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Tuesday night Orioles game thread: vs. Mets, 7:35

The first game of a short two-game series against the underachieving Mets is tonight. The Orioles turn to Asher Wojciechowski for the start.

By Mark Brown
Boston Red Sox v Baltimore Orioles Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images

If you didn’t get enough of the Orioles shuffling their roster with the three trades they made in the last 36 hours or so before the trade deadline, they snuck in some more before Tuesday night’s game against the Mets. The O’s have recalled DJ Stewart and selected Dilson Herrera from the alternate training site. In the process, outfielder Mason Williams was designated for assignment.

Manager Brandon Hyde told Orioles reporters before the game that Herrera’s arrival coincides with Hanser Alberto being on the shelf for at least a couple of days. Alberto had some knee soreness that followed after he landed on first base funny while trying to beat out a bunt hit in Monday’s game against the Blue Jays.

Hyde also told reporters that Williams was seen as a defensive insurance policy for Ryan Mountcastle. It seems the team is confident enough in Mountcastle to not feel like they need to keep Williams around for that purpose. I don’t know that I get this reasoning. As far as Stewart’s return, Hyde said he’s hitting the ball better in Bowie and it’s time for him to get more of an audition in the last month of the season. So there we are.

The guy you might have rather the Orioles drafted instead of Stewart back in 2015, Ke’Bryan Hayes, has been called up by the Pirates today to start his big league career.

As for tonight’s game against the Mets, Herrera is not even in the starting lineup, with Pat Valaika playing at second base in Alberto’s absence. Hopefully that goes better than some recent Valaika games at shortstop. If the recent pitching of Asher Wojciechowski is any indication, he’ll need all the help that he can get.

The Orioles starting lineup gets the chance to square off against a recently-added Met, Ariel Jurado. The 24-year-old Jurado posted a 5.85 ERA over 44 games with the Rangers in the past two seasons.

The O’s should wreck this guy and move on, but who knows. They have not been great against right-handed pitchers so far in 2020, with a .252/.316/.414 batting line as a team. They’re also only batting .239/.308/.427 at home. It’s kind of a mystery and it’s kind of not. A lot of guys who aren’t very good have played for the Orioles already this season.

Tonight’s starting lineup:

  1. Cedric Mullins - CF
  2. Anthony Santander - RF
  3. Jose Iglesias - DH
  4. Renato Nunez - 1B
  5. Chance Sisco - C
  6. Ryan Mountcastle - LF
  7. Rio Ruiz - 3B
  8. Pat Valaika - 2B
  9. Andrew Velazquez - SS

And for the Mets:

  1. Brandon Nimmo - CF
  2. Michael Conforto - RF
  3. Dominic Smith - 1B
  4. Robinson Cano - 2B
  5. Jeff McNeil - LF
  6. Pete Alonso - DH
  7. Luis Guillorme - 3B
  8. Andres Gimenez - SS
  9. Ali Sanchez - C

If you are still keeping the candle burning for the Orioles chances of making it into the postseason, your rooting interest for tonight is for the Marlins to knock off the Blue Jays, who the O’s trail by 3.5 games for the #8 seed. Probably it would have been for the best for the O’s to do better than going 1-6 against those Jays since August 17.

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