Peter Schmuck: Why a few Oriole hitters could take a lesson from Taylor Ward

Newcomer Taylor Ward has put on a hitting clinic over the first couple weeks of this hopefully promising season, and some of his teammates should pay attention.

Ward is showing how patience at the plate is a virtue and too many other O’s hitters are showing how deflating a first-pitch out is in a key situation.

Ward, who you could forgive if he was swinging for the fences in every at-bat after hitting 36 home runs last year for the Los Angeles Angels, doesn’t have one yet this season. Instead, he’s batting .365 with a 1.000 OPS and is leading the majors in doubles.

In other words, he’s taking what pitchers are giving him instead of trying to make sure he doesn’t miss a chance to get a fat first pitch. Some of his overeager teammates haven’t figured out yet that there’s a difference between being anxious and being smartly aggressive.

Friday night’s loss to the San Francisco Giants was a good example. The Orioles were 0-for-8 making contact on the first pitch of an at-bat until Gunnar Henderson homered on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the ninth inning to gain a share of the major league home run lead with his fifth of the young season.

Henderson, Ward and Adley Rutschman continue to be the bright lights in the Orioles’ offense, but that has not been enough to keep them from having to scramble to win low-scoring games.

Case in point: The 31 runners they left on base in their last three games.

That worked OK against the perennially rebuilding Chicago White Sox, who cooperated in the Orioles’ bounce-back sweep after they lost three straight to the Pirates. But we’re still waiting to see all of the club’s expected offensive potential reveal itself.

Frankly, the Orioles are fortunate to enter Saturday just one game under .500, since they have scored three runs or fewer in six of their first 13 games and the schedule gets tougher from here. The Arizona Diamondbacks have been playing well and will be here Monday before the O’s go to Cleveland to play four against the first-place Guardians.

Presumably, slugger Pete Alonso will break out soon and join the other productive hitters at the top of the lineup, but the Orioles are going to need more from the young hitters behind those guys.

They should get more confident and comfortable as the season progresses. Their aggressiveness early in counts will become an asset as soon as they overcome their insecurity in clutch situations, but for now, a little more patience would help.