DETROIT – The Orioles take their 16-8 record, second-best in the American League, to Comerica Park for the start of a four-game series, and they have Joey Ortiz making his major league debut at second base.

Ortiz, 24, was recalled this morning from Triple-A Norfolk, with infielder Terrin Vavra optioned. The fourth-round pick in 2019 out of New Mexico State is batting .359/.389/.500/.889 in 16 games with Norfolk, with five doubles, two triples and eight RBIs. He’s a plus-defender who plays shortstop, second base and third base.

Vavra also can play the outfield, and his removal from the Orioles roster seems to indicate that Austin Hays’ bruised right hand is improving. Hays is on the bench again tonight but he’s avoided the injured list.

The Tigers are starting three consecutive left-handers in the series, if the weather permits it: Joey Wentz, Eduardo Rodriguez and Matthew Boyd. Ortiz is a right-handed hitter.

Bringing up Ortiz also gives the Orioles some infield insurance after Jorge Mateo recently sat with a sore right hip and Gunnar Henderson appeared to hurt his right hand yesterday after diving for a line drive, though he stayed in the game.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

- Recalled INF Joey Ortiz from Triple-A Norfolk. He will wear No. 65 and his first appearance will be his Major League debut.

- Optioned INF Terrin Vavra to Triple-A Norfolk after yesterday’s game.

NEW YORK – After Josiah Gray dominated the Mets lineup and finally got some much-needed run support for a win last night, MacKenzie Gore will take the mound at Citi Field tonight looking to repeat the feat.

Gore will face the Mets for the first time, with only tonight’s designated hitter Tommy Pham facing him before, hitting .400 in five at-bats. The left-hander is 2-1 with a 3.43 ERA over his first four starts with the Nats. Though he’s been solid with runs and strikeouts, Gore will look to limit his walks, having issued four free passes in three of his four outings.

The Nationals offense will face right-hander Kodai Senga in the regular season for the first time. Senga made one spring training start against the Nats in West Palm Beach on March 16, allowing one run on three hits with five strikeouts in three innings.

Signed to a five-year, $75 million contract out of Japan this offseason, Senga is known for throwing his “ghost forkball,” while also throwing a 95-96 mph fastball, cutter and slider. Though he has a 3-0 record and strong strikeout numbers, he too has struggled with walks and homers, giving up at least three free passes in each of his four outings and at least one home run in each of his last three.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK METS
Where: Citi Field
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB Network (out-of-market only), MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, MLB.com
Weather: Partly cloudy, 54 degrees, wind 11 mph out to left-center field

After one comeback from four runs down that led to a win and one from seven behind that fell short, the Orioles (15-8) host the Boston Red Sox (13-12) today in the final game of a three-game series and six-game homestand.

Baltimore is 4-1 this homestand after a series sweep of Detroit followed by Monday’s 5-4 win at Oriole Park and last night’s 8-6 loss. The O’s were behind 7-0 in the third inning to Boston on Tuesday and 8-1 heading to the last of the ninth. But then Gunnar Henderson hit a solo home run, Cedric Mullins added a grand slam, and they pulled within the final two-run margin.

The Orioles are 2-3 this year against Boston. Their pitching staff has allowed 9, 9. 9, 4 and 8 runs in those games, yielding 39 runs with an ERA of 7.42 and 1.626 WHIP. Boston batters are hitting .307 with an OPS of .888 versus O’s pitching in 2023.

"We haven't pitched very well against the Red Sox this year," O's manager Brandon Hyde said this morning. "That is a good offensive club. Always been a big Justin Turner fan, that is a big add for them and (Rafael) Devers is one of the best hitters in our game, top three to five, super dangerous. They have a real balanced lineup with a lot of lefties that makes it challenging. But I just think we haven't pitched very well against them. Won't see them again until September, little different this year."

Baltimore’s starters in this series – Dean Kremer and Kyle Bradish – have combined to allow 15 hits and 11 runs over eight innings. And O’s pitching has allowed eight runs or more six times this season – four times versus Boston.

Orioles outfielder Austin Hays has avoided the injured list after bruising his right hand last night while attempting a bunt in the third inning.

Hays came out of the game after flying out to deep left field, and X-rays didn’t reveal any fractures.

“Feels good, a lot better than last night,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “Pretty sore, a lot of bruising, so hopefully it’s just a few days.”

Shortstop Jorge Mateo is out of the lineup but available to play. Mateo recovered from the right hip soreness that forced him out of Wednesday’s game in D.C., and he scored from first base Sunday on Anthony Santander’s double to left field and homered last night into the home bullpen.

“He’s just coming off that hip and day game after a night game,” Hyde said. “A lot of games still coming up.”

Austin Hays is out of today's lineup, as the Orioles try to win their sixth series of the year.

Hays left last night’s game with a bruised right hand and is day-to-day.

Terrin Vavra is in left field again after replacing Hays last night and collecting two singles. Ryan Mountcastle is the designated hitter, with Ryan O’Hearn at first base.

Gunnar Henderson is the shortstop. Jorge Mateo goes to the bench.

Mateo is batting .406/.432/.750 (13-for-32) with five doubles and two home runs in his last 11 games (10 starts). Last night’s homer into the Orioles bullpen was 108.2 mph off the bat.

NEW YORK – Dominic Smith is familiar with Citi Field. It’s the only home major league ballpark he’s ever known. That is at least until this season.

For the first time in his career when he arrived at Citi Field yesterday for the Nationals’ opener against the Mets, he came down the tunnel from the team bus in the left field corner and entered the visitor’s clubhouse instead of going all the way around to the first base-side home clubhouse, like he had during his six seasons with the Mets.

“It feels good, it was good. It feels good to be back,” Smith said yesterday in front of his new locker at Citi Field.

“Going in the back way was definitely a different way for me to go in. The tunnel, everything was a little bit different today. But yeah, you definitely do have memories when you come back here. Obviously, I was drafted here and I remember coming here after I got drafted 17, 18 years old, so it's pretty fun still being able to come back here and play baseball.”

Smith was the Mets’ first-round draft pick (No. 11 overall) out of Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, Calif., in 2013. He would make his major league debut with the Mets four summers later on this very field as one of the organization’s top prospects.

NEW YORK – Every Josiah Gray start so far this season has resulted in a loss. Both for the Nationals and the right-hander himself.

That’s not all on Gray, however. Take away his rough first outing against the Braves and he has been excellent over his last three, pitching to a 2.16 ERA and only one home run allowed.

That stretch of dominance carried over into tonight’s series opener against the Mets, as the New Rochelle, N.Y. native showed in front of 20,507 fans near his hometown to earn a 5-0 win, his first of the season.

It’s also his first win since July 6, when he recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts over six innings of two-run ball in Philadelphia.

"Just going with the game plan early on," Gray said after the game. "Just seeing how they were adjusting to my stuff, how they were swinging the bat, how they were taking pitches and just a lot of good opportunities early to just throw strike one. So the more we did that, the more we kind of just commanded the zone and were able to utilize that. So just doing a lot of strikes early and having the putaway pitches was (what) led to a lot of success today.”

NEW YORK – Sean Doolittle took a significant step forward in his rehab from a procedure on his left elbow.

The left-hander, signed to a minor league deal and working out at the Nationals complex in West Palm Beach, finally faced live hitters in a batting practice session for the first time since the early portions of spring training.

“Doolittle actually threw a live BP,” manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame meeting with the media in his office at Citi Field. “I'm still waiting on the results now, but the gist of it is that he felt really good. And so I want to see what the velo is and how many pitches he threw. I haven't got it yet.”

Even with the specific details of the outing still to be known, getting on the mound and facing live hitters is no small feat for the 36-year-old.

“We were trying to get him about 20 pitches,” Martinez said. “So like I said, I haven't seen the results yet. But from what I heard, he said he felt really good afterwards.”

As he stood on the mound with one out in the bottom of the ninth Friday night in Minnesota, the potential tying run in scoring position and the potential winning run on base, Kyle Finnegan could’ve panicked about the jam he had just put himself and the Nationals in. Instead, he considered the best-case scenario that could play out if he could just do his job and trust his teammates behind him to do the rest.

“I execute this pitch here, he’s going to hit it on the ground and we’re going to turn a double play and win,” Finnegan recalled thinking to himself in that moment. “To see it play out, and to be able to trust your defense that they’re going to make a play, it’s everything.”

Sure enough, Finnegan’s first pitch was a 94 mph sinker on the inside corner, jamming José Miranda, who hit a sharp grounder to third. Jeimer Candelario scooped it up and threw to second baseman Luis García, who made the quick turn and fired to Dominic Smith at first base for the game-ending, 5-4-3 double play.

The Nationals couldn’t have drawn it up any better. And these days that’s exactly how they’re drawing it up, because their infield defense has become a legitimate strength after causing so many headaches last season.

The Nats have turned 25 double plays through their first 21 games. Only the Cardinals, who have played one more game, have turned more among all major league clubs.

He is one of baseball’s best prospects and has been playing very much like it this year. And now, after just 13 games to begin his 2023 season at Low Single-A Delmarva, the Orioles are promoting shortstop Jackson Holliday to High-A Aberdeen.

Holliday, 19, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, will play his first IronBirds game tomorrow night when Aberdeen begins a six-game series at Wilmington. The following week Aberdeen plays at Brooklyn. Holliday will make his home debut at Ripken Stadium on Tuesday, May 9 against Hudson Valley.

With Delmarva, Holliday was batting .392/.523/.667/.1.190 with six doubles, a triple, two homers, 15 runs, three steals and 15 RBIs. He ranked in the top three in the Carolina League in average, OBP, slugging, OPS, runs and RBIs. He produced three games with four RBIs each and on Friday went 3-for-6 with his first two homers of the season. He ends his time with Delmarva batting .429 (12-for-28) during a seven-game hitting streak.

Holliday, who turned 19 on Dec. 4, is ranked as MLB’s No. 10 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 13 by Baseball America. Last summer he became the third No. 1 overall pick in Orioles history, following Ben McDonald in 1989 and Adley Rutschman in 2019.

He became the first high school position player taken by the Orioles with their top draft selection since Manny Machado was selected No. 3 overall in 2010.

MINNEAPOLIS – During the final days of the 2022 season, Mason Thompson entered Davey Martinez’s office for the same kind of exit interview everyone on the Nationals roster was given before leaving for the winter.

It was a chance for Thompson to discuss what he felt he did well and what he did not do well in his first full big league season. And, more importantly, it was a chance for Martinez and his staff to tell Thompson what they believed he could do to get better.

The primary message they wanted to get across to the big reliever: Throw strike one, because things get a lot easier for him once he does.

“They broke down my numbers and said: ‘When you get ahead, you’re basically unhittable,’” Thompson recalled Sunday. “That was the main focus this offseason, just pounding the zone. For me, it’s produced a good result.”

That’s putting it mildly. After tossing 2 1/3 innings with one unearned run scoring on his watch and emerging as the winning pitcher in the Nationals’ 10-4 thumping of the Twins, Thompson finds himself the owner of some enviable season stats. His ERA is 1.15. His WHIP is 0.638. He has 13 strikeouts and only one walk.

Storms moved out of the area, the tarp was peeled back, and the Orioles began tonight’s game on time, an unlikely proposition based on the ominous forecast.

Kyle Gibson’s dominance was delayed.

Gibson had to work through a bases-loaded jam in the first inning that cost him 24 pitches. He allowed one run and two hits in 6 1/3, striking out 11 to match his career high, and the Orioles defeated the Tigers 5-1 before an announced crowd of 12,194 at Camden Yards.

Ramón Urías had a three-run double in the third inning before his ejection, James McCann hit his first home run in the fourth, and the Orioles improved to 13-7. They’ve won five games in a row and nine of 11, and they go for a series sweep on Sunday with Grayson Rodriguez opposing Eduardo Rodriguez.

Gibson was averaging 4.9 strikeouts per nine innings in his first four starts. He registered five tonight through the second to equal his season high and had nine through the fifth. His 11^th concluded the sixth.

Friday’s 2-1 walk-off victory provided the Orioles with a 12-7 record and a fourth win in a row. If they can win one more this weekend versus Detroit (7-11) they will have four consecutive series wins.

They went 3-1 versus Oakland, 2-1 at Chicago against the White Sox and 2-0 at Washington. Overall the Orioles have won six of seven and eight of their past 10 games. They are now 5-3 at home and 5-2 in games decided by one run.

The AL East standings at this hour:

Tampa Bay, 17-3
Orioles, 12-7
New York, 13-8
Toronto, 12-9
Boston 11-10

New York beat Toronto 3-2 this afternoon via a walk-off win scoring in the last of the ninth on DJ LeMahieu's single. Danny Jansen's two-run homer had tied the game 2-2 in the top of the ninth for Toronto.

MINNEAPOLIS – As the mercury dropped to 35 degrees – remarkably 2 degrees colder than it was Friday night for what temporarily stood as the coldest game in club history – the Nationals bundled up in long sleeves, gloves, hoodies, balaclavas, anything they could find to protect themselves from the elements and took the field this afternoon in search of the kind of offense that has eluded them throughout the season’s first 20 games.

And then a funny thing happened. They scored two runs in the top of the first. Then two more in the top of the second. And they just kept going and going until they walked out of Target Field with a resounding 10-4 victory over the Twins and their stunned (and well-compensated) ace.

Who cares what the thermometer read. The Nationals inexplicably have been at their best this month the colder it’s been. Their best offensive display to date had come in Colorado, which of course also has the added benefit of thin air. Now they’ve won two games in a row in Minnesota despite the ever-present threat of snow flurries, and in the process secured their first series victory of the young season. On Sunday, they'll attempt to complete their first three-game sweep since June 2021.

"If we keep playing like this," manager Davey Martinez said, "I hope it's 20 degrees for the next four months."

That probably won't be happening without a massive shift in global warming trends, so eventually the Nationals will have to learn how to hit on a hot day. But for now, it's been a winning formula, Friday night via a late rally to eke out a 3-2 win. Today’s came far more comfortably, with offensive fireworks both early and late, and contributors up and down the lineup.

Orioles reliever Dillon Tate is ready to begin his injury rehab assignment Tuesday night with High-A Aberdeen, which is playing in Wilmington, Del.

Tate didn’t pitch in spring training due to a right elbow flexor strain. The injury surfaced in November, denying him a chance to join Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.

Early projections from the club had Tate being out until mid-to-late May.

Asked whether Tate’s return to game action is faster than anticipated, manager Brandon Hyde said, “I think it’s pretty much on schedule.”

The Orioles won’t assign a specific total of appearances for Tate before he’s deemed ready to be activated.

Jorge Mateo has returned to the lineup tonight as the Orioles try to extend their winning streak to five games. However, manager Brandon Hyde said he’s reconsidering because of the wet conditions.

Rain is falling at Camden Yards, but Hyde said, “As of now, we’re playing.”

Mateo is listed at shortstop and batting sixth. Austin Hays is leading off, with Cedric Mullins lowered again to ninth against Tigers left-hander Joey Wentz.

Adley Rutschman is the designated hitter. Ramón Urías is playing third base.

Kyle Gibson has a 4.18 ERA and 1.268 WHIP in four starts. He’s 10-11 with a 5.84 ERA and 1.577 WHIP in 25 career games (24 starts) against the Tigers.

MINNEAPOLIS – The role of designated hitter can be tougher than it sounds, especially for someone who has spent most of his career playing a position in the field but then finds himself only batting four times a game and watching the rest of the game from the dugout.

It’s admittedly been an adjustment for Joey Meneses through the first month of this season. Having played either first base or the outfield most of his professional life, the 30-year-old has become the Nationals’ everyday DH.

Perhaps that has something to do with Meneses’ slow start at the plate. He enters this afternoon’s game against the Twins batting .227/.266/.333 through his first 18 games, and he just finally hit his first home run Friday night.

“He’s trying to develop a routine DHing,” manager Davey Martinez said. “It’s tough when you’re DHing every day to find a routine, when you’ve never done it before.”

With that in mind, Martinez decided to have Meneses and Dominic Smith switch roles this afternoon. Though Smith is the superior defensive player, he’ll serve as DH and give Meneses a chance to play first base and keep himself more engaged in the game.

MINNEAPOLIS – After playing (and winning) the coldest game in club history Friday night, the Nationals are back at it this afternoon for what might even be a colder game despite the earlier start time. Temperatures again are in the 30s, and the wind has picked up, making it feel even colder. Gotta love it.

The Nats’ bats finally got hot just in time Friday night to pull out a 3-2 win. They’ll be facing a tougher pitcher today in Pablo López, who just signed a four-year, $73.5 million extension with the Twins. The 27-year-old right-hander has a 1.73 ERA, 0.808 WHIP and 33 strikeouts in 26 innings so far this season, so he certainly earned that contract. The Nationals do know him from his five seasons with the Marlins and faced him three times last year, scoring five runs on 10 hits over 15 1/3 innings.

Chad Kuhl gets the ball for his fourth start of the season, and he’s going to need to be better than he has been in his first three outings if he wants to avoid speculation about losing his place in the rotation. Kuhl has allowed four or more earned runs each time out, and he has yet to record an out in the sixth inning. He’ll be challenged to keep Minnesota’s potent lineup in the park this afternoon, especially with the wind blowing out to right.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MINNESOTA TWINS
Where: Target Field
Gametime: 1:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Cloudy, 37 degrees, wind 16 mph out to right field

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

MINNEAPOLIS - Combine the coldest lineup in the majors with the coldest gametime temperature in club history, and it could not have taken anyone by surprise to see nothing but zeroes on the scoreboard for six innings tonight at Target Field.

Did you really expect these Nationals to get hot on a 37-degree April night in the Great White North?

Well, actually, yeah. It just took a while to finally happen.

But once it did, once Joey Meneses launched his first homer of the season in the seventh, and once Lane Thomas and Keibert Ruiz delivered back-to-back two-out RBI singles in the eighth, everything was OK again for the Nationals, who exchanged high-fives and handshakes on the field and then quickly bolted for the heated clubhouse to further celebrate a much-needed, 3-2 victory over the Twins.

"We were huddled under our one little heater we've got out there (in the bullpen)," closer Kyle Finnegan said. "Taking the lead there definitely gets us going. You start moving around, get the juices flowing a little bit. It's exciting. Take the lead late in a game and then shut it down to get the win? You've got to enjoy a win like that."