Cashner pushed back to Saturday (and other notes, tied 1-1)

ARLINGTON, Texas - Orioles manager Brandon Hyde is making an adjustment to his rotation that allows extra rest for veteran right-hander Andrew Cashner.

Cashner was supposed to start Thursday night to close out the series against the Rangers, but he's pushed back to Saturday afternoon in Houston.

David Hess starts Thursday and Gabriel Ynoa takes the mound Friday night to open the series against the Astros at Minute Maid Park.

Hyde explained his reasoning for the switch during the daily media scrum.

"We're just pushing Cash back a couple days," Hyde said. "He's got a little leg soreness and because of the off-day (Monday) we were able to keep David and Ynoa on regular rest and Cash will go back to the second day in Houston."

Cashner worked five innings in his last start against the Giants and allowed six runs and eight hits with five walks and no strikeouts in a 9-6 win. His ERA grew from 4.55 to 5.04.

"Just something after his start," Hyde said. "He's had a little bit of leg soreness and we just want to push him back a couple of days."

Cashner will have lots of family and friends at Minute Maid Park to watch his outing.

Hyde is happy to put last night's game in his rearview mirror, a 12-11 win marred by the Rangers' six-run ninth inning and the usage of six relievers behind starter Dylan Bundy. The Orioles committed four errors, including two in the ninth, and Mychal Givens was slow to cover home plate on the strikeout pitch that got past catcher Pedro Severino with the tying run at second base.

"A win is a win," Hyde said, laughing. "Obviously, we'd like to have played better the last few innings. Loved the way we swung the bat. I thought our aggressiveness offensively early was fantastic. I thought Dylan threw the ball really well in a tough park to pitch in, but we just didn't close it out very well, so that was disappointing.

"You want to take the positives out of, we swung the bat great, we had a guy (Severino) hit three home runs in the big leagues, which is really cool. Smitty (Dwight Smith Jr.) swung the bat great, and (Hanser) Alberto, so there were a lot of good things that happened, but obviously we want to close out the game in a little easier fashion."

The Orioles met earlier today to go over some of the mistakes. A young team understands the magnitude of them.

"We're going to have some growing pains, but we've got to play better than that the last couple of innings. There's no doubt about that," Hyde said.

"I think everybody's very, very aware. We're glad we won the game, but there's a lot of things that we need to improve on obviously. We were joking for a while where we haven't had kind of a coast in win where we're up 8-1 and just kind of relax the last couple of innings and let guys get their work on the mound. Last night was looking that way until it wasn't."

Givens was used in the ninth inning for the first time in three appearances, with Hyde needing the right-hander unexpectedly as a 12-5 lead almost disappeared.

"Mike's back to pitching in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning," Hyde said. "I'm not going to name him the closer or anything like that. If the matchup's right where I like who's coming up in the ninth inning, then I'm going to use him. If it's the eighth inning, then I'll use him then. It depends on where they are in their lineup."

Alberto exacted some revenge on his former team last night with four hits from the leadoff spot and he's atop the order again tonight.

"He's got a lot of really great relationships here," Hyde said. "The guys on the Rangers love him. I know some of the coaches were big fans of him. Anybody that's been around Alberto loves him.

"He played with (Elvis) Andrus for a long time and some of these guys on the other side, so to play well in front of them and play well in a park where he played a lot of games in, he must have felt great."

The draft is over and the Orioles chose 41 players overall - 22 position players and 19 pitchers. Thirty-three of the selections were college athletes.

The Orioles selected 16 right-handed pitchers, three left-handers, seven infielders, nine outfielders and six catchers.

Update: Andrus' double in the first scored Delino DeShields and gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Severino left the game after being hit in the mask by a foul ball.

Update II: Richie Martin homered off Shawn Kelley with one out in the ninth to tie the game 1-1. Jonathan Villar (sore right thumb) and DJ Stewart (sprained right ankle) exited the game.