Orioles’ Hyde confident that Hays will start hitting soon

BOSTON—In the midst of an 0-for-19 slump, leftfielder Austin Hays isn’t in the Orioles lineup for Tuesday’s game against the Boston Red Sox.

Hays is 2-for-26 (.077) overall with two RBIs after hitting just .133 in 12 Grapefruit League games.

The Red Sox are starting right-hander Brayan Bello, and manager Brandon Hyde is starting Colton Cowser in left field in place of Hays.

“Just really pressing,” Hyde said. “Early-in-the-count contact. He’s a little bit overaggressive right now. We’re just trying to slow him down. We have a lot of confidence in Austin. He’s going to get it going. He had an interrupted spring training where he didn’t get a ton of [game] at-bats. I don’t know if that carried over into the start of the year or not.

“I know he feels good right now, physically. He said he’s seeing the ball well, but it’s just not happening early on in the season. We’re confident he’s going to get it going.”

Hyde also thinks the Orioles as a whole need to take better at-bats against left-handers. “We’ve got to do a better job against left-handed starters,” he said.

Hays is just 1-for-12 against left-handers and 1-for-14 against right-handers. The Orioles are hitting just .195 against left-handers.

“I know our record was good against them last year, but the way our lineup is constructed, we’re going to see everybody’s best left-handed starters, their best left-handed relievers,” Hyde said. “We haven’t swung the bat the best against them this year. We’ve got to do a better job of it going forward.”