TAMPA, Fla. — Usually on a spring training trip such as this one, when Orioles players pile onto a bus or into their own vehicles for a drive north across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, there would be only one or two regulars.

The Orioles lineup Tuesday, however, was full of them. Cedric Mullins, Adley Rutschman, Tyler O’Neill, Colton Cowser and Ryan Mountcastle made up the top five batters in the starting lineup — a group that normally wouldn’t have to travel.

They were here, at George M. Steinbrenner Field, because that same group will be back later in the summer. Rutschman specifically asked to go on this road trip against the New York Yankees because it will serve as a one-game sample of what Baltimore can expect in June and July, when the Orioles return to this stadium as it serves as the temporary home of the Tampa Bay Rays.

On the drive from Sarasota to Tampa, the shell of Tropicana Field was visible off the freeway, its roof blown off in Hurricane Milton. The stopgap solution before the roof can be replaced or a new stadium can be built (although a deal for a new stadium could fall apart) was to move across the bay, to a spring training and minor league stadium decked in regalia for the Rays’ American League East rival, the Yankees.

It’s all, frankly, bizarre.

“I brought more guys here than I normally would because of it,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “This is Yankee Stadium, plus a jet stream out to right field. So, it’s going to be an offensive ballpark against [the] Rays — 98 mph, five guys in the rotation, plus [Pete] Fairbanks.”

The dimensions here are identical to those of Yankee Stadium. That includes a 314-foot short porch down the right-field line. Add in the sea breeze, and balls could fly all summer.

Mountcastle showcased it almost immediately. He poked a three-run homer to right field, and while it left his bat at 108 mph, it would’ve been a home run in just under half the major league parks. It was a home run here, however.

“It’s a good place to hit,” said Mountcastle, who noted he wanted at least one game here before the regular season so he can see how the batter’s eye looked. “Just trying to drive something hard and in the air is usually the goal.”

“This is obviously a really hitter’s friendly ballpark, but the Rays have great pitching,” Hyde added. “The elements are going to be different. Those of us who have been in the Florida State League understand that and how much it rains, rain delays/BP gets rained out, those type of things. But we’ll see. I wanted to get some of our guys a feel for this ballpark.”

Right-hander Albert Suárez already knows what to expect, because he played in this park in 2011 and 2012 while a member of the Tampa Bay Rays organization.

Get ready for afternoon rain, Suárez said. Everything else won’t bother him much.

Baltimore will play seven games here this summer, and the Orioles travel to Sacramento, California, for a three-game series with the Athletics in what will be another minor-turned-major league stadium.

In both, they’ll put up with a small visiting clubhouse and a new routine. Gone is the 72-degree regularity of Tropicana Field. Here comes more unknown — for everyone apart from the regulars who made the trek Monday to see one of the newest major league parks for themselves.

Suárez’s rotation bid

In his telling, Suárez will do whatever, whenever. He showed as much last season when he broke out as a do-it-all pitcher for the Orioles, playing in the majors for the first time since 2017.

With right-hander Grayson Rodriguez set to miss the beginning of the season due to elbow inflammation that required a cortisone injection, Suárez and left-hander Cade Povich are the two likeliest candidates for the final place in the rotation.

Povich has impressed this spring, with seven strikeouts, one walk and one hit in five innings thus far. Suárez had a shakier beginning to camp — in his first eight innings, the 35-year-old allowed 13 hits, five walks and eight runs — but he rebounded Tuesday against the Yankees. Suárez struck out six batters in four innings, although New York tagged him for two runs in his final frame.

Suárez said work remains to be done on his breaking balls. Most of the hard contact against him came against his curveball.

Still, the 15 whiffs induced were a positive. He drew six of them with his four-seam fastball. Suárez said his focus this winter and spring has been to put more spin on his four-seamer, thus increasing its hop at the top of the zone, deceiving hitters with the way it appears to rise on its way to the plate.

In that way, Tuesday was a positive step forward — his fastball appears to be ready for opening day. But whether he’s throwing that fastball while a member of the rotation or bullpen matters less.

“I’m always ready for anything,” Suárez said. “It’s good if I can go four or five innings and be in the starting rotation, but I always think about being ready for the team.”