The next home series begins tonight with the Mariners coming to town. The team that’s won seven games in a row and nine of 10. The team that holds the first Wild Card spot.

Get used to it.

The schedule isn’t doing the Orioles any favors. They go to Houston and Boston after the homestand, come back to Camden Yards and host the Astros for four games and the Red Sox for four. Who came up with this setup?

The next road trip is a West Coast swing through San Francisco and San Diego, sans any hopes of making the playoffs.

Oh, and there’s the home series against the Dodgers in the first weekend of September.

Let’s really make it bad and force the Orioles to walk across hot coals from the clubhouse to the dugout.

The evaluation process continues, no matter who’s in the other dugout and how it could influence the results.

“For me, what I’m watching is the starting pitching, cause some of these starter are gonna be here next year, so I wanna see how our starters compete against playoff-caliber teams,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said Sunday. “I wanna see how those top five guys in the lineup compete against playoff-style pitching.”

Mansolino is counting on his own rotation getting better with Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells and Albert Suárez returning from the injured list, assuming the last two aren’t in the bullpen. He’s counting on the lineup having more punch when Colton Cowser and Tyler O’Neill are healthy again.

“And then at that point,” he said, “you’re hoping that the two prospects end up here within that period of time, to where we’re gonna get a chance to see those two kids play against really good teams.”

The two kids? Which two does he possibly mean?

It must be catcher Samuel Basallo and outfielder Dylan Beavers, two of the top three prospects in the system per MLB Pipeline. Basallo is No. 8 in baseball. They will play for the Orioles in 2025.

Beavers is expected to arrive first, with the Orioles missing Cowser and O’Neill to injuries and Cedric Mullins and Ramón Laureano to trades. And with Dylan Carlson 0-for-35 after grounding out Sunday in his only at-bat.

Carlson’s 0-for-34 stretch was the longest hitless streak in a single season by an Oriole since Ryan Flaherty also was 0-for-34 from July 24-Aug.16, 2015. It’s not the longest overall Chris Davis was 0-for-54 from Sept. 14, 2018-April 12, 2019.

Carlson, Jeremiah Jackson, Greg Allen, Ryan Noda and Jordyn Adams went a combined 1-for-28 over the weekend while playing the outfield. Daniel Johnson was claimed on waivers yesterday and likely goes on the roster today. 

Having a need isn’t reason for the Orioles to promote a prospect. They’ll do it with Beavers because he’s batting .305 with 14 doubles, two triples, 18 home runs, 50 RBIs, 66 walks, 22 steals and a .948 OPS with Triple-A Norfolk. And he wasn’t a Top 100 prospect in any rankings until Baseball America put him 83rd yesterday (Basallo is 7^th).

Beavers would need to appear in another Top 100 by the start of next season, whether MLB Pipeline or ESPN, to earn the Orioles an extra draft pick by finishing first or second in his league’s Rookie of the Year balloting.

The earliest that a team can promote a prospect to ensure his rookie eligibility in 2026 is Friday.

There’s lots of misinformation out there.

Anyway, it’s gonna happen with Beavers and Basallo, and some of the fans raging about their delayed promotions will call them busts and want them optioned if they struggle the first couple of weeks. You know who you are. You do it with every prospect.

Here’s a Basallo-related question: Do the Orioles carry three catchers when he arrives, which would be easier when rosters expand Sept. 1?

Basallo also is going to play first base and he can get at-bats as the designated hitter. The Orioles also could hold onto Alex Jackson or reinstate Maverick Handley when he’s ready to leave the injured list.

Creating a spot for Beavers doesn’t require as much thought. It’s easy to drop an outfielder from the roster.

* The Mariners are listing right-handers George Kirby and Logan Gilbert, and TBA, as their starters for the three-game series. The Orioles counter with Dean Kremer, Trevor Rogers and Tomoyuki Sugano.

Seattle’s 3.81 ERA and .239 opponents’ average were 10^th in baseball through the weekend, and it’s 1.23 WHIP was seventh. The bullpen’s 3.63 ERA was seventh.

The offense’s 171 home runs were third in the majors.

Kirby faced the Orioles on June 3 and allowed two runs and eight hits in five innings in a 5-1 loss.

* The Orioles had won 123 straight games when leading after the eighth inning before the Athletics rallied Sunday for a 3-2 victory. It was the franchise’s second-longest streak after 135 in a row from May 1997-September 1998.

* Infielder Jalen Vasquez was released yesterday from Double-A Chesapeake’s roster. He hit .253/.367/.361 in 30 games with High-A Aberdeen and .154/.240/.234 in 55 games with the Baysox.