DENVER — August wasn’t Corbin Burnes’ month.

The Orioles’ ace was anything but across his five starts, posting a 7.36 ERA with an additional seven unearned runs crossing the plate with him on the mound. After entering the month firmly in the running for the American League Cy Young Award, Burnes is suddenly a critical axle on which Baltimore’s hopes of making a deep playoff run could balance.

Despite the lackluster results, nobody in the Orioles’ clubhouse is panicking about the 29-year-old’s ability to turn things around. Burnes has had some poor batted-ball luck — opponents hit an unsustainable .341 on balls in play — and the Orioles’ defense behind him extended innings longer than he might have deserved.

But he also made crucial mistakes executing pitches in several key spots, such as Teoscar Hernández’s go-ahead, three-run home run in start last Wednesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I see that there’s a pitch or two maybe executed a little bit better — usually it’s after something negative happened that’s led to a crooked number and led to him having a shorter outing,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “So, it’s definitely not stuff-related. The stuff is still there. It feels good. I feel like it’s been a little bit bad circumstance and some bad luck.”

Burnes called the start in Los Angeles, an outing in which he allowed six runs but only one earned, “a step in the right direction.” The right-hander induced 19 swings-and-misses in the game, tied for his second-highest total for any start this season and the most since May 19 against the Seattle Mariners.

“I think the two prior [starts] to this one, we were just up in the zone and getting beat,” Burnes said. “I guess they are related in a way that there’s one big inning every time, which we did a good job of kind of avoiding throughout most of the year. Outside of those one big innings every time, they’re pretty good outings. So, just have to find a way to minimize and not leave balls up in the zone, it’s just kind of what has hurt me the last couple.”

Among the key takeaways from that Dodgers outing was Burnes’ cutter location. He threw the pitch, which he throws twice as much as any other offering, at an average height of 1.9 feet above the ground. Keeping the cutter down in the zone has been a point of emphasis in his work between starts after his location started to drift upward in late July through mid-August. Hitters, like Hernández, were taking advantage when he left it high in the strike zone.

Burnes hasn’t been the strikeout artist he was with the Milwaukee Brewers, focusing instead on getting ahead early in counts and pitching to contact when the situation calls for it. He’s also allowed opposing base runners to steal a career-high 37 bases against him, but has started using a slide step to speed up his delivery with runners on base.

“We value those eight guys behind us, and we know how good they are, and we want to embrace the nine-on-one sort of battle that we’re in instead of the one-on-one battle, which is pitcher versus hitter,” pitching coach Drew French said. “So, we’ve been really proud of him that he’s embraced that. But I think getting back to the best version of himself is the guy that has zone presence, the guy that controls the count, but he also pitches situationally based on what the game dictates.”

As the Orioles enter the September stretch run, they can’t afford for Burnes to slide any further. Grayson Rodriguez is still weeks away from returning to the mound and Dean Kremer’s health is in question after he took a comebacker off his forearm Saturday. The Orioles’ rotation has suffered losses to both the front end and its depth. They have no choice but to lean on their ace to return to form as they close out a tight American League East division race.

“We very much trust in his process and we trust in the work that he puts in and specifically his mentality, how he attacks things and the type of competitor he is,” French said. “We know that six innings and eight punch outs is never going to be enough for him, and so he’s always striving for better and he’s striving for more. That motivates me and that motivates the guys around him and I think that’s why he’s the ace.”

What’s to come?

The Orioles return home from their six-game road trip for a light home slate. They host the Chicago White Sox, who on Sunday set their franchise record with their 107th loss of the year, for three games starting with Monday afternoon’s contest, before the Tampa Bay Rays come to town for a weekend series.

Tampa Bay, which sold heavily at the trade deadline, is 3-7 in its past 10 games. This upcoming stretch will offer a prime opportunity for the Orioles to overtake the New York Yankees in the AL East. Baltimore enters the week a half game back of first place with New York facing the Texas Rangers and red-hot Chicago Cubs.

What was good?

After struggling mightily for the first three weeks of August, the Orioles’ bullpen — outside Craig Kimbrel — showed encouraging signs of turning a corner. Orioles relievers combined to post a 2.14 ERA over 21 innings. Without Kimbrel’s two-run eighth inning Saturday, that number drops to 1.35.

Yennier Cano, Cionel Pérez, Gregory Soto and Burch Smith all made multiple appearances without allowing a run, offering hope that the relief corps can continue to hold on for a few more weeks until Jacob Webb, who made a rehabilitation appearance Sunday, and Danny Coulombe are ready to return from injury.

What wasn’t?

Adley Rutschman hasn’t been the same since the All-Star break, a fact more evident than ever this week when he went 2-for-17 (.118) at the plate. The Orioles catcher’s August OPS (.625) was higher than his mark from July (.482), but still left much to be desired for a player who routinely hits at the top of their lineup.

Rutschman hit as low as fifth in the lineup earlier this month but is still making the majority of his starts in the No. 2 spot, batting in front of the closing-in-on-40-homers Anthony Santander.

The Orioles’ lineup is much stronger when Rutschman is getting on base at his career .355 clip. As long as he continues to struggle — and continues to hit in front of the heart of their lineup while he does it — the Orioles’ offense will fall short of its full potential.

On the farm

The lower levels of the minor leagues are winding down with Low-A Delmarva and High-A Aberdeen both heading into the final week of their 2024 schedule. Baltimore is getting a quick look at some of its top 2024 MLB draft picks in Aberdeen, promoting five draftees, including first-rounder Vance Honeycutt, according to a source familiar with the moves.

Double-A Bowie, meanwhile, has two weeks left to go while Triple-A Norfolk plays through Sept. 22. Baltimore has promoted several of its top prospects in recent weeks to give them a quick taste of the next level, including catcher Samuel Basallo, who is hitting .174 over his first five games in Norfolk, and outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., who has a .286 batting average and .796 OPS in 15 games at Bowie.