Jon Meoli: The Orioles keep getting punched in the mouth and getting back up. I suggest they stop.

Answering a question with a question is usually evasive. Craig Albernaz did so Monday and perfectly summed up this Orioles season, both what we’ve seen and any possible path forward.

After a pair of losses in Toronto — with Sunday’s chalked up to an umpire error on a controversial baserunning play — the first-year manager was asked about the potential for the weekend to weigh on his club going forward.

“What’s different from anything that’s happened this season?” he replied. “You know what I mean? This whole year has been like that, you know? And I think our group has shown it’s a resilient group.

“We’ve been hit in the face a bunch of times — me in particular, once, really good — and our guys continue to step up, right? That’s what our guys do. When I got the job, everyone that I talked to — fans, people around Baltimore — they kept on saying that they want a team that embodies this city, and I think this team embodies this city and what we do. It’s never easy. We’re going to get hit in the mouth, and we’re going to get back up.”

The Orioles tried to get off the mat Tuesday with a ninth-inning rally that sent the game to extra innings, but they ultimately took another punch to the face. Gunnar Henderson lost a footrace to second base for the final out of the ninth, and the O’s left the bases loaded down one in the 10th. The result was a fourth straight loss, dropping them to 31-37 and erasing most of the gains they had made over the previous two weeks.

If this team rebounds for a playoff berth and makes good on its offseason goals and all the promise this roster holds, we’ll look back on all these contenders for worst loss of the season and admire how far they’ve come.

I don’t know if we’re waiting for this team to, in Albernaz’s words, get back up from the weekend or if their rally brought them to their feet just in time to take another on the cheek. But just because they’ve demonstrated time and time again that they won’t stay down long doesn’t change the reality that all this takes a toll.

The question now is whether the cumulative damage is going to leave them with anything in the tank to start landing some punches of their own — and eventually win enough to make all this worth it.

A week ago, it felt like the answer was yes. The first homestand wasn’t over when it became clear that the season wasn’t going to be easy, but the Orioles hung in there through April. Speaking to previous setbacks, Albernaz said a four-game sweep in New York and a three-game sweep at Tampa Bay — which bookended a 6-13 stretch — both “sucked.” But the team returned home for a 7-3 homestand then won three of their first four on the road before losing twice to end the Toronto series, which also “sucked,” he said.

“But the boys keep bouncing back, and that’s all that matters,” he noted.

To him, that’s true. He was hired as a change agent on many levels, and the work from the start has been to build a culture of constant improvement, collaboration and, yes, toughness. He probably would have done the latter even if that didn’t match this city, but the first two parts are how you build a winning baseball team. In many ways they’re the reason the Orioles were so close to .500 entering this past weekend.

Look no further than Coby Mayo having his arm action fixed by a pitching coach or the likes of Mayo, Colton Cowser, and Blaze Alexander taking adjustments from the new hitting coaches to get their seasons back on track. If the Orioles are going to win enough to play into October, these are the types of things that will need to keep happening.

But they’ll need to dodge a few punches and win some games, too. And then they’ll have to apply what they’re learning now: not letting the ones that land derail them.

This losing streak came after the Orioles finally had some steam behind them and looked to be becoming a good team right before our eyes. For the first time this year, they were on the front foot, because in so many ways they were playing front-foot baseball. Their starters were on the attack and it showed. They were aggressive on the bases and playing complementary offensive baseball. The defensive lapses were fewer.

You could sense a different mood in the clubhouse Tuesday night than after some of the other deflating losses. None of the stumbles they faced to this point came when they were moving forward so forcefully. They were winning emphatically, which amplifies losing how they’re now losing.

I haven’t been punched enough to know how many times is too many. It feels like the Orioles are trying to find out. I think I speak for many in suggesting they stop, lest they make their manager’s rallying cry — the team that kept getting hit in the mouth and getting back up — an epitaph.