Orioles outfielder Ryan McKenna maybe at one time didn’t envision his big league role as it has become. He’s a reserve on this team, but he has grown his role to become something of a super sub while at the same time getting constant praise from manager Brandon Hyde for the spirit and energy he brings to the dugout when he is not playing.

McKenna said the cheering for his teammates comes about simply because he wants the team to do well and he wants the teammates he likes so much to do the same. But he is also very focused while on the bench, maybe in the way a manager might be. Hanging on every pitch and trying to note things that could help him later in the game if he does get in.

“I think staying diligent mentally, honestly, is one of the biggest things I’ve focused on,” McKenna said before Monday’s game. “An open communication channel with the hitting coaches has been good. And also, by being in on every pitch when I am not playing – understanding and learning other pitchers and how they are attacking guys, you know, maybe trying to predict what pitches will come or why we are moving guys in the outfield the way we are – just being a student of the game is one of the biggest things.

“I think it is just an emphasis I have put on myself to be disciplined and into the game. Whether it’s a day game or night, 98 degrees, extra innings, or whatever, that is what I try to do.”

McKenna certainly brings a lot on defense and with his speed. But his OPS, which was .559 with a .183 batting average in 90 games last year is now .662 with an average of .255 in 64 games. His OPS plus of 88 is just 12 percent below league average.

Ryan McKenna doesn’t step up to the plate with the intent to hit a home run. He has the power but isn’t going to flex.

When McKenna’s fly ball in the eighth inning of Tuesday night’s game cleared the vaunted left field wall, he broke a tie – another temporary lead – and delivered the first go-ahead hit of his career.

The home run was his third in 288 plate appearances, and his first since last September.

The ball left McKenna’s bat at 103 mph. The 396 feet were sufficient.

Was he confident that it would land in the seats?

The chatter starts again, which requires Anthony Santander to tune out. Just ignore it. Can’t control it and won’t let it distract.

The trade deadline arrives on Aug. 2, a few days later than usual. Deals can be consummated at any time leading to it, and Santander remains one of the Orioles’ most attractive chips.

A hamstring injury lessened his value last summer. Santander struggled with it and his numbers suffered. But teams checked on his availability during the winter, with the Marlins one of the most interested.

Santander is healthy in 2022 and leading the Orioles in home runs with 15, five short of his career high in 2019. His 31 walks are the most in his career. The .325 on-base percentage is the highest.

The speculation that he could be traded will peak, as well.

MINNEAPOLIS - The Orioles are closing out their series in Minnesota today, and their road trip, with the same infield options on their roster.

Change is coming.

Ramón Urías began his injury rehab assignment last night at Double-A Bowie, starting at third base and going 0-for-3 with three strikeouts and committing a fielding error. He hadn’t played since June 9, due to a strained left oblique, or received an at-bat since June 7.

There’s bound to be some rust. And the Orioles will be careful to make sure he doesn’t experience any setbacks with an injury that requires a lengthy period of inactivity.

Urías hasn’t been the same hitter who crafted a .279/.361/.412 line in 296 plate appearances, but he can move around the infield and has some pop. His six home runs in 188 plate appearances are one fewer than he totaled last season, but he’s slashing .225/.273/.387.

MINNEAPOLIS – Trey Mancini is out of the Orioles’ lineup tonight for the second time in three games, as they visit the Twins on the final stop of their three-city road trip.

Mancini, who has an eight-game hitting streak, didn’t play Tuesday and the Orioles were off yesterday. He went 1-for-5 with a double on Wednesday.

Anthony Santander is the designated hitter tonight, with Ryan McKenna in left field and Austin Hays in right. Adley Rutschman is batting fifth.

Jonathan Araúz gets another start at third base.

Spenser Watkins has a 5.14 ERA and 1.629 WHIP in nine starts, but he allowed only an unearned run in five innings in Chicago. He faced the Twins on May 5 at Camden Yards and surrendered three runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. Byron Buxton homered.

There’s nothing dads love more than fundamentals. They preach it in Little League. They drill it on empty fields on Saturday afternoons. 

There were probably plenty of beaming fathers in the Baltimore area pointing at their televisions Sunday, turning to their sons or daughters, and saying, “See? Fundamentals.”

The Orioles (30-38) played a clean, fundamental game and turned several phenomenal defensive plays to help Brandon Hyde navigate an unwelcome bullpen game and beat the Rays 2-1 on Father’s Day at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

It started in the top of the second inning, when a picture-perfect relay from right fielder Ryan McKenna to second baseman Rougned Odor to catcher Adley Rutschman turned a Vidal Bruján single into an inning-ending tag play. The Orioles, already leading 1-0 on a first-inning home run by Anthony Santander, kept the Rays off the scoreboard.

It continued in the sixth, when Odor scooped a Taylor Walls grounder from the dirt and underhand lobbed it to first baseman Ryan Mountcastle to get Mike Baumann out of a jam. Another scoreless frame, and a 2-1 lead preserved.

Ryan McKenna dived across home plate today in the second inning, hopped to his feet with hands clenched into fists, and yelled. The energy that’s been running through this team reaching high voltage.

The unfortunate part of the day for the Orioles was how quickly the Rays flipped the switch. The familiar part was the comeback by a team that stubbornly refuses to submit to its apparent fate.

The Orioles had to settle for another moral victory. They’d rather get the kind that's reflected in the standings.

Rookie Kyle Bradish surrendered four runs in the top of the third inning and two more in the fifth before the Orioles stormed back to tie the game in the sixth. Dillon Tate loaded the bases in the ninth, and Harold Ramírez’s sacrifice fly gave the Rays a 7-6 win at Camden Yards.

A walk, single and hit batter set the stage for Ramírez, who lined to right fielder Trey Mancini.

TORONTO – If the Orioles are going to gain a split of their four-game series against the Blue Jays, they’ll need to bounce back quickly from last night’s 10-inning walk-off loss.

Adley Rutschman is batting fourth as the designated hitter this afternoon after smacking his first major league home run and collecting his first two RBIs. He also doubled for his fourth multi-hit game.

Kyle Stowers is on the bench, with Ryan McKenna starting in left field.

Trey Mancini remains out of the lineup with swelling in his right hand.

Ryan Mountcastle has homered in consecutive games for the fifth time in his career. He’s hit 12 career homers against the Jays, most versus any opponent, and is batting .346 (38-for-110) with four doubles, 12 home runs, 21 RBIs and a 1.109 OPS in 28 games.

BOSTON – Félix Bautista is an exceptionally large man with a blazing fastball and a high walk rate in the minors.

That was pretty much the scouting report when Bautista reported to spring training as a new addition to the Orioles’ 40-man roster. A bubble guy who made it based on his plus velocity and strikeout rate.

An arm that the Orioles didn’t want to risk losing in a Rule 5 draft that, coincidentally, didn’t materialize due to the lockout.

Bautista is proving that he deserved the spot anyway.

He broke camp with the team while again on the bubble - which must be pretty thick to hold the guy - and hasn’t allowed a run in his last five appearances, to lower his ERA to 2.25.

BOSTON – The Orioles still can claim the five-game series against the Red Sox with a victory tonight that concludes their homestand.

The teams have split the first four games, with the Red Sox cruising yesterday to a 12-2 win.

“We just need to let this one go,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “We’ve been playing good baseball, we’ve played competitively this entire trip.”

Cedric Mullins begins tonight’s game on the bench, with Ryan McKenna in center field.

Austin Hays is leading off and playing right field. Anthony Santander is in left field and batting cleanup.

In November, the Orioles hired co-hitting coaches, a pair of 31-year-olds in Matt Borgschulte and Ryan Fuller. 

Borgschulte had spent the previous four seasons in the Twins organization, making his way to their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul before landing in Baltimore. Fuller, on the other hand, was an internal promotion. 

Fuller joined the O’s in 2019, brought on as the hitting coach for the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds. From there, he was promoted to Bowie in 2021 before earning a trip to Baltimore this year. 

Coming up through Baltimore’s farm system, Fuller understands the importance of keeping hitting philosophies consistent, no matter what level of the organization you may be at. 

Ryan McKenna, recently promoted from Triple-A Norfolk, says that its been helping his development this season. 

Jorge Mateo bounced around for his entire career. 

In 2016, Mateo was ranked the 30th best prospect in baseball as a member of the New York Yankees organization. The speedster was traded to Oakland in 2017, and was traded once again to San Diego in 2020. 

That year, the shortstop finally made his debut for the Padres. Except, that season, he didn’t play a single game at the position he came up playing through the minor leagues. Mateo played seven games in the outfield, five games at second base, and spent four games as a designated hitter. 

The 2021 season was no different. Mateo spent most of his time in center field for the Padres, and upon being claimed by the Orioles, played mostly second base.

This year, however, Mateo finally got his chance. The pieces fell into place for Mateo to be an every day starter at just one position; shorstop. And so far, the 26-year-old has taken full advantage of that opportunity. 

The Orioles strengthened their bench this afternoon in Detroit by recalling outfielder Ryan McKenna from Triple-A Norfolk and optioning reliever Denyi Reyes to the Tides.

Reyes made his major league debut last night and tossed two scoreless innings with two strikeouts.

McKenna was 5-for-19 with two doubles with the Orioles. He had a three-homer game with Norfolk and was 9-for-33.

The move gives the Orioles a four-man bench again, though Austin Hays isn’t available due to the lacerations on his left hand sustained Thursday in St. Louis.

McKenna is playing left field today and batting seventh.

The ball was hit, it lined up with the corner of the redesigned fence in left field, and an entire ballpark and press box held their collective breath and watched with fascination and maybe a pinch of fear.

Easily entertained? Perhaps. But this was the first time that the 90-degree angle at the bullpen area was going to influence an outfielder’s path to a ball.

Minnesota’s Nick Gordon ran out of room Monday night, went into a hard slide and slammed into it. Rougned Odor raced to third base for his first triple since 2019, the pre-pandemic days. Gordon stayed down on the warning track.

Don’t say he wasn’t warned. That corner didn’t suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Center fielder Byron Buxton made the throw back to the infield and checked on Gordon, who rose to his feet and stayed in the game. No harm done. But it provided an example of how playing left field at Camden Yards brings a unique set of challenges.

Trey Mancini said he’s available off the Orioles bench tonight after bruising his ribs Friday night and being in a considerable amount of discomfort.

Mancini slammed into the right field wall after making a catch.

“I’m just trying to gear toward, if they need me in a big spot, I want to be out there and be able to go,” he said. “The last couple days, I was in a lot of pain. The rib bruise is no joke. Luckily, I feel definitely better today, which is really nice.

“I feel like I can definitely be available if they need me in a spot tonight.”

Mancini didn’t want to broadcast the injury when asked Saturday about his exclusion from the lineup. Meanwhile, he wasn’t available the past two games.

The Orioles made their final roster move this morning to get down to the required 26 players, announcing that they designated infielder Kelvin Gutiérrez for assignment.

Gutiérrez joined the team on July 3 after having his contract purchased from the Royals, and he became the regular third baseman over the final month. He batted .248/.327/.336 in 47 games but was 4-for-28 in 12 this season.

The last three lineups didn’t include Gutiérrez, who’s out of minor league options, and manager Brandon Hyde confirmed yesterday that the infielder wasn’t dealing with a health issue.

Chris Owings remains with the Orioles despite a 2-for-18 start with 12 strikeouts. Owings can play just about anywhere, while Gutiérrez is mainly a third baseman on a team that has other choices at the corner.

Gutiérrez committed two errors Sunday at Yankee Stadium in his final start.

I’m away from the Orioles while they play on the West Coast, but my mailbag never leaves my side.

This is actually a lie. I’ve gone on vacation without it.

This is also a lie. I’ve sat in the exit row and strapped the bag to a seat in the back of the plane.

Anyway, I’m sorting through the questions and counting how many are fresh, how many are repeats, and how many are real. Put them together and we have our latest sequel to the original mailbag.

There is no editing for length, style or clarity. We welcome brevity with open arms. We invite it to dinner and insist that it bring only an appetite.

OAKLAND – The Orioles have scored just one run in each game of this series at the Oakland Coliseum. But they won by 1-0 yesterday. They are hoping they don’t have to pitch a shutout to win today.

But of the Orioles' four wins this year – and they are 4-8 – three have come via a shutout. They have pitched two shutouts in their last four games and three in the last nine.

Five pitchers combined on a seven-hitter with one walk and 11 strikeouts in Wednesday’s win. It was started by Jordan Lyles, who gave up five hits over five innings. It was ended by Jorge López, who recorded a five-out save for his second save this year and third of his career.López threw 19 pitches, touching 99 mph on the radar gun. 

The Orioles are one of seven major league teams with more than one shutout:

* Three shutouts – Orioles, Mets
* Two shutouts – Royals, Angels, Yankees, Padres, Cardinals