Orioles Notebook: Mansolino’s Steady Hand, Rogers, Injury Update

BALTIMORE — A week after blowing an 8-0 lead in Tampa, the Baltimore Orioles returned the favor to the contending Rays on Friday night. Down 6-0 in the second inning, the O’s rallied back for a resounding 22-8 victory that saw four players get three or more hits.

Then, on Saturday, the Rays handed out a beatdown of their own on the Orioles, winning 11-3.

For an interim manager like Tony Mansolino, it can be a tall task to lead a group of young players through emotional contests like those. But Mansolino has learned, it’s best to leave those emotions aside at the helm of a major league team.

“For me, I take a lot of pride in being steady,” Mansolino said. “I think if we [coaches] are steady, our players are steady.”

Mansolino was promoted to interim manager role, following the firing of Brandon Hyde on May 17.

Since receiving the interim manager title, Mansolino’s Orioles have been a winning team. They are 20-19 (.513) following Saturday’s loss. This is a noticeable improvement over the 15-28 (.357) record they had under Hyde.

The Orioles know that they were expected to be one of baseball’s best this season and have underperformed. For Mansolino and his staff, they are setting incremental goals for their team to get back into the thick of the American League Wild Card hunt.

“The whole year, it’s been – we’ve got to get to five games under .500, we’ve got to get to .500,” Mansolino explained. “We’re one week away from kind of hitting the next step in our progression.”

Now, obviously, the Orioles would be one week away from advancing to the next step in their progression if they rattle off wins. Playing .500 ball from here on out won’t help them make the playoffs.

“We’ve had urgency this whole time. We’ve been accountable the whole time,” says Mansolino. “We’re trying to re-think ways to do better constantly.”

Something that helps keep Mansolino grounded as a manager is to reflect on his playing days. He was quick to mention that he wasn’t a successful professional baseball player and uses those memories to help him empathize with players through their struggles.

Baseball is a game of failure, and Mansolino is familiar with that. His goal is to make sure his players stay grounded through it all.

“I have a massive respect for how difficult it is to play,” Mansolino recalls. “When I see players struggle, as long as they’re doing everything right before the game, their process is good, I don’t care if they fail at night. They did everything they could.”

Managing a Big Win and then a Blowout Loss

In his pre-game press conference, Mansolino was asked about his thoughts on position players pitching as frequently as they have been in the league this season. The Rays turned to infielder Jose Caballero to pitch in the eighth inning of Friday’s win.

He chalked up the increased use of position players pitching to the change in the general culture around pitching.

“If you [starting pitchers] came out in the fifth inning, that was a bad day [years ago].” Mansolino opined. “Now when pitchers come out in the fifth inning, in some ways, we might celebrate it.”

“That’s a really smart organization over there, [manager Kevin] Cash and the Rays,” said Mansolino. “Once they went to eight to throw Caballero away, they’re doing it for competitive reasons, which is why we do it too.”

Little did Mansolino know, he would get his chance to use a position player on the bump as well in a ten-run deficit on Saturday. When starter Zach Eflin had to leave the game after one inning due to injury, Mansolino went into “survival mode.”

“You feel for the players in those situations,” Mansolino added. “Scotty [Blewett] goes out there and throws the ball good, but you have to push him and extend him.”

Blewett threw 2.2 innings with four earned runs as an unplanned bulk reliever. Infielder Luis Vazquez was brought on to pitch to finish the game and threw two shutout innings.

“We’re very thankful for what he did and how he handled it,” said Mansolino, of Vazquez’s pitching efforts. “By throwing Vazquez the last two innings, it gives us a chance for tomorrow.”

The rubber match between these two division rivals will take place on Sunday. Projected starters Taj Bradley and Dean Kremer hope to have a pitcher’s duel to close a series that has seen 43 combined runs score in two games.

Trevor Rogers is Finding his Stride