By the time the Orioles fans who braved a windy, cold night at Camden Yards had a reason to jump out of their seats, the team already had a sizable hole from which to climb out.

There was another lackluster start from Charlie Morton. The offense sleepwalked through another matchup with a left-handed starting pitcher. And while the three runs scored in the seventh and eighth innings made this 6-3 series-opening loss to the Cleveland Guardians respectable, there are still questions around where this team goes from here.

Hours after general manager Mike Elias issued a vote of confidence in the roster he assembled, the loss drops Baltimore to four games below .500 for the first time since July 7, 2022.

While only 16 games have been played, there was a growing discontent that could be felt on a chilly night at Camden Yards. There were pockets of boos, particularly as right-hander Charlie Morton’s start unraveled in the fifth.

Morton, a two-time World Series champion, has been part of ruts before. He has seen clubhouses falter and lose their energy. He commented how “this clubhouse is full of good people, good teammates. And usually, that lends itself to just finding some momentum and getting going.”

But he’s still unsure of the best tactic moving forward here — be it open conversations or a resolute, head-down approach.

“You never want to admit it,” Morton said. “You kind of want to be irrational about it. You don’t really want to admit it to yourself. Especially as a group. I just don’t know the guys well enough. But I just think, to achieve great things, you have to be irrational. I think you have to give yourself a little more credit than maybe you deserve on a day-in, day-out basis because it’s just such a long season.”

Morton, one of the starting pitchers Elias signed this offseason, has yet to impress. He has conceded four or more runs in each of his four starts, and while his outing Tuesday began better than some of his recent showings, it ended poorly. Morton allowed a two-run homer to Steven Kwan in the fifth as part of a three-run frame. And after allowing the leadoff batter to reach in the sixth, manager Brandon Hyde pulled him.

Cionel Pérez, the left-handed reliever who has been relegated from high-leverage roles to mop-up duty, allowed that inherited runner to score. A sixth run came home later in the inning.

Morton was at a loss postgame for why his curveball has performed as poorly as it has. For much of his career, Morton’s curveball has been the separator. But he looked at the numbers against it this year and was stunned.

Entering Tuesday’s game, opponents hit .421 against Morton’s curveball, with an .842 slugging percentage.

“I could sit here and go, ‘Man, I’m just not very good,’” Morton said. “But I just think, the way my other pitches are playing, if I can get that curveball going, then I’m not standing here and talking like this. I don’t think we’re even having this conversation. It’s like, that’s how good my curveball has been. That’s why it’s so frustrating for me right now. That pitch I’ve relied on for so long now is just not performing for me.”

The offensive output Tuesday was under scrutiny in part because it came against a left-handed starter, Logan Allen. Hyde has steered away from playing some of his most promising young left-handed hitters against southpaw starters, instead turning to Jorge Mateo and Ramón Laureano.

But as Mateo and Laureano stumble to a 2-for-27 start to the season at the plate, it’s harder to justify the opportunities given to them while young, talented players aren’t given a chance to prove themselves in a left-on-left matchup.

“Some of those right-handers had some pretty good numbers against left-handed pitching and it just hasn’t happened this year for whatever reason,” Hyde said. “Keep doing the best we can.”

Elias backed the lineup decisions earlier Tuesday. There needs to be opportunities for a variety of players to keep everyone fresh, he said. They added right-handed bats for a reason. And over 162 games, far more than 13 position players are required, and players need in-game at-bats to be ready for big moments.

That’s true. But when Elias continued by saying “we’ve got a lot of young, hopefully frontline hitters that are better against opposite-handed pitching right now, which is natural,” the question becomes how do those players improve if they aren’t given chances in left-on-left matchups? And with how the replacements are performing, will their development really come at the cost of much offense?

“They do get exposure to same-handed pitching in the minors, but doing it at the major league level is a totally different thing,” Elias said. “And balancing that exposure versus all the stuff that I just said before, it’s, I guess, more art than science and you try to pick your spots.”

Left-handed hitting outfielder Heston Kjerstad was instead employed to lead off the ninth inning, entering against hard-throwing closer Emmanuel Clase. He worked a six-pitch at-bat but struck out.

The irony of Baltimore staying away from many of its lefties — Kjerstad, Jackson Holliday and Ryan O’Hearn — is that the first three Orioles hits through seven innings came in left-on-left matchups. Outfielder Cedric Mullins accounted for two of them, including a solo home run to center field against left-hander Joey Cantillo.

Later in the frame, Mateo broke his 1-for-13 skid to begin the season with an opposite-field double. It was his best swing of the season. But earlier, Mateo and Laureano came to the plate with Mullins in scoring position. Laureano struck out and Mateo flew out.

Catcher Gary Sánchez, a player who will receive opportunities to give Adley Rutschman occasional nights off, hadn’t started much better at the plate. He entered his eighth-inning plate appearance hitting 1-for-18. But Sánchez helped spur a momentary comeback attempt as he lined a single into left field to score a second run in the eighth.

“We’re definitely not clicking on all cylinders offensively,” Hyde said. “First half of the game we didn’t swing the bat well. Those weren’t our best at-bats. I was really proud of, I thought we stayed in it, and took really good at-bats the last few innings. But just can’t have that many bad at-bats through six innings.”

Hours earlier, Elias said he still sees the Orioles as a playoff team. He emphasized how it’s early in the season, how injured players would return and how the starting rotation would improve.

The Orioles didn’t carry their end of the bargain later Tuesday night. They lacked much energy until late, and the murmurs of discontent from the crowd were audible.

“We have a lot of talent in that room and [we’re] just not playing our best baseball and we’re not putting things together,” Hyde said. “... But there’s a long way to go in the season. We’ve got to keep our heads up. You’ve got to stay positive. Be honest, also, about some things, but stay positive.”