Wednesday night Orioles game thread: at Yankees, 7:05

Matt Harvey’s great second-half renaissance faces its toughest test tonight.

The veteran right-hander has been a revelation since the All-Star break, ripping off three consecutive starts of six or more scoreless innings, only the fourth Oriole ever to do so. Not to take anything away from those impressive outings, but they came against three losing teams — the Royals, Nationals, and Tigers. If Harvey is to replicate the feat this evening, he’ll have to do it against a Yankees lineup that’s newly loaded with left-handed sluggers. Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo have each homered against Harvey in their careers, as has righty Giancarlo Stanton.

Can Harvey make the Yankees look like the lifeless duds they were on Monday night, or will they do to him what they did to a parade of O’s pitchers in Tuesday’s blowout? The Orioles might settle for something in between.

The Dark Knight isn’t the only Knight who might pitch for the Birds to(k)night. The O’s shuffled their bullpen before the game, calling up 30-year-old minor league journeyman Dusten Knight from Triple-A Norfolk. The righty, originally drafted by the Giants in the 28th round in 2013, has lived a long baseball career that has taken him to the Mexican League and the independent Atlantic League, among others. This year, since signing a minor league deal with the O’s in February, he’s been tearing it up as the Tides’ closer, notching seven saves and posting a 1.30 ERA in 25 games. He’s probably best known for doing backflips on the field after converting saves. How delightful it would be to see him do that in the bigs, though it’s unlikely he’ll be handed any save opportunities immediately.

The O’s also called up 24-year-old righty Marcos Diplan, who originally joined the organization as a waiver claim in December 2019. Diplan has a 4.12 ERA and 11.9 strikeout rate in 17 games for Norfolk this year. He was a (somewhat out-of-nowhere) selection for the All-Star Futures Game in Denver last month, allowing a pair of homers in the contest.

If and when Knight and Diplan make their major league debuts, they’ll be the 13th and 14th players to do so for the Orioles this year. That’s a lot! They take the roster spots vacated by Alexander Wells (who was optioned to Norfolk after last night’s start) and reliever Shaun Anderson, who was sent to the great DFA in the sky after allowing 15 runs in 10 innings for the Birds.

Orioles lineup:

CF Cedric Mullins
2B Ramon Urias
DH Trey Mancini
1B Ryan Mountcastle
LF Austin Hays
RF DJ Stewart
C Pedro Severino
3B Maikel Franco
SS Richie Martin

RHP Matt Harvey

Yankees lineup:

2B DJ LeMahieu
1B Anthony Rizzo
RF Aaron Judge
LF Joey Gallo
DH Giancarlo Stanton
SS Gleyber Torres
3B Rougned Odor
C Kyle Higashioka
CF Brett Gardner

RHP Jameson Taillon