Tomoyuki Sugano starts tonight against the Royals at Camden Yards and Kyle Gibson takes his second turn on Sunday, hoping to make a much better second impression. The Orioles are off again Monday and fly to Minnesota for a road trip that also makes a stop in Anaheim.

Charlie Morton will sit in the home and visiting bullpens, where he’s operated since Game 2 of last weekend’s doubleheader in Detroit. He was listed as the starter but followed Keegan Akin.

Morton fell to 0-6 after allowing three runs and walking five batters in 3 2/3 innings. It took until his seventh appearance to avoid a losing decision after holding the Yankees to an unearned run in 2 1/3 innings.

The relief unit could use a long man with Albert Suárez out for an extended period with a shoulder strain. Morton wasn’t supposed to be a candidate, but the Orioles are trying to fix the 18-year veteran.

“We moved him to the bullpen in an attempt to get him going,” said executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. “There’s still things, his stuff, basically, that presents some reason for optimism. But he’s extremely frustrated and disappointed with his start.

“We’re not hiding from it. It’s been something that’s led to some bad results here, part of our rough start. We’re working with him to fix him, and in the meantime, he’s going to help the team from the bullpen. I was really happy with what he did the other night and I think it put us in a position to win Wednesday’s game.”

This is the only real course of action for the club beyond leaving Morton in the rotation. They won’t release him a month into the season and after agreeing to a $15 million contract. Resets are common in baseball, whether in the ‘pen or Triple-A.

“I honestly don’t know how to look at it other than take the opportunity to take the ball when it’s given to me and try to go get outs,” said Morton, who has lowered his ERA from 10.89 on April 20 to 9.45.

“I think there’s some things in my delivery, my timing, that have kind of thrown me off my direction and just throwing strikes and locating. Just looking at my stuff, it’s fine. It’s just getting ahead and staying ahead. I’m not sure a role is something that is going to improve my performance. I think it’s more of just doing things the right way in my delivery and with my mentality.

“If coming out of the ‘pen offers that, and I guess if I’m not quite as dialed in, you could say the burden on the team to eat innings, that’s probably a benefit if I go out and I can only get through three innings at 80 pitches, I guess that’s probably some of the mentality behind it. Also, just my general performance. I mean, I guess that’s how I’m looking at it. I’m looking at it as an opportunity to maybe throw a little more frequently than I otherwise might.”

Morton had to make the adjustment to a new team, though he’s used to it. Bullpen work is mostly foreign to him beyond one appearance in his rookie season in 2008 and once in the 2017 World Series. The Orioles are sort of teaching an 41-year-old pitcher new tricks because they’re left with no other choice.

“I really don’t know how to look at me through their eyes,” he said. “It’s not really my job. We’re a month from us leaving spring training. There are a couple outings where I felt like I threw the ball OK. There were a couple walks that proceeded home runs. The timing of those were pretty bad. And there were a couple really bad outings, like especially that Reds outing. That’s a really bad outing.”

The crowd at Camden Yards agreed, voicing its displeasure as Morton allowed seven runs and seven hits with four walks in 2 1/3 innings in a 24-2 beating.

“A tough time kind of finding his delivery,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “That’s why I think you see a good inning and then a tough inning because it escapes him there for a little while. Hopefully, we can find a good rhythm for him in the bullpen, at least short term. We don’t have a timetable on that, either.

“Kind of the way our rotation is right now, too, you kind of never know what’s going to happen. He had a really good outing his last time when he went 2 1/3 and threw the ball great. Hopefully, he can build on that, and we’ll see what happens."

Morton said he isn’t going to give up on himself after five starts or expect the organization to do it.

“Maybe if I was throwing 88, maybe if it wasn’t coming out the same, my breaking ball wasn’t there, the shapes weren’t there. I don’t know,” he said. “Performance-wise, I can understand why it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for me.”

Asked whether he’s excited for this chance, Morton pondered the use of the word – it didn’t seem to fit the situation – and replied, “I’m just trying to get dialed back into me being myself. If they’re willing to give me the ball in certain situations, that’s exciting.”

His most recent appearance was encouraging.

“I think making some small adjustments, just trying to get my tempo and timing back and my release right, that’s gonna allow me to be more competitive, especially just throwing strikes, just locating the ball a little bit better. So I think that’s why probably the outcomes were a little bit better in a smaller window. How that plays out over the course of five, six, seven outings, I don’t know,” Morton said.

“If you looked just at my stuff metrically, I don’t think you’re gonna see very much difference between that and any outing last year or the year before.”

Morton can pitch more often but he can’t do as much side work. That’s the other edge of the sword. But it makes more sense to use him in relief than to keep risking short starts that tax the ‘pen and put the team in another huge hole. His fastball velocity ticked up, so he isn’t dealing with a dead arm. It isn’t fair to declare that he’s washed after a month.

“It’s hard for me to sit here and look at you after five starts and go, ‘This is a complete 180 from where I was when I was a good starting pitcher.’ I just don’t think that was the case,” Morton said.

“I just think in a small window it looks really bad, because some of those outings, basically the worst outcomes that could have happened happened, whether it was consecutive base hits or walks. I can’t look at the video of my outings, I can’t look at the video of my mechanics and I can’t look at the charts of my stuff and say, ‘That’s where everything just went downhill.’ I just don’t see it. I see it in outcomes.

“I can see things with my timing, I can see things with my tempo that probably put me in a spot where my delivery, it’s hard for me to throw strikes, it’s hard for me to command pitches pitch to pitch.

“It’s like, my ceiling is higher than people think, but my floor is about where I’m at. There was nothing to me that was suggesting in the offseason or in spring training that I was going to come here in my first five starts and I was going to have a 10 ERA. … But here we are, five days out of however many days I’ve spent with this team, five days’ worth of work, and I’m standing here going, ‘Man, that’s really bad. That’s really bad pitching.’”