BOSTON — There was a sense last season, among the batters and the coaches and the fans watching, that big innings were a given. That when the Orioles put runners in scoring position, the breakthrough was imminent.

“Last year, we were first in baseball in cashing in runners in scoring position, and situational hitting as a whole,” said co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller, who referenced internal metrics the team uses to track productivity. “Runner on second, no outs, can you get the guy to third? We were top of the league in all those categories.”

That they were. No team in baseball was better with runners in scoring position than the Orioles in 2023, when Baltimore posted a .287 average and an .838 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. The Orioles mixed their power with timely production, and the product was one of the most dangerous offenses in baseball.

What happened to that?

Baltimore kept its lineup nearly intact, and apart from a series of injuries that have taken the likes of Jordan Westburg and Ryan Mountcastle from the order in the second half of the season, the stars have been mainstays. There’s Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Anthony Santander receiving everyday at-bats, as ever.

But the results in 2024 haven’t mirrored those of last year. The fall-off has been sharp in critical situations — the Orioles entered Monday hitting .251 with runners in scoring position this year (18th) with a .745 OPS (16th).

And they don’t have a clear answer as to why.

“We look back and say, what did we do so well?” Fuller said. “And it was a shift in the mindset, too, of, ‘I don’t need to hit a home run. A single here is just as good as a home run, because we score the guy, and we get a guy on first base and we keep the momentum going.’ When you get into those little ruts, it gets tight, and it’s, ‘OK, this is one of those situations you need to get a hit,’ calm down, trust that they are trained in the cage, they have the right mindset.”

On Monday night, there looked to be a breakthrough. After Henderson’s leadoff double, Santander scored him with a single. The Orioles had been 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position during their series loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, and players in the clubhouse spoke candidly about a need to take better swings.

Santander said the swings have been “too hard,” and that players needed to shorten up and put the ball in play. Ryan O’Hearn said “you can’t try to hit the ball 800 mph. I think you’ve gotta take the gas off a little bit, just find a way to square the ball up in the strike zone.” Cedric Mullins said that “wanting to do it for the team in those moments really takes away from the approach sometimes,” by adding undue pressure to a plate appearance.

Those are all apparent. After Henderson scored in the first inning Monday, Baltimore loaded the bases with one out. The next two batters struck out to end the threat, just as three straight hitters struck out Sunday with two runners on.

Part of the issue, perhaps, is that most of Baltimore’s top hitters with runners in scoring position are injured. Among players who have at least 20 plate appearances in those situations, four of the top five are absent: Heston Kjerstad (.333), Ramón Urías (.317), Ryan Mountcastle (.280) and Jordan Westburg (.274).

Only Rutschman, at .286, is healthy and part of the top five of Orioles hitters with runners in scoring position.

O’Hearn didn’t want to speak for others on the team, instead opting to unpack his approach with runners in scoring position. When he analyzes some of his woes — and at .263 with runners in scoring position, he’s one of Baltimore’s better hitters in that spot — he can feel the overwhelming desire to come through sneak into a mind that should instead be solely focused on his approach.

“Sometimes, maybe guys want to do a little too much, or they know, like, we haven’t been great with runners in scoring position, so they do get a pitch to hit and they do too much,” O’Hearn said. “They’re trying to force it a little bit. But I think we need to get back to having that confidence and knowing we’re going to get the job done, and when we’re in the box, not trying to overdo it.”

If there’s a runner on third with fewer than two outs, O’Hearn takes it “personally” if he can’t score the runner. But it’s a constant conversation with Baltimore’s hitting coaches, O’Hearn said.

“I just got out of the cage five minutes ago and we were just talking about that, hitting with runners in scoring position. ‘What can we do?’” O’Hearn said. “And I think it’s just one of those things where we can’t force it, you have to just be good in the strike zone, be ready to go from pitch one, and not try to absolutely kill it. Just find the barrel and good things will happen.”

They understand it in theory. They’ve done this all their lives, as well as last season. Now, with fewer than 20 games remaining in the regular season, the Orioles are trying to find it all again.

“Once one guy gets a hit, the collective feels a little bit more comfortable, and it’s just one of those things we have to grind through,” Fuller said. “But we know based off past success, the recipe is there and we just need to have it come out a little bit more often.”