BALTIMORE -- After Cole Irvin discovered that he had been traded from the A’s to the Orioles this offseason, he showed no fear of pitching in the American League East. The 29-year-old left-hander verbally embraced the challenge of navigating the lineups of tough opponents such as the Red Sox and Yankees, stating then that he was ready to compete in a talented division.

Two starts into his Baltimore career, Irvin is learning just how difficult that can be.

On Saturday night, Irvin went only 4 2/3 innings in the Orioles’ 4-1 loss to the Yankees at Camden Yards, allowing three earned runs on four hits and a career-high-tying four walks. The southpaw, who has a track record of being an efficient strike-thrower, had issued that many free passes only twice in his previous 66 big league starts.

Irvin’s laborious 101-pitch outing came after he allowed six earned runs in four-plus innings in his O’s debut last Sunday, when he gave up eight hits and two walks in a loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park. He has an 0-2 record, a 9.35 ERA and a 2.08 WHIP through two starts.

“They’re two good lineups,” Irvin said. “I knew I had to come ready today, and I most certainly did. I thought my focus, my preparation, everything was spot on where it needed to be. But again, I think just too many pitches and some long ABs and some walks, really, kind of just dictated that outing. And a couple bad pitches there later in the start.

“I’ll make the adjustments, and we’ll be in a better spot.”

Of the 21 Yankees batters Irvin faced, 11 saw five or more pitches. That included a pair of eight-pitch plate appearances -- Aaron Judge’s one-out walk in the first and Anthony Rizzo’s groundout for the second out of the fifth -- and a 12-pitch walk by Gleyber Torres with one out in the fourth.

When Irvin was asked about having command issues thus far, his rebuttal was that his control hasn’t been an issue, noting many of his called balls have been outside of the strike zone by “miniscule” amounts. That appears true by looking at his pitch chart from Saturday:

“I mean, I’m not missing by much,” Irvin said. “It’s not like I’m airmailing or throwing balls in the dirt very often. It’s just an adjustment. It’s part of my job to throw strikes and get outs, and I didn’t throw enough strikes. But at the end of the day, I know there was some success today that I need to look at and build on.”

Baltimore will hope to get more length moving forward out of Irvin, who was acquired in a Jan. 26 deal that sent talented shortstop prospect Darell Hernaiz to Oakland. But Irvin isn’t alone in needing to be more efficient.

During the Orioles’ 4-4 start, they’ve had only one starting pitcher go deeper than five innings -- Kyle Gibson with his seven-inning gem in a win at Texas on Tuesday.

The O’s rotation has struggled against AL East offenses, in particular, thus far. In five divisional games (three against Boston and two vs. New York), Baltimore starters have allowed 22 earned runs in 21 innings for a 9.43 ERA, with three of them unable to complete five frames (including Irvin twice).

“We need to go deeper,” manager Brandon Hyde said.

Irvin has the potential to do that -- and alleviate some of the pressure on a heavily worked Baltimore bullpen -- as he’s shown by going six or more innings in 36 of his 62 starts for the A’s over the previous two seasons, completing at least five frames 52 times.

He’s confident he’ll get to that point for his new team soon.

“I pride myself in getting deep into ballgames and giving the bullpen a day off,” Irvin said. “Just didn’t do enough today to allow them to rest a little bit more. ... I feel like I’m moving in the right direction, just not getting ahead and walking too many guys right now. That’ll change.”