The Orioles optioned reliever Reed Garrett after yesterday’s loss in Chicago and recalled pitcher Spenser Watkins.

Watkins hasn't pitched in the majors in 2023, though he was recalled earlier in the season.

The Cubs are starting left-hander Justin Steele today, and the Orioles’ lineup against him includes Austin Hays in the leadoff spot, Ramón Urías at first base for the third time this season, and James McCann behind the plate.

Joey Ortiz is the second baseman. Adley Rutschman is serving as designated hitter.

Kyle Gibson is 8-3 with a 3.90 ERA and 1.301 WHIP in 14 starts. He’s registered seven quality starts.

The Orioles will try to avoid a sweep today and recapture the second-best record in baseball with Anthony Santander back in the lineup as the right fielder and cleanup hitter.

Santander didn’t play yesterday.

Ramón Urías is the second baseman and Gunnar Henderson is playing third. Adam Frazier moves to the bench.

James McCann is the designated hitter.

Kyle Bradish made his season debut in Texas on April 3, was hit on the foot by a line drive, and exited after only 1 2/3 innings. He didn’t pitch again until April 19.

NEW YORK – The numbers finally are beginning to match what the eyes have seen from Adam Frazier.

The professional at-bats, the multitude of ways he’s able to contribute. Doing the little things that create big gains for a team challenging for the division lead.

Frazier entered last night with three consecutive multi-hit games, and a six-game hitting streak that raised his average to .255 with a .337 on-base percentage to rank fourth on the team. He had reached base in 16 consecutive games since May 6, the fourth-longest active streak in the American League and eighth in the majors.

His career high was 17 in a row in 2019.

He matched it last night by being a central figure in an eight-run seventh inning that enabled the Orioles to take a 9-5 lead.

Jorge Mateo is on the bench again tonight to rest his legs before the Orioles finish their homestand on Thursday and hit the road for series against the Blue Jays and Yankees.

Mateo is 5-for-43 this month after batting .347/.395/.667 in his first 23 games.

“It’s nothing about offense,” manager Brandon Hyde said when explaining Mateo’s absence from the lineup. “It’s more of he’s just dealing with that little bit of leg soreness that he’s battling for the last couple weeks. And with a day game tomorrow, he’ll be in there. Just want to make sure with two big series coming up, also.

“It’s mainly about the day game being tomorrow. I didn’t want him to play a day game after a night. So, giving (Joey) Ortiz a start tonight.”

Hyde doesn’t know whether Mateo’s prolonged slump is related to his health.

The Orioles begin a four-game home series against the Angels tonight with Anthony Santander starting at first base and Terrin Vavra playing right field.

Santander hasn’t played first in the majors. He made nine starts in A ball in 2016.

Also in the lineup against Shohei Ohtani are Ryan Mountcastle as the designated hitter and Adam Frazier at second base. Jorge Mateo is back at shortstop after resting yesterday.

The Orioles’ 26 wins are the most through 40 games since 2012. The club record is 28 in 1970, followed by 27 in 1997 and 1969.

All five Orioles with 20 or more RBIs are under 30 years old, tying them with the Rays for the most, according to STATS.

The Orioles have a third left-hander in their bullpen again after recalling Nick Vespi from Triple-A Norfolk. He replaces Drew Rom, who was optioned after Wednesday’s game.

Vespi underwent sports hernia surgery in January and didn’t break camp with the team. He allowed four runs and struck out 17 batters in 12 2/3 innings with the Tides.

Vespi didn’t allow an earned run with Norfolk last season over 28 2/3 innings. He made 25 appearances with the Orioles and was 5-0 with a 4.10 ERA and 1.405 WHIP in 26 1/3 innings.

Kyle Stowers is in right field tonight and trying to heat up after a 2-for-24 start. He’s batting ninth.

Adam Frazier remains in the fifth spot in the order, followed by Austin Hays and Gunnar Henderson.

The Orioles moved past their off-day and are resuming their three-city road trip tonight in Kansas City. The last stop is in Atlanta.

They haven’t moved past the “soft” part of their schedule. The Royals are 7-22, the second-worst record in the majors. They’re in last place in the American League Central, with a minus-64 run differential in 29 games and a 1-12 record at home.

Can’t let down against anyone, but the Royals are scuffling with 13 losses in their last 16 games.

The teams met seven times last summer, with the Orioles going 4-3. They split a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

The Orioles are 128-128 all-time against the Royals in Kansas City, with their last three-game sweep in 2007.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde kept rookie Grayson Rodriguez on the mound Tuesday for 99 pitches, the right-hander’s highest total in four years dating back to A ball. It wasn’t a test of strength and endurance. It wasn’t intended as a professional life lesson.

The club just needed the length.

“I can’t continue to pull our starters in the fifth inning,” Hyde said afterward.

Rodriguez was gone after walking the bases loaded and retiring only one batter in the fifth, the failure to put away hitters with two strikes coming back to bite him. But the stuff is filthy and the leash is long enough to reach Chicago, where he’ll start again Sunday afternoon.

What happens after that is the mystery, with Kyle Bradish pitching Friday night at Double-A Bowie and lined up for an April 19 return in D.C. if he stays on turn.

If there’s a soft spot in a major league schedule, the Orioles could clutch theirs like a body pillow.

Fresh off two losing series within their division, the Orioles began a stretch tonight of playing 19 of 22 games against sub-.500 teams. An opportunity, perhaps, to offer another interpretation of liftoff in Baltimore.  

Of course, the Orioles weren’t going to turn up their collective noses at anyone. They’d see how many teams are above them in the East.

They, too, had fewer victories than defeats after 10 days. But the Athletics and Tigers were tied for the worst record in the majors at 2-7, and the Orioles would see them in 11 of the next 19 games.

Kyle Gibson ran up his pitch count early but found his economical stride and made it into the seventh inning, Ryan Mountcastle and Adley Rutschman conquered the left field wall while others were less fortunate, Austin Hays took the safer route by homering to center, and the Orioles stayed hydrated and happy with a 5-1 victory over Oakland.

Catcher James McCann didn’t make it to Baltimore for Opening Day, his injury rehab stint beginning that night at High-A Aberdeen. He needed only two games to convince the Orioles that he was ready to join their active roster.

Better to be a little late than spend most of the summer away from Camden Yards.

“I was watching on TV when I was in Aberdeen,” he said this morning after attending a meeting and getting ready to catch Tyler Wells in the series finale against the Yankees.

“I was excited for the win. It looked like a fun atmosphere, and hopefully we can get a few more days like that.”

McCann had two hits as the IronBirds’ designated hitter and two more yesterday while catching the first game of a doubleheader. The discomfort in his left oblique didn’t do the same damage to his season as in 2022 with the Mets.

BOSTON – The Orioles will try for the series win this afternoon with the latest outfield alignment putting Terrin Vavra in left field.

Three games and three different left fielders, including Anthony Santander on Opening Day and Ryan McKenna last night.

Jorge Mateo is out of the lineup after sustaining two cuts on his right index finger last night. He stayed in the game and said he was fine, but Gunnar Henderson is playing shortstop and Ramón Urías is at third base after he struck out five times last night.

Urías drops from the leadoff spot to ninth.

Santander remains the designated hitter and Austin Hays is in right field. Kyle Stowers is on the bench again.

BOSTON – Adley Rutschman lined a single into left field in the first inning today, his determination growing to reach base in every plate appearance in 2023. To keep spinning major league and franchise records.

The ball left Rutschman’s bat at 109 mph, and it was a foreshadowing of things to come against Chris Sale. But there was no way to predict what would happen in the ninth inning.

No lead is safe at Fenway Park, but this?

Félix Bautista retired the first two batters, but Ryan McKenna dropped a fly ball from Masataka Yoshida and Adam Duvall lined a ball to the first row above the Green Monster for a stunning 9-8 win over the Orioles.

"Ran to it pretty hard, it was up in the sky, and I guess I just didn't follow all the way through with it," McKenna said. "It hit the (heel) of my glove and just fell out. It was unfortunate timing. Bautista was throwing a hell of an inning there and all of our guys were really working hard to give us a chance to win that game. Just tough timing."

SARASOTA, Fla. – A younger version of James McCann would have tried to push through the soreness in his oblique. Proceed without caution. But he’s a veteran in 2023 and he knows better.

McCann hasn’t played since Monday in Clearwater due to the discomfort in his left side, which he noticed while swinging at a pitch. He went on the injured list last season with the Mets after being diagnosed with a strained left oblique – a little more than two weeks after returning from a fractured hamate bone.

The Orioles are withholding McCann from the lineup again this afternoon. They don’t know whether he’ll be ready for Opening Day in Boston.

“It’s not bad,” he said this morning. “It’s something minor, but obliques are a funny thing, and after going through an oblique injury last year, it’s something we’ve treated with a lot of caution just to be sure it doesn’t turn into a two-month absence.”

McCann said he’s “hopeful” that he can make the Opening Day roster. Otherwise, Anthony Bemboom would break camp with the Orioles for the second consecutive season.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – John Means is getting back to baseball normal.

Means threw his first half-mound session yesterday morning in Sarasota, tossing 20 fastballs with no discomfort in his surgically repaired left elbow. He’ll do it again Wednesday and progress to a full mound Friday morning.

“Felt great, felt awesome,” Means said. “Kind of felt like a baseball player again yesterday. Got some dirt on my cleats, so it was great. Everything felt good.”

Means said he threw with 50 percent intensity and will gradually increase it.

“Just feeling the slope again,” he said.

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles are traveling to Tropicana Field this morning to play the Rays, who can't use their spring facility in Port Charlotte due to the damage inflicted by Hurricane Ian.

The place will seem empty. As if that's an oddity. But it's still 72 degrees and dry inside and a great setup for visiting teams and the media. Don't be a hater.

I spent some time yesterday making sure that I didn't forget to share anything important, as the days meld together and the brain begins to fry. Or anything stupid. Let's not be elitist.

* Outfielder Kyle Stowers isn’t working out at first base.

I felt like I had to confirm it after speculating in Friday’s mailbag.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Spenser Watkins will make his spring training debut Thursday on the Orioles’ return trip to Lakeland. To face the organization again that drafted him in 2014 and released him six years later without serving a cup of coffee in the majors.

Watkins is in the same boat as so many other Orioles pitchers in camp, trying to impress and earn a spot in the rotation or bullpen.

“You hear the competition coming in, which is fantastic, and then you look at the numbers and how it plays out,” Watkins said. “It’s one of those things where you just kind of put your head down and go. If it works out and I’m the candidate for the job, then that’s great. If not and someone else gets it, that’s great for them and I’ll continue to work.

“But you see it and it kind of makes you hungrier because the past few years, every job’s been open except for (John) Means and things like that. But this year it’s like, ‘Oh, there’s not as many,’ and it makes you really want to get after it to get that job.”

Much of the preparation was done at Driveline Baseball, the data-driven training facility in Washington state.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander and Dean Kremer will be leaving Orioles camp in a few weeks to get ready for the World Baseball Classic. They got together this morning on the Camden Yards replica field and played their own game.

Kremer threw live batting practice to Mullins and Santander, providing one of the most interesting scenes from the first three days of spring training workouts.

You can only watch so many bullpen sessions.

Mullins drove Kremer’s final pitch over the right field fence and the batting cage beyond it. Some observers gasped and hollered, but Mullins downplayed his achievement, saying Kremer told him what was coming.

An impressive blast, nonetheless.

SARASOTA, Fla. – With his fourth bullpen session completed, the intensity level on a gradual increase, Orioles closer Félix Bautista is gaining confidence that he’ll break camp with the team and be ready to pitch on Opening Day in Boston.

Bautista didn’t begin throwing until last month. The Orioles placed him on a rehab program for his left knee and worked to strengthen a right shoulder that became fatigued in September.

The delays in getting back on a mound put into question whether Bautista would be included in their eight-man bullpen.  

“Thank God I feel really good,” he said this morning via interpreter Brandon Quinones. “I don’t feel like I have any setbacks, I don’t feel any discomfort or pain in my shoulder or knee, so as right now I hope that I’ll be ready for opening day. I really do.”

Dillon Tate might miss the first month with a strained right flexor/forearm strain, and losing Bautista would strike another potentially damaging blow. Bautista threw again yesterday and headed back indoors, optimistic about his progress and the outlook for his spring training.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Now it’s getting serious.

Stories will be filed from Florida camps, beginning with this morning’s hour-long media access inside the clubhouse at the Ed Smith Stadium complex. Executive vice president/general manger Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde will be available before the first workout with pitchers and catchers.

The Birdland Caravan provided early access to Elias, Hyde and many of the players who would draw crowds at their lockers.

Other topics for them will develop later. I’m interested in getting some of the guys who didn’t make it to Maryland and the breweries.

Newly engaged Tyler Wells is staying on a starter’s routine but with no promises that he’s in the rotation. What are his expectations? How would he handle a switch back to the bullpen after he went through the process of converting from Rule 5 relief to starter – and impressing over the first half before the first of his two injuries?

Orioles outfielder Austin Hays takes pride in his ability to field anything that comes his way. Or anyone.

Hays was pouring beers at Crooked Crab Brewing Company in Odenton on Sunday, the Birdland Caravan’s final stop of the weekend, when a woman passed her 5-month-old daughter across the bar. An adorable and safe photo opportunity, with the baby secure in Hays’ hands.

The father of two young sons, Hays joked later that he might need a little girl to complete his family. After all, she did snuggle up against him. He took it as a sign.

In exactly one week, Orioles pitchers and catchers report to spring training in Sarasota and ready for the first workout the following morning. Position players are due the 20^th, but Hays won’t wait that long. He’s driven to give his team a complete season.

Hays avoided the injured list in 2022 but played in pain and delivered two different halves. He batted .270/.325/.454 with 12 home runs and 46 RBIs in the first 85 games and .220/.276/.349 with four homers and 14 RBIs in the last 60.