A hot start was never a prerequisite for these new-look Orioles to win enough games to return to the playoffs and make good on all the promise from this winter.

It’s a good thing, too, because it’s barely April and this already feels like a grind.

That doesn’t mean anything in the context of a six-month season. It’s just not what this particular season needed to separate everything that will happen going forward from everything that happened last year. It needed an early wall of wins. It needed to build a credible pile of evidence that Wednesday’s matinee is actually the sixth game of the 2026 season rather than the 168th of 2025.

There’s nothing stopping them from building it. I believe they still will. But it’s not looking like an easy lift right now.

Opening day was every bit the special day it always is in this city: all energy, all the seats at Camden Yards full, all kinds of good vibes that extend to Baltimore’s corner bars deep into the night. It was also a grind, and feels like it was a lot longer than six days ago.

Since then, the Orioles struck out 16 times in a loss Saturday, strung together some productive at-bats in an 8-6 win Sunday, and scuffled again at the plate Monday. In the field, nothing feels particularly smooth. And since Trevor Rogers’ gem Thursday, things have been laborious on the mound. One big inning spoiled and eventually shortened the season debuts of Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz and Chris Bassitt, and the team has used a ton of relievers and thrown a ton of pitches.

And that was all before Tuesday, when as ominous a sequence as you’ll see on a baseball field played out in an instant. Zach Eflin threw a pitch, catcher Adley Rutschman immediately looked toward the dugout with concern, prompting head athletic trainer Scott Barringer and manager Craig Albernaz to march to the mound and remove him with right elbow discomfort.

Eflin was the team’s fifth starter, but that he was even making this start after pitching through serious back pain that required surgery last year meant a lot to this group, to say nothing of what it meant for him personally. He looked really good, too, which makes losing him even more of a blow to the 2026 Orioles.

And yet, we saw again that this team is one that’s less fragile. Pete Alonso homered in the next frame to tie the game back up, only for reliever Grant Wolfram to cede two runs back. Gunnar Henderson scored two with a double to tie the game up in the fifth, only for Texas to score five off Yennier Cano, Yaramil Hiraldo and Anthony Nunez.

They battled at the plate, with Taylor Ward’s breakout game capped by a two-run double in the ninth. Albernaz praised the offense for pushing through, and rightfully so. There’s plenty to be hopeful for on that front, especially if things start to click at the top of the lineup with Ward, Henderson and Alonso.

Nothing is coming easily to them, though. In Albernaz’s words, the bullpen is “running hot”; roles and usages, particularly with some short starts to accommodate, haven’t helped a group that was always going to need optimal conditions to succeed.

They’re fortunate to have Dean Kremer in reserve for the rotation, but Eflin’s potential long-term absence will leave them thin there. They have the makings of an impactful offense but are still only showing that in fits and starts.

The hand-waving here started relatively early a season ago and only served to fan the flames as the season went up in smoke. There are fresh coats of paint all over Camden Yards and yet there’s more than just a faint whiff of last year floating around, at least in the stands.

What matters, though, is in the clubhouse. There’s a fresh coat of paint in there, too, and a new man in the manager’s office and new players who are meant to help turn things around. This team has a lot of time to figure out to be the best version of itself — for the big innings to come at the plate, for the rotation to get on a roll and for the bullpen to be able to answer the call when less is asked of it.

All the Orioles’ upside still remains intact, minus what Eflin could have given to the rotation. And all the apprehension in fully buying into that upside without seeing it on the field remains, too.

That was always going to take a while. It can start at any moment. Given that the alternative is 150 or so more games like Tuesday night’s, the sooner the better for all involved.