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It’s been a busy Saturday for the Orioles before even getting to the start of their scheduled game against the Rays. They traded Richard Bleier to the Marlins for a player to be named later in the wee hours of the morning. They had their series against those same Marlins rescheduled for four games in three days at Camden Yards August 4-6. And they’ve had two different starting lineups for this game.
The lineup change was because the original lineup included Chris Davis. The second lineup does not, with manager Brandon Hyde saying that Davis has a sore knee. He is available tonight, though not starting. Jose Iglesias, who is battling quad soreness, remains out of the lineup as well.
Inconveniently for MLB’s plan to try to squeeze in the Orioles-Marlins games starting on the 4th, the current forecast track for Hurricane Isaias leaves a possibility of rain and wind affecting the Baltimore area on Tuesday. That’s a problem for Tuesday, if the forecast track holds.
I guess they’re probably crossing their fingers and hoping that the thing speeds up the coast in time to play a baseball game. They might be right. There’s a lot of ground between that 8am Tuesday dot and the 8am Wednesday dot.
The starting lineup for the Orioles:
- Austin Hays - CF
- Hanser Alberto - 2B
- Anthony Santander - RF
- Renato Nunez - 1B
- Dwight Smith Jr. - LF
- Pedro Severino - DH
- Rio Ruiz - 3B
- Chance Sisco - C
- Andrew Velazquez - SS
This lineup will be backing up starting pitcher Wade LeBlanc, and facing off against Rays starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow. In the small sample size of games played so far, four of these players have an OPS of .970 or better. If they can keep their hot starts going, that will be fun.
If you see that lineup and you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, both of the Orioles catchers are in the starting lineup. Teams don’t do that!” you’re not wrong, except that there’s one extra piece of information. With Bleier’s trade, there was an open roster spot on both the 30-man and 40-man rosters, and the Orioles have chosen to select the contract of veteran catcher Bryan Holaday. So now they’ve got three catchers.