For 1st time all season, Villar gets ‘a breather’

For the 47th time in 47 games, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde deployed a lineup he had not used before.

Baltimore’s first-year headman has yet to repeat his starting nine this season, making him the only manager in baseball who has yet to use a lineup multiple times.

It’s a trend that continued Monday when he rested middle infielder Jonathan Villar for the first time and inserted Hanser Alberto into the leadoff spot for the opener of a four-game series with the New York Yankees.

Since raising his batting average to .275 in a May 1 doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox, Villar is hitting .196 in 14 games with 20 strikeouts to three walks.

“Just wanted to give him a breather,” Hyde said.

“I don’t think he’s taking the at-bats that he would like, and I kinda wanted to just give him a blow.”

Alberto was Hyde’s choice in the leadoff spot against New York’s J.A. Happ because of his success with left-handed pitching, posting a .385 batting average. Hyde also noted that Alberto, who has walked only twice this season, will provide energy at the top of the lineup.

“You know he’s gonna swing, and he’s gonna be aggressive,” Hyde said. “I just like way he’s been swinging the bat against left-handers, so threw him out there.”

Alberto’s insertion in the leadoff spot is an interesting wrinkle to Hyde’s spring training claim that his best four hitters will occupy the top four spots of his lineup. Although Villar, Dwight Smith Jr. and Trey Mancini have recently had claim on three of those spaces, the fourth has seen a shuffle, with Chris Davis, Renato Núñez and Rio Ruiz all filling in of late.

The backend, of course, has seen its share of change, too, leading to the lack of replication.

“I think I’d like to be a little more consistent on how we do that, but it’s kind of where we’re at, too,” Hyde said. “It’s not like we have a ton of veteran at-bats.

“You try to find the right time to rest guys or to bump guys down or bump guys up in the lineup, but you do your best to try to get the guys that you think have the best opportunity against that starter the most at-bats, and in our situation, sometimes, it’s challenging, but we’re doing the best we can.”