Orioles' outfield gaffe once again draws Brandon Hyde's methods into question

Welp, not a great way to lose a baseball game today, Orioles fans. The O's have now dropped back to back series and have lost 4 of their last 5 after getting knocked around by the Royals on Sunday. Cade Povich gave up 4 earned runs on an astounding 13 hits in 6 innings of work, and the offense whiffed 12 times, including 8 strikeouts from Kansas City starter Kris Bubic.

Something that stands out is manager Brandon Hyde's seeming inability to leave the lineup alone and run with what's working. Heston Kjerstad got a couple rare chances against left handed pitchers yesterday and despite putting together two strong at-bats (and the fact that his platoon splits aren't actually bad), Hyde chose to bench him against the lefty Bubic today.

Kjerstad did come in as a pinch hitter in the 8th but in place of him in the starting lineup, righty Ramón Laureano came in and went 0-3 with a strikeout. Laureano is now 1-7 on the year with a single and 3 strikeouts. You'll have to forgive me when I say that while Laureano's defense could help the Orioles this year, he should not be platooning and taking regular at-bats away from Kjerstad.

The Orioles are hellbent on platooning their outfielders, and it came back to bite them on Sunday

In addition to the Kjerstad issue, Hyde also gave Cedric Mullins the day off and played Jorge Mateo in center. Now, two things here, to be fair. One, is that with Dylan Carlson back in Norfolk and Colton Cowser on the IL, the Orioles don't have any other good options to man center field when Mullins needs a rest day. Laureano can theoretically play there but his strength is his arm - he hasn't been a plus defender in center since 2021. And two, Mateo is technically still recovering after major elbow surgery last fall, so we've ought to give the latter a little bit of leeway.

But Mateo, now 29 and three years removed from his lone strong season in Baltimore, isn't a true center fielder. That fact showed itself during what should have been a routine fly ball in the first inning of Sunday's game. Royals' star shortstop Bobby Witt hit a line drive just to Mateo's left. Mateo ranged back but completely whiffed on the catch, allowing Witt to reach third base. The official scorebook says that was a triple, but how it wasn't ruled an error is beyond me.

The next batter up, first baseman Vinny Pasquantino, flied out to right. Instead of ending the inning, Witt tagged and scored and the Royals were able to tack on an additional two runs, making it a 3-0 ballgame instead of what should have been a clean first inning for Cade Povich.

At the end of the day, it is what it is. Hyde told reporters after the game that the Orioles acquired right-handed bats in the offseason and that they were intent on giving those guys chances to help the lineup against left handed pitchers. We shouldn't expect Kjerstad or Ryan O'Hearn, or even potentially Jackson Holliday to get regular at-bats against lefties at any point in the near future.

That doesn't make it any less frustrating to watch this team give up unnecessary runs and fail at the plate, all in the name of a theoretical platoon advantage.