing baseball again.
The music was cranked after Wednesday night’s thrilling 3-2 victory over the Mariners and a few players groaned when the media needed the volume level turned down to conduct its interviews. Nothing against us, of course, but don’t crash a party and mute the vibe.
“Vibe” is becoming a popular word around this team, perhaps more so than “process.” Heston Kjerstad produced a two-run, go-ahead triple on the field and a different description of the mood at his locker.
"Definitely won a lot more the past two seasons,” he said, “and I think we’re kind of getting back our mojo here the past week winning more games and just playing better baseball.”
Kjerstad always is cooperative but he’s smiling a lot more lately after collecting his fourth hit in three games – three for extra bases. Adley Rutschman kept the smile on his face throughout his four-minute interview, whether the subject was his home run, the team’s hot stretch, playing in front of family and friends from Oregon, or the toe-tap that is or isn’t part of his timing mechanism at the plate.
It's mostly gone but not entirely, as Rutschman tried to explain.
There was no evidence of it during Tuesday’s three-hit game or on his game-tying home run the following night. He didn’t tap yesterday when lining a single into left field, flying to the track in center field at 105.3 mph, belting a game-tying two-run homer, and ripping a 106.6 mph single into left. He said it wasn’t a “conscious thing” when he used it.
“I’ve looked at some of the video, and on some, I’m almost toe-tapping and some I’m not at all on other ones,” he said. “I’ve been working with the hitting coaches a little bit on sequencing and being a little more rhythmic, just timing-wise. Some of them I haven’t been. Others, kind of lightly.”
Whatever he is or isn’t doing, he should just keep doing or not doing it.
“I feel like he’s been trending in a better direction,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino, “outside of the couple games against the White Sox after missing a couple games from the foul tip.”
As Rutschman spoke, outfielder Colton Cowser sat next to him with a mischievous grin and tried to subtly get his attention. The boys are having fun again.
The media scrum for Tomoyuki Sugano Tuesday overflowed to lockers belonging to Coby Mayo and Dean Kremer. The Japanese reporters tend to linger, to put it mildly, after the beat crew steps away. Mayo and Kremer stood across the room in towels waiting for it to break up, with no signs of irritation or impatience. Mayo struck up a conversation with a reporter who apologized for the delay, asking what time his flight landed and how Triple-A Norfolk had a four-hour layover in Baltimore on its way to Louisville.
Kjerstad, Cowser, Jackson Holliday and Gunnar Henderson played cards before batting practice. Bench coach Robinson Chirinos’ young son wrestled with Félix Bautista, who sat at his locker, absorbed the light punishment and gently fended him off – also with a smile. Tyler O’Neill, who begins his injury rehab assignment this week, explained the purpose of the bands wrapped around his arms, and how they’re really for legs. He couldn’t find those and, well, his biceps would support the switch. He also saw the humor in it.
The good times are rolling right along with the Orioles.
“I think when you finally get on the right side of things, it kind of opens your mind up a little bit,” said reliever Bryan Baker. “Guys seem a little bit more comfortable right now for sure and I think it’s contagious. I think when you just kind of settle in and just be yourself, I think that’s what people are starting to do, which is good to see.
“It’s definitely like a more comfortable vibe around here and guys seem to be a little bit more upbeat for sure.”
“Just a collection of believing in ourselves and going out, playing and having fun, working hard,” Zach Eflin said after earning the win yesterday. “I think, to Manso’s credit, I think it’s everyone on the staff. It’s every one of the players. We’ve just bought into winning every single day and nothing has really changed from us from the start of the year. We’re just winning now and we’re having fun, and you can start to kind of feel it.
“It’s an addiction, and people are starting to feel it, so we’re just having fun.”
The chicken or the egg debate rages here in baseball form. Are the Orioles happier and looser because they’re winning or is that attitude allowing them to be more successful. Which came first?
“It’s hard for me to answer,” Mansolino said. “I’m happy they feel that way and hopefully we can continue that.”
“I think it’s a little bit of both,” Baker said. “You need to see it a few times, which we have over the last week or so, and I think it’s almost like a reminder, like OK, this is the way it’s supposed to be. And I think it seems like we’re showing up expecting to win, which I think is big. We need to have that confidence coming into every game. To be showing up and expecting to win and being a professional, I think we’ve got a lot more of that recently.”
Mansolino doesn’t think the players have undergone massive changes. Maybe “turned the dials a little bit here and there,” he said.
“Maybe momentum goes and maybe confidence goes, maybe a form of looseness kind of helps us go. It’s probably a lot of little things, to be honest with you. It’s probably not one main thing that swings everything.”
This team has momentum and it’s getting healthier. Cowser is back and he had a single and home run in Seattle, Jordan Westburg could be reinstated Friday in Sacramento after serving as designated hitter last night with Triple-A Norfolk, and Ramón Laureano and Gary Sánchez joined him in Louisville on assignments that shouldn’t drag for long. All three of them homered last night by the second inning.
Cedric Mullins, with a hamstring injury, is running and soon expected to begin full baseball activities.
O’Neill was in the clubhouse Wednesday afternoon but had an empty locker by the end of the game as he readied for his minor league stint. Watching his teammates struggle so badly was just as painful as the shoulder impingement.
“It always is,” he said. “Those guys are grinding out there every day and I just want to be out there with them and share in that pride. But for me, I’ve just been really focused on my rehab and just making sure I’m healthy for the rest of the season.”
The Orioles will have lots of roster decisions to make, beginning with Westburg. Do they drop outfielder Jordyn Adams, who’s been used as a late-inning defensive replacement, or one of their extra infielders? How long before the decision must be made between Emmanuel Rivera and Coby Mayo, if that’s how it shakes out? And how long before Kjerstad versus Dylan Carlson?
Maverick Handley will step aside for Sánchez unless something unexpected happens. Is Jorge Mateo vulnerable at some point? The roster can only hold 26 players.
Perhaps it should be left alone at the moment. Don’t fix what ain’t broken.
* Utility player Cooper Hummel rejected an outright assignment again yesterday and elected free agency.
