When I interviewed right-hander Tyler Wells (6-2, 3.20 ERA) a few days ago for this article, we also talked about a topic not included in the previous article. That is his innings load for this year.

At some point in the second half it will have to become a topic of discussion for the O’s front office and manager Brandon Hyde. How far can they push Wells with his innings total for this year? And keep in mind they hope he is still pitching in October too.

The most innings as a pro that Wells has pitched were 119 1/3 in the minors in 2018. At the big league level, his career most is the 103 2/3 innings he pitched for the Orioles last year. He is at 81 2/3 innings right now (17^th most in the American League). At his current pace he would pitch around 186 innings this season.

For now, Wells has tabled any discussion or concerns about his innings load for this season.

“For me, I’m not even focused on it,” he told me in Chicago. “If they want me to take the ball, I’m going to take the ball. You know that is the kind of person I am. I did that last year, taking the ball as long as I am healthy. I don’t think I’m really focused on that. I trust that our medical staff is doing their part in it and I know that Hyder is always doing his part with that. I know that the front office is too. Whenever it becomes a talking point with them, and they want to address it with me I am always listening. But for me right now I’m not worried about it.”

The Orioles return to their division tonight having lost four of their last seven series. However, they’ve won seven of their last 10 games.

They began yesterday tied with the Rangers for the second-best record in the American League and are 5 ½ games ahead of the third-place Yankees, who have lost four in a row. However, they are constantly pressed to prove their resiliency in the face of more adversity, including inflammation of their injured list.

There’s always a back and forth with this team, like the number of wins but also the huge amount of tight margins.  

A two-game series against the Rays begins tonight at Tropicana Field with the Orioles having seven players on the injured list. Backup catcher James McCann is the latest after spraining his left ankle Saturday afternoon.

(Sliding and diving into first base are never recommended. Avoid at all costs.)

We are going to need to see much more over the next few weeks of this grueling stretch for the Orioles in their May schedule. Much more to know how they truly stack up against good teams.

We do know that since scoring nine runs on Friday night – and seven came in one inning – they have scored just six runs in the last three games and the Orioles have their first three-game losing streak of 2023.

For the first time they lost a series opener, and they are now 11-1 in those games.

But they have played the two best teams via win-loss record currently in MLB to get the three losses. Keep in mind they have seen four pretty good starters here. The worst ERA from a starter they have seen since Friday is the 2.57 from Spencer Strider of Atlanta on Saturday night. That was the worst from four pitchers that entered their game against the Orioles with a combined record of 15-0.

Shane McClanahan finished sixth in the AL Cy Young vote last year, seventh for the 2021 ROY and looked like it last night. The Rays are now 8-0 in his starts this year. And, after allowing four hits in six scoreless last night, he is now 7-0 with a 1.76 ERA.

The Nationals out-hit the Rays all night long, entering the top of the ninth tonight with more than three times as many base hits as their opponents. So why was there a sense of unease as Kyle Finnegan took the mound trying to close out a victory?

Because the Nats didn't make the most of their hits. Yes, they totaled 16 of them, but 13 were singles and the other three were doubles.

The Rays, on the other hand, most definitely made the most of their hits in this game. That's because seven of their 10 went for extra bases, four of those clearing the fence.

And when Luke Raley, Josh Lowe and Yandy Díaz all took Finnegan deep in a disastrous ninth, what should have been an uplifting Nationals victory instead flipped to their most agonizing loss of the young season, a 10-6 defeat that left the home team and a crowd of 15,272 stunned.

"We did what we needed to do to win, and I came up short tonight," Finnegan said. "That's what hurts the most. You want to win the game. I've got to be better."

Every member of the Nationals’ Opening Day bullpen had made his season debut by Sunday. Tonight, every member of their Opening Day bench will have done the same.

Riley Adams and Michael Chavis are each in the starting lineup for the first time, Adams catching and Chavis at second base for the Nats’ game against the Rays, their fifth overall game this season.

Manager Davey Martinez said he didn’t want either reserve to sit too long, especially after playing as regularly as they did during spring training. Chavis took 44 plate appearances in the Grapefruit League, batting .225 with a double, a homer and four RBIs; Adams took 42 plate appearances, batting .237 with two doubles, a team-high three homers and six RBIs.

Neither has played, though, since last Tuesday’s exhibition finale against the Yankees. The hope is that both managed to stay engaged through their workouts over the last week despite the lack of actual game action.

“You’re talking about two guys who are workaholics,” Martinez said. “They get plenty of swings throughout the day to keep themselves ready. They’re both in great shape. But I’ve got to understand they’ve got to get in the game. They’ve got to play a little bit, too. It’s part of it, so today they get an opportunity to play.”

The Nationals have scored nine runs in four games so far this season, which obviously is not good. In their defense, they’ve faced some pretty tough pitching, from the Braves’ Max Fried and Spencer Strider to the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen. The one opposing starter they had some success against was Atlanta rookie left-hander Jared Shuster. There’s a chance for success tonight against Tampa Bay lefty Josh Fleming.

Fleming, 26, owns a 4.93 ERA and 1.410 WHIP over 171 2/3 career major league innings, and he really struggled last year (6.43 ERA, 1.886 WHIP in only 35 innings) while shuttling back and forth between St. Petersburg and Durham. Knowing the way Kevin Cash manages his bullpen, don’t be surprised if the leash on Fleming is short. If you’re the Nats, look to be aggressive early as they were against Shuster on Sunday and try to take an early lead.

If they can do that, they’ll provide some breathing room for Chad Kuhl, who makes his season debut tonight as the No. 5 starter in place of the injured Cade Cavalli. Kuhl actually becomes the third straight starter to make his Nationals debut, following MacKenzie Gore and Trevor Williams. It’s only the second time that’s ever happened in club history, and to be honest, the first time shouldn’t really count because it was the first four games in club history, with Liván Hernández, Zach Day, Esteban Loaiza and Tomo Ohka taking the ball from Frank Robinson in April 2005. Thing is, all of those guys except for Loaiza had been part of the 2004 Expos’ roster, so it’s not really like they were all joining a new team.

TAMPA BAY RAYS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Clear, 76 degrees, wind 8 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
RF Lane Thomas
DH Joey Meneses
3B Jeimer Candelario
1B Dominic Smith
LF Alex Call
2B Michael Chavis
C Riley Adams
CF Victor Robles
SS CJ Abrams

The play looked eerily familiar, and not just because it had just happened moments earlier to the previous batter, who hit a nearly identical dribbler up the first base line.

No, for anyone who has watched the Nationals on a semi-regular basis since 2019, Manuel Margot’s little roller up the line in the top of the second Monday night immediately struck a chord. It certainly did once Trevor Williams picked up the ball and threw toward first base, only to watch as Margot (running in fair territory) ran past Dominic Smith and knocked his glove off to reach safely and then advance to second on the error.

Yep, it was the Trea Turner Play all over again. The one that nearly cost the Nationals in Game 6 of the World Series. The one that plagued Turner again two years later at Wrigley Field, not to mention Josh Bell in Miami. And led to multiple ejections for manager Davey Martinez.

Martinez didn’t get ejected this time, but he still couldn’t help but reiterate his point about the usage – or, in this case, non-usage – of Rule 5.09a(11), which states any batter-runner who is not in the designated running lane and in the judgment of the umpire interferes with the first baseman’s attempt to catch a throw shall be called out.

That’s what umpires called in the previous cases of Turner and Bell. Larry Vanover and his crew did not call it on Margot on Monday.

The Nationals understand they’re not going to hit many home runs this season. That’s just not in the cards with this particular lineup, which features nobody who hit more than 17 homers last year.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t deliver the occasional extra-base hit, some doubles or even a triple. Or, you know, hit the ball in the air every once in a while.

Even that seemingly simple act proved difficult tonight during a 6-2 loss to the Rays. Tampa Bay rode six dominant innings from starter Drew Rasmussen and effective work from their bullpen to cruise to victory on a 70-degree Monday evening in the nation’s capital. The evening would’ve been perfectly pleasant if only the home club was able to give those who attended any valid reason to believe a rally was possible.

Instead, a paid crowd of 10,754 – officially the second-lowest in Nationals history, ahead of only the 9,261 who were announced as attending the first half of a makeup doubleheader against the Diamondbacks last April – was left to watch the lineup flail away at Tampa Bay’s admittedly excellent pitching staff to little avail.

Rasmussen, the Rays’ No. 4 starter despite an 11-7 record and 2.84 ERA last season, cruised through six scoreless innings on a scant 66 pitches. The right-hander allowed two singles, didn’t issue a walk and struck out seven, pulled by manager Kevin Cash only because the organization is being careful with all of its starters early in the season.

The MRI of Corey Dickerson’s left calf showed only a “mild strain,” according to Davey Martinez, and the Nationals manager is hopeful his veteran left fielder’s stint on the 10-day injured list won’t be a long one. History, though, suggests it may be as quick a stint as the club hopes.

Dickerson missed a full month with a calf strain last summer while playing for the Cardinals. That doesn’t necessarily mean this one will take the same amount of time to heal, but the Nats do have a potential road map for his rehab based on what happened last year.

“When I talked to him yesterday, he said he was pretty sore,” Martinez said. “We’ll take it day to day. He’s already started the rehab process, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Signed to a $2.25 million contract over the winter, Dickerson was supposed to be the Nationals’ primary left fielder entering the season. But when Alex Call started Opening Day against Braves ace Max Fried, Martinez revealed he planned to platoon the duo, with Dickerson only playing against right-handers.

The 33-year-old wound up starting only one game before his calf tightened up on him in the seventh inning Saturday afternoon.

The Nationals opened the season in traditional fashion, with a three-game series against a division rival. Major League Baseball’s new schedule, though, has dramatically reduced the number of division games, so get ready to see a bunch of unfamiliar opponents now. Fourteen of the next 18 games, in fact, will be against American League teams, beginning tonight against the Rays.

Because of that, there’s not a lot of familiarity between hitters and pitchers. Only four members of the Nats roster have ever faced Drew Rasmussen (Jeimer Candelario, Michael Chavis, Lane Thomas, Ildemaro Vargas) and combined they’ve only totaled seven at-bats against the right-hander. Conversely, only three Tampa Bay batters have ever faced Trevor Williams (Yandy Diaz, Manuel Margot, Jose Siri) and they’ve combined for only seven at-bats as well.

Williams makes his Nationals debut. He’s technically the No. 4 starter, but he arguably could rank much higher within the rotation when it’s all said and done. The right-hander has a track record, he got a two-year deal over the winter and he takes a leadership role on the staff. Tonight he’ll get his first chance to show the Nats what they have in him.

The Nationals lineup has Luis García back in the leadoff spot. It has CJ Abrams back at shortstop after a day off. And it has Ildemaro Vargas in left field, not Alex Call despite Davey Martinez's claim Sunday that Call would make the bulk of the starts there with Corey Dickerson on the injured list.

TAMPA BAY RAYS at WASHINGTON NATIONALS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 7:05 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 68 degrees, wind 15 mph out to left field

The Orioles homestand continues tonight as they host the Tampa Bay Rays to begin a four-game series at Oriole Park. It continues a 10-game stretch with three series against two of the top American League East clubs. Before the All-Star break they lost two of three against the Rays, and coming out of the break they lost two of three to the Yankees with Sunday’s 6-0 loss.

The Orioles (47-48) could get back to .500 with a win tonight. They are 3 ½ games back of the final AL playoff spot. The Orioles have lost four of six, but over longer stretches have won 12 of 16, 17 of 26 and 23 of their past 36 games. 

After going just 1-18 against Tampa Bay in 2021, the Orioles are 5-7 this year. They have gone 1-5 at the Trop but 4-2 at home, winning both series in Baltimore from May 20-22 and June 17-19. The Orioles are 17-23 for the year versus the AL East.

The Orioles are 4-5 in their past nine games against Tampa Bay after going 3-27 in the previous 30. 

Tampa Bay (52-43) is now in third place in the division, ½ a game behind Toronto. They currently hold the No. 2 AL wild card spot. The Rays went into the All-Star break winning six of seven games. That included going 2-1 in the final series at home against the Orioles. But they lost two of three to Kansas City to begin the second half, losing their last two games 6-3 and 4-2, respectively. 

Lefty Nick Vespi returned to the Orioles active roster and bullpen today in advance of the series opener with the Tampa Bay Rays. Vespi has had one strong season, allowing no earned runs at Triple-A all season and allowing six of his eight earned MLB runs in one outing.

In 31 games between Norfolk and Baltimore he has thrown 26 scoreless outings. He has gone 2-1 with an ERA of 0.00, allowing three unearned runs over 21 1/3 at Triple-A, giving up just eight hits with four walks, 28 strikeouts and a WHIP of 0.56.

With the Orioles, his ERA was 0.79 after his first nine big-league outings. Then on June 29 at Seattle he gave up six runs in just 1/3 of an inning. It was a major outlier among his games this year.

“You know, to be honest, I wish I knew (what went wrong that one game),” Vespi said today. “I was throwing strikes but things were not going my way. I kept trying to battle and put the team in a good position. Unfortunately, it didn’t go my way that day.

“I talk with Holty (Chris Holt) and Holmesy (Darren Holmes) afterward. They put the confidence in my head and said, ‘Hey, you know that is not you. That happened. Whatever. Flush it and get back out there and do what you know how to do.'”

At a time when Austin Hays and Ryan Mountcastle have been two of the Orioles most productive hitters, they are showing an ability to hit in the clutch, too. They keep coming up with big hits in key spots, both early and late in games. They are doing damage and doing it in some of the biggest moments of the game.

It may be yet another step in the development of the young hitters.

Through 62 games, Hays is batting .280/.342/.456/.798 with 15 doubles, nine homers and a team-high 37 RBIs. He has an OPS of .797 at home and .798 on the road. Mountcastle has hit .269/.307/.480/.787 with 11 doubles, 12 homers and 36 RBIs. He went hitless Sunday to end an eight-game hitting streak during which he hit .400 with an .857 OPS. His OPS was 1.072 in June through Saturday’s games.

Hays is batting .302 with runners in scoring position, along with an OPS of .860 with RISP. For him it comes down to knowing one important fact – in big spots late in games, it's the pitcher who's in more trouble.

“It goes hand and hand with however is on the mound,” he said over the weekend about hitting in the clutch. “I feel like pitchers tend to make more mistakes in tighter situations in games. I don’t know if they are afraid to make a mistake or are trying to do too much. But for me personally, I feel like I get more good pitches to hit and more mistakes in clutch situations of games. And I just really try to lock in on not chasing pitches out of the zone and making those pitchers make a mistake. I feel like if I wait them out they are bound to make one.