A.J. Hinch doesn’t have much reason to flatter the Orioles. The Tigers’ manager is overseeing one of baseball’s best teams, and at some point last year his ascendent Detroit team waved in passing at an Orioles club whose best baseball was behind it and hasn’t really returned since.

But he knew the floundering group that went to Detroit in April and lost all three games wouldn’t stay down forever.

”They’re not too far removed from being a playoff team, so we kind of knew they were going to be better the next time that we saw them, and they’re certainly playing really well," Hinch said before Tuesday’s game. “You can get trapped into looking at the scoreboard and looking at the standings and not represent the talent that’s on this team and the things you have to do well to beat them.

“Obviously, with the guys coming back, they’re getting more and more of a full roster, and that helps,” he continued. “Their pitching has settled down and got healthy, which helps. Their offense has picked up the pace a little bit — that helps. Factor all that together, you put together some good weeks.”

More good weeks are obviously required for the Orioles to claw back to contention, and they’re as equipped as ever to pursue them. The league-leading Tigers aren’t the team you want to start a pivotal stretch against, but their arrival in Baltimore coincides with the return of Jordan Westburg and Cedric Mullins from the injured list, plus the first home game Colton Cowser has played this year.

With apologies to Tyler O’Neill and Gary Sánchez, the Orioles are now as good on the hitting side as they’re going to be for a while.

And leave it to Hinch, one of the most thoughtful and practical skippers in the game, to illuminate what it might look like going forward. He correctly pointed out that, even with the pending roster changes for the Orioles, the Tigers felt it best to add a left-handed opener in Brant Hurter ahead of a right-handed bulk pitcher.

“They’re very left-handed,” he said, adding that “their left-handed guys typically stay in the lineup, with one or two decisions.”

That’s certainly true now, given that Tuesday again showed how susceptible they can be to left-handed pitching with their current configuration. They’ll be at a disadvantage against lefties until proven otherwise.

The situation was even more dire in late April when these two teams last met; a lefty starter meant Ramón Urías (deservedly) and Jorge Mateo (presented without comment) would find their way into the lineup, with Jackson Holliday and Heston Kjerstad coming out. Now — and interim manager Tony Mansolino reiterated as much Tuesday — Holliday is the everyday second baseman and leadoff hitter, and he is “going to play against the vast majority of left-handed pitching, if not all of it.”

That makes Holliday, Gunnar Henderson, Ryan O’Hearn, Cowser and Mullins everyday players from the left side, with Adley Rutschman another staple who will hit lefty against righty pitchers. The right-handed Westburg is an everyday player as well, so that really leaves two fluid spots. One belonged to Ryan Mountcastle and now belongs to Coby Mayo, who Mansolino said is likely to be first base only and would play third only if there’s “a specific need,” which probably won’t materialize with Urías around.

The other belongs to, well, one of the right-handed-hitting free-agent outfielders they signed. Ramón Laureano isn’t the one you’d have expected to have an .845 OPS and bat cleanup against a lefty in June, but at this point, who will complain that it’s he and not O’Neill?

It’s all pretty simple right now. The lineup decisions are more about the order than the players themselves. Outside the need for days off, you’re really shuffling Rutschman from catcher to designated hitter, making sure Urías and Mayo are in the mix, and eventually figuring out how O’Neill fits.

There are seven names written in pen every night now — Holliday, Henderson, Rutschman, O’Hearn, Cowser, Westburg and Mullins — and for good reason. Four have been All-Stars (Henderson, Rutschman, Westburg and Mullins), and two could join them in Holliday and O’Hearn.

This is what this team was supposed to look like. The platoons they persisted with in April may return if the roster dictates it, but there’s a lot to say about having all of these lineup staples consistently in there. The Orioles are whole because of it. Their bench will be better as a result, too.

Westburg spent Tuesday afternoon in a lighthearted public back and forth with his interim manager over whether Westburg is this team’s glue. The stoic third baseman predictably denied it, which Mansolino used as evidence his own statement was true.

“To me, what glue is in a major league clubhouse is just being consistent and steady,” Mansolino said. “There’s not a lot of peaks and valleys. There’s a guy that does it on both sides of the ball, a guy that’s a good teammate, a guy that does it on the bases, a guy that does it when we’re losing 10-0 or up 10-0. They’re just the same guy every single day. And there’s performance to it. It’s hard to be the glue when you’re sitting on the bench for nine out of 10. You have to be the guy and have to get out there.”

The Orioles’ lineup now consists of seven such players. It’s about time.