Orioles manager Brandon Hyde made out tonight’s lineup assuming that right-hander Yonny Chirinos will get the bulk of the innings after left-hander Jalen Beeks, who’s serving as the opener.

Beeks has appeared in 13 games, 11 in relief, and totaled 16 innings.

Ryan O’Hearn is in the lineup as the left-handed designated hitter.

“With Beeks, not sure how long he’s going to go,” Hyde said, “but I expect him to go an inning or two, maybe three.”

Beeks hasn’t gone more than 1 1/3 innings in his last eight appearances.

Yennier Cano received two days off after working two innings Thursday afternoon in Kansas City. He wasn’t available last night after retiring all six batters he faced Sunday in Atlanta.

The temptation to use him anyway must be strong, simply because he’s become one of the top relievers in baseball.

Just how good?

The examples are numerous and widely publicized. Here is another, according to STATS:

Cano has faced 49 batters and allowed two hits, walked none and nailed one batter, for a .103 opponents’ OPS, second lowest through 12 appearances since 2014.

The hard part of the schedule just got a little harder.

Goodbye Braves, with your best record in the National League. Hello Rays, with your best record in baseball at 28-7 and obscene plus-115 run differential.

Maybe a lot harder.

The division is out of control. Boston used to be in last place with a record above .500. They won eight in a row before yesterday’s loss in Philadelphia and moved into third place, until the Blue Jays passed them by blowing out the Pirates.

The Yankees are in the cellar but a game above .500. Four of the five teams have 20 wins or more.

The Orioles moved past their off-day and are resuming their three-city road trip tonight in Kansas City. The last stop is in Atlanta.

They haven’t moved past the “soft” part of their schedule. The Royals are 7-22, the second-worst record in the majors. They’re in last place in the American League Central, with a minus-64 run differential in 29 games and a 1-12 record at home.

Can’t let down against anyone, but the Royals are scuffling with 13 losses in their last 16 games.

The teams met seven times last summer, with the Orioles going 4-3. They split a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

The Orioles are 128-128 all-time against the Royals in Kansas City, with their last three-game sweep in 2007.

The regression that’s so common with major league bullpens from one year to the next, deserving of an attached warning label each spring, hasn’t impacted the Orioles. Relievers in the first month are immune to it. Can’t touch them.

Being an exception really defies logic when factoring the loss of veterans Dillon Tate and Mychal Givens to injuries. Zero appearances in 2023 beyond Tate’s one inning Wednesday with High-A Aberdeen.

Givens is expected to pitch Saturday at Double-A Bowie, where Tate is set to join him. Meanwhile, the Orioles have a 2.78 bullpen ERA that ranks third in the majors. They were ninth in 2022 at 3.49.

They’ve done some shuffling, with Yennier Cano recalled April 14 and Logan Gillaspie optioned five days later, but they haven’t folded.

Cano ran his streak of retired batters to begin the season to 24 yesterday, tying the club record, in a 6-2 win over the Red Sox. He nailed Justin Turner on the elbow but hasn’t allowed a run or hit or walked a batter.

Do the Red Sox count as a soft portion of the schedule?

They were a last-place team but with a record above .500 upon arriving in Baltimore. They began the season by winning a series against the Orioles. They led the majors with nine comeback victories.

The Orioles claimed their eighth tonight.  

Austin Hays delivered a tie-breaking single in the fifth inning and threw out a runner at third base in the sixth, and four relievers protected a slim lead in the Orioles' 5-4 victory before an announced crowd of 11,811.

The Orioles have won seven games in a row and 11 of 13, and they improved to 15-7.

Dillon Tate made it back on a mound last night beyond the tedious bullpen sessions and simulated action. He was allowed to face hitters on an opposing team in a game that counted, beginning his injury rehab assignment with High-A Aberdeen and allowing one run and two hits with two strikeouts in the fifth inning.

The Orioles will give Tate four or five more appearances, having him pitch on back-to-back days, and decide whether he can be activated from the injured list.

That’s the easy part.

Making room for Tate and Mychal Givens, who is supposed to begin his own rehab assignment later this week, might become a hassle.

Other teams won’t feel sorry for them, but the bullpen’s ERA dropped to 2.88 last night, the third lowest in the majors. Manager Brandon Hyde is pushing many of the right buttons based on the results, and it’s easier to do when guys are getting outs and the rotation isn’t forcing early appearances and excess baton passing.

He just turned 19 in December and in 33 career pro baseball games, shortstop Jackson Holliday is batting .339/.503/.530/.1.033 with 11 doubles, a triple, three homers and 24 RBIs. There have been few, really no struggles, for Holliday yet on the Orioles' watch.

But if he doesn’t tear it up initially as he now moves up from Low Single-A Delmarva to High-A Aberdeen, he will be keeping good company. Gunnar Henderson started 1-for-31 his first 11 games at Aberdeen in the 2021 season and last season Heston Kjerstad hit .233 with an OPS of .674 at Aberdeen in 43 games.

Those stats for both were modest but it didn't keep them from advancing in their careers.

Now the player that the O’s drafted No. 1 overall last summer, a player ranked as baseball’s No. 10 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 13 by Baseball America, will play his first IronBirds game tonight when Aberdeen plays at Wilmington. His home debut is to come May 9 at Ripken Stadium.

On my WBAL Radio O’s postgame show last night, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias joined me to talk about Holliday’s promotion.

The last four lockers in a row inside the Orioles clubhouse that lead to the entrance to the bathroom and shower area have nameplates above them for John Means, Mychal Givens, Dillon Tate and Cole Irvin.

The first three pitchers are on the injured list, with Means assigned to the 60-day after spring training. Irvin was optioned on April 14 after making three starts.

Those empty spaces will be filled again, but probably on four different days.

Means makes the occasional appearance, and he’s full-go in his bullpen sessions. The team has been targeting a July return for their ace – plenty of time to figure out how he fits.

Tate is beginning his injury rehab assignment Tuesday with high Single-A Aberdeen, and Givens is supposed to start his own later in the week.

As the rotation turns for the Orioles, it took a turn for the better beginning with the second inning Sunday at Chicago. Grayson Rodriguez allowed a pair of homers in the first and the Orioles were down 4-0 to the White Sox.

But they would rally to win that game and two teams have not scored off Baltimore starters, or any Baltimore pitcher, since. Starting with the second inning Sunday, the Orioles staff has thrown 26 consecutive scoreless innings. The starters since that point have thrown 16 2/3 consecutive scoreless.

The back-to-back shutouts at Nats Park reduced their team ERA to 4.68, which is ninth now in the American League and still not as good the league average of 4.32. But trending up.

The Orioles doubled their total of quality starts from two to four in the series in Washington. They are 4-0 in those games. But they rank 22^nd in the majors with four QS. Boston, Detroit and St. Louis are at the bottom of the bigs with just two. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh have 11 and Cleveland is next with 10.

But the O’s hope their young starters are turning a corner and starting to lock in as they did late last year. Right now the rotation features Rodriguez, 23, Kyle Bradish, 26, Dean Kremer, 27, and Tyler Wells, 28.

The Orioles are off again today before beginning a stretch of 10 games in a row, the next six at home against the Tigers and Red Sox. They’ve gone 6-0 in series openers.

If you’re wondering why the Orioles have two off-days as bookends to a two-game series in D.C., you aren’t alone. I’m sure they’d prefer having those breaks spread out.

The timing is unexpectedly good, though, with shortstop Jorge Mateo day-to-day with right hip discomfort.

Detroit won five in a row before yesterday’s loss to the Guardians. The Orioles and Tigers also meet in a four-game series at Comerica Park beginning on April 27.

This is still viewed as the “soft spot” in the schedule, which began after the Yankees left town. The Orioles won three of four from the Athletics and two of three from the White Sox, and swept the Nationals in their two-game set.

WASHINGTON – The Orioles got one of their starting pitchers back tonight, and it was a welcome sight for them to see right-hander Kyle Bradish on the mound. He was activated off the injured list and pitching for the first time since taking a liner off his right foot April 3 at Texas.

And they got back the Bradish that pitched to a 3.28 ERA in his last 13 starts of the 2022 season.

Tonight, he threw six scoreless innings as the Orioles beat Washington 4-0 to sweep a two-game series by throwing back-to-back shutouts.

O’s pitchers have thrown 26 consecutive scoreless innings dating back to the second inning on Sunday versus the White Sox in Chicago. Their rotation ERA was 6.75 to start this series, but Bradish and Dean Kremer combined for 12 2/3 scoreless innings against the Nationals.

They also saw the home run ball return to their offense tonight, and that was a welcome sight as well.

WASHINGTON – When it was over, right-hander Dean Kremer said what everyone must have thought about his start to the 2023 season.

As the Orioles pitcher took the mound in Washington last night, the same night that demoted starter Cole Irvin was pitching at Triple-A, Kremer’s ERA stood at 9.49.

“Of course there are frustrations, anytime you come out on the bottom side and you see your ERA blow up,” he said.

For the first time this year he did something about it last night. Or maybe we should say for the first time he got the results he was looking for, throwing 6 2/3 scoreless on four singles as the Orioles held on to beat Washington 1-0.

The Orioles were averaging nearly six runs per game coming into this series, but you can’t outslug teams every night.

CHICAGO – Having off today allows the Orioles to reset their bullpen and provide rest that hasn’t been easy to dispense.

Manager Brandon Hyde has cringed at times while picking up the bullpen phone to get a reliever up that he wanted to avoid using. And he will draw a firm line.

Asked yesterday whether he considered using Félix Bautista for a third day in a row as the game moved into extra innings, Hyde blurted out, “Absolutely not.”

Common sense comes in handy. The season is 16 games old, Bautista got a late start in camp, and the Orioles aren’t going to risk losing their closer or anyone else to injury.

You can push a guy to a certain extent, but not over the edge.

CHICAGO - Anthony Santander had identified the issue. He didn’t need more video of his at-bats, though he was willing to keep studying to confirm what he knew.

Santander said this morning that he wasn’t seeing the ball well because he’s late on pitches. Manager Brandon Hyde said he’d like Santander to be a little more on time. They could agree, both on the problem and the supreme confidence that it would subside.

Hyde batted Santander cleanup again today in a 7-6, 10-inning loss to the White Sox. Santander began the day with three hits in his last 35 at-bats, was 0-for-2 against Michael Kopech to strand three runners, and led off the sixth with a game-tying home run.

On a 94 mph fastball.  

The bat speed back to its prime.

CHICAGO – Starter Tyler Wells referred to Adley Rutschman last night as “Superman” after the young catcher cleared the bases with a double in the seventh inning that gave the Orioles a lead. The latest hero turn following Thursday afternoon’s walk-off home run.

However, it’s the activity on the basepaths that’s transforming the Orioles into the men of steal.

They almost went the entire game last night without a stolen base, but Cedric Mullins and Ryan Mountcastle swiped bags in the ninth to raise the club’s total to 21 and keep it tied with the Guardians for most in the majors.

Mullins dived into second to beat Yasmani Grandal's throw after a leadoff single. Mountcastle had it much easier after reaching on a fielder’s choice and breaking with two outs. Barely got noticed.

The Orioles have been thrown out once, on a strikeout-caught stealing with Rutschman running on the pitch. Maybe that’s his Kryptonite.

CHICAGO – The Orioles aren’t sharing their rotation plans beyond their series with the White Sox that begins tonight. However, Kyle Bradish seems certain to jump into it after tonight’s rehab start at Double-A Bowie, likely taking the ball Wednesday against the Nationals in D.C. on the day that he’s eligible to return from the injured list.

“We’re just going to get through this weekend,” said manager Brandon Hyde, “and I’ll let you guys know on Sunday.”

Off-days on Monday and Thursday would allow Hyde to tweak the rotation, but the club is likely to keep its starters in turn and stay with a five-man setup.

Cole Irvin is excluded, of course, after the Orioles optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk following yesterday’s game at Camden Yards.

The decision was made to get Irvin on track and also rescue an exhausted bullpen. One struggling starter would be easier to carry if the others routinely were pitching deeper into games.

CHICAGO – The Orioles have announced their series of roster moves leading into tonight’s game against the White Sox.

Left-hander Cole Irvin was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk following yesterday’s 8-7 walk-off win over the Athletics. Left-handed reliever Keegan Akin was placed on the paternity list.

A taxed bullpen is adding right-handers Spenser Watkins and Yennier Cano from the Tides.

Irvin hasn’t gone beyond 4 2/3 innings in his three starts since the Orioles acquired him from the Athletics in a January trade, and he’s allowed 15 runs and 17 hits with eight walks in 12 2/3 innings.

"I had a really good work week this week, so I felt really good coming in," Irvin said after his ERA yesterday rose to 10.66. "Small adjustments. I'm just shooting myself in the foot - walks, hit-by-pitches, bad pitches in bad locations that I know not to go to. It's small stuff that I really need to continue to clean up.

The Orioles are making changes to their rotation and bullpen following their walk-off win this afternoon against the Athletics.

According to multiple sources, left-hander Cole Irvin has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk after starting today and lasting only four innings. Left-handed reliever Keegan Akin is going on paternity leave.

In corresponding moves, the Orioles are recalling pitchers Spenser Watkins and Yennier Canó.

Irvin came to the Orioles in a Jan. 26 trade that sent minor league shortstop prospect Darell Hernaiz to the Athletics. He’s made three starts and allowed 15 runs and 17 hits with eight walks and 13 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings.

None of the three starts have lasted more than 4 2/3 innings. Only Kyle Gibson (twice) and Tyler Wells have recorded an out in the sixth inning this season.

SARASOTA, Fla. – One of the biggest roster decisions for the Orioles has been made.

Left-hander DL Hall was among three pitchers optioned to minor league camp today following a 4-2 win over the Phillies.

Spenser Watkins and Yennier Canó also were cut to bring the number down to 41, including 10 non-roster invites. Fifteen additional moves are pending.

The Orioles fly to Boston after Tuesday's workout in Sarasota.

Hall got a late start in spring training due to lower-back discomfort that he noticed about three weeks before reporting. He made only two appearances, and the Orioles decided against putting him in the bullpen on Opening Day.