Hyde on Harvey, Mateo, Urías, and López

The Orioles didn't take batting practice this afternoon. Their pitchers threw in the outfield before the Rays went into the cage.

Ominous clouds are hovering about the ballpark, but so far no rain. The forecast keeps pushing back the precipitation in Baltimore.

Thumbnail image for Harvey-Follow-Through-Orange-Sidebar.jpgManager Brandon Hyde's media session was moved from the dugout to the Zoom format. He provided an update on reliever Hunter Harvey, who's made three injury rehab appearances with Norfolk and allowed two runs and five hits in three innings.

"We're just letting him pitch a little bit. We're evaluating after every appearance," Hyde said.

The bench remains at two healthy players - an outfielder and backup catcher - with Jorge Mateo receiving treatment on his lower back.

"He was still sore yesterday, so not available yesterday, so we were going without an infielder on the bench," Hyde said. "I'm hoping that he could be available in an emergency today, but I'm not sure at this point. But I know he's feeling better and medical people tell me he's going to be hopefully another day or two and we'll get him back out there."

Ramón Urías, who remains at shortstop, is 11-for-26 in his last seven games with five doubles, two home runs and nine RBIs. He has an RBI in five straight games, the longest active streak in the majors and tying his career high set earlier this season.

His 20 RBIs since the break rank second on the team.

Urías has been playing with discomfort in his upper right leg, which forced him out of games and the lineup. Prior to his current hot streak, he had gone 1-for-20 in six games and 2-for-25 in seven.

"I think like a lot of guys throughout the league, he's playing with some nagging things," Hyde said. "He's trying to play through a sore leg and the bat speed might not have quite been there. But he's feeling healthier now and I think we're seeing results. I think we're seeing now, too, what (Anthony) Santander looks like healthier than he was earlier in the year. These guys are swinging the bat a lot better because of it."

Hyde was asked again about Jorge López, who tossed two scoreless innings with four strikeouts yesterday in his second relief appearance since leaving the rotation.

"Looked pretty good - 96-98 (mph)," Hyde said. "I really liked the curveballs that he threw yesterday. I liked the aggressiveness. I thought his stuff was excellent. That was the best stuff I've seen this year. There was the game in New York and some other starts where I thought it was similar, but for me that was electric yesterday.

"I think he enjoyed it. Talked to him after the game. He was excited about how he felt. The only walk was to (Shohei) Ohtani and I don't know how he took that 3-2 curveball. That was a just a really good hitter taking a pitch that was a plus-plus pitch. But I thought his stuff was really good. For me, it's about how he's feeling and felt really good about how he threw the ball, so hopefully he can keep it rolling."

Hyde now has a couple of power arms in the back end of the bullpen with López and Tyler Wells.

"Since Tyler's been healthy and been available here, we're kind of picking spots for him to pitch in because I do have a lot of confidence in him and I know he's got confidence in himself. We haven't had a whole lot of leads late," Hyde said.

"Lopie's got two appearances. I'm not sure what role he's going to be in and what he's going to do. I was just encouraged by his last two appearances and we'll see how that goes. But it's nice to have stuff in the back of your 'pen, and Wellsy's got it and obviously Lopie does, too."

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