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If a mid-September matchup between the 42-104 Orioles and the 57-89 White Sox doesn’t get you excited, then I ask you, what will?
Two teams firmly in playing-out-the-string mode will square off tonight to open a three-game series. Do any of them actually want to be there? It doesn’t matter. These games are on the schedule, so everyone’s got to show up and put on their uniforms and everything. Those are the rules.
The night will be memorable for at least one player, though. Right-hander Luis Ortiz, the 22-year-old right-hander acquired as part of the Jonathan Schoop trade return, will be making his first major league start. His only previous big league outing was an awful relief appearance in Tampa a week ago (0.2 innings, three runs, three hits, two walks), so he’ll be hoping for a lot more success tonight.
The O’s supplemented their bullpen earlier in the day by calling up Donnie Hart and Evan Phillips, which I like to think was a belated birthday present to those two, both of whom had birthdays within the past eight days. And in fact Ortiz has a birthday eight days from now. It’s a September birthday fest up in here.
Adam Jones is back in the lineup, as is DJ Stewart, who will be making his second major league start.
- Cedric Mullins CF
- Jonathan Villar SS
- Adam Jones RF
- Trey Mancini DH
- Chris Davis 1B
- Renato Nunez 3B
- Breyvic Valera 2B
- DJ Stewart LF
- Austin Wynns C
Luis Ortiz SP