CLEVELAND - Ryan Mountcastle doesn’t feel old. He’s just a product of his environment.

Mountcastle at age 27 is the respected elder of the Orioles redesigned infield. He scans the diamond and sees 20-year-old second baseman Jackson Holliday, 23-year-old shortstop Gunnar Henderson and 22-year-old third baseman Coby Mayo. Muscles begin to ache and he fights the urge to drive with his blinker on or write a check at the grocery store.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Mountcastle said. “For how young they are, how talented these kids are, it’s pretty remarkable. I guess being 27, the old guy in the infield, is pretty crazy.

“I guess I’m the mentor. I was coming up to bat (Friday) and I was like, ‘All right, you guys better drive papa in today.’”

I shared a STATS note Friday that the quartet was the fifth-youngest in Orioles history at 23 years and 169 days. The leaders are shortstop Ron Hansen (20), third baseman Brooks Robinson (21), second baseman Jerry Adair (21) and first baseman Bob Hale (24) at 22 years and 47 days on Sept. 28, 1958.

He’s not the most important player on the Nationals roster, and there are others who probably have more to prove over the next two months. But make no mistake, this is an important stretch for Luis García Jr., who would love nothing more than to continue what he’s done so far this summer throughout August and September and state once and for all the Nats should consider him their second baseman of the present and future.

It was exactly one year ago when the Nationals were quite unsure about that and optioned a slumping García to Triple-A to send him a message that he was assured of nothing. And the way manager Davey Martinez talked about him this spring, it seemed clear García still was assured of nothing and the organization wouldn’t hesitate to go in another direction at second base if he didn’t perform.

Four months later, García has done just about everything in his power to put those thoughts to rest. His defense is tremendously improved. And after an up-and-down first half at the plate, he’s now turning into one of the team’s most productive hitters, which he certainly proved this afternoon.

"It's definitely paying off for him," Martinez said. "I see a different kid. More confident. Understands what he needs to do. ... He's playing really well."

During a 6-4 victory over the Brewers that got a bit too tense late, García went 3-for-4 with a homer, a double, a single and a stolen base. By day’s end, the 24-year-old's offensive numbers for the season were creeping up on those of double play partner and National League All-Star CJ Abrams.

Josiah Gray stood in the clubhouse at Nationals Park, his right arm protected by a complex brace, only 10 days removed from major elbow surgery, and had no trouble smiling wide.

“I love seeing everybody,” he said. “I love still being a part of this, still being part of the team and rooting for our guys. Just seeing everybody’s face yesterday was settling.”

In these early days of recovery, there isn’t much for Gray to do from a rehab standpoint. He takes part in about one hour of physical therapy a day, but that’s all for now. It’ll be months before he’s allowed to throw a baseball again. It’ll be at least a year before he’s pitching in a big league game again, maybe longer.

Gray isn’t the first to have Tommy John surgery, nor will he be the last. He’s already consulted with a number of friends in the game who have been through this before – notably Cade Cavalli, Jake Irvin and Joe Ross – and learned some valuable lessons about the proper mental approach to his recovery.

“This is a long process, but also you can learn a lot about yourself in this process,” he said. “You can come out of it a better athlete, a better pitcher, a better person. … I’m looking forward to seeing where I’m at this time next year.”

It’s Harry Potter Day at Nationals Park, and hopefully one or two of these young wizards know how to cast a spell to prevent it from raining. Otherwise, there’s a decent chance of storms later this afternoon. Fingers crossed they somehow hold off and allow the Nationals and Brewers to play as scheduled at 4:05 p.m. with no interruption.

The Nats, plain and simple, need a win. They’ve dropped five in a row since winning two straight in St. Louis last weekend and now reside at a season-worst 12 games under .500. They were in Friday night’s game, which was tied 3-3 in the sixth before Milwaukee broke things open against the bullpen and made it 8-3.

So it’s up to DJ Herz to keep the Brewers lineup in check. This is his first start against those guys, because he was back at Triple-A Rochester when the Nationals visited Milwaukee before the All-Star break. Herz has been solid since returning to the majors, not to mention eerily consistent. In each of his two starts, he has allowed two runs over five innings while throwing 79 pitches. Davey Martinez would certainly take that again this afternoon, though Herz is welcome to be even better if he likes.

The Nats lineup faces a familiar foe, but one wearing a different uniform: Aaron Civale. The right-hander faced them as a member of the Rays on June 29, giving up two runs on six hits and four walks over 5 2/3 innings. Since then, he’s been traded to the Brewers, for whom he has produced a 4.29 ERA and 1.429 WHIP over four starts.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. MILWAUKEE BREWERS
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Chance of rain, 92 degrees, wind 13 mph out to left

CLEVELAND – The Orioles circled their infield tonight with players drafted by the organization, including their catcher, the lone member of the group to play in college. Two-thirds of the outfield also was homegrown.

Five prospects ranked in the top 10 have debuted this season. The present has caught up to the future, and it’s going to take a group effort to make a deep postseason run.

They need to get there first.

Coby Mayo drew two walks in his first major league game and Jackson Holliday was productive at the bottom of the lineup, but the Orioles couldn’t climb out of a seven-run hole and lost to the Guardians 8-4 at Progressive Field.

The Orioles are 65-46 and can’t do any better than a split of the four-game series. They began the night tied with the Yankees for first place and nothing changed.

After a rough start to the season on South Capitol Street, the Nationals have actually played better at home than on the road recently. Their .460 winning percentage at Nationals Park outpaces their .441 mark on the road. That bodes well for the remainder of the year, during which the Nats play 31 of their final 53 games at home.

Tonight started their longest homestand of the season, a 10-game stretch against the Brewers, Giants and Angels. To get to benchmarks of an improving season – such as a better overall record (71-91) and better home record (34-47) than last year – having a strong homestand over these next 10 days would go a long way.

But in the opener against the Brewers, who they took two of three against in Milwaukee right before the All-Star break, the Nats came up short to lose their fifth straight game by a score of 8-3 in front of 22,132 fans in D.C.

Jake Irvin appeared to be the right man to send to the mound to begin this three-game set. Although he struggled to end the first half, including being charged with seven runs (six earned) in four innings against these very Brewers at American Family Field, the rest during the break seemed to benefit him entering the second half. He allowed only four runs with 12 strikeouts over 12 ⅓ innings against the Reds and Cardinals, with the Nats winning both of those games.

However, Irvin wasn’t as efficient tonight, leading to an exit with two outs in the sixth due to a high pitch count.

CLEVELAND – Coby Mayo had his suspicions.

He was told to get his passport sent to him, but that’s common among the Triple-A players. Everyone is supposed to keep it handy. Norfolk manager Buck Britton removed him from the game in the eighth inning. A big lead, though, so perhaps it meant nothing. Mayo didn’t want to make assumptions.

“He told me that I had six at-bats and it was a long game and he just wanted to get me off my feet,” Mayo said this afternoon, back on his feet at his clubhouse locker at Progressive Field. “You always want to speculate a little bit, but you never want to get too ahead of yourself.”

Did he?

“Of course,” he said, eliciting laughter in his first media scrum as a major leaguer.

The Cleveland Guardians, the American League Central leaders who hold the best record in the AL, have been tough to beat for the Orioles. Both this year and in recent seasons.

Cleveland hit three homers accounting for eight runs last night as they beat Baltimore 10-3 to take the opener of this four-game series. David Fry and Bo Naylor hit three-run homers and José Ramírez added a two-run shot.

The Guardians are 3-1 this year versus the Orioles and have won seven of the past 11 games between the teams. In their last 45 games, Cleveland is 30-15 against Baltimore.

The Guardians are 66-42 and are 34-15 at home. They have won four in a row and seven of their past nine games. 

The Orioles are 4-2 in the last six games, scoring 42 runs. But over their past 12 games, they are 5-7. And since June 21, they are 16-20.

The time has come and passed to trade Joey Gallo, who the Nationals signed to a one-year, $5 million contract before spring training in hopes the veteran slugger could be a chip by the deadline. Now the club is just hoping he can return to the field soon for the final stretch run of the season.

Gallo, 30, has been on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain since June 12. Although the former All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner was only batting .164 with a .606 OPS, five home runs, 11 RBIs and 71 strikeouts to 21 walks, the Nats would like him back as soon as possible to lengthen their lineup and play defense at multiple positions.

Although there were no real injury updates from manager Davey Martinez ahead of Friday’s opener against the Brewers, the closest thing was that Gallo hopefully could start a minor league rehab assignment as soon as next week.

“There's really nothing. Still nothing, no change. Everybody's still the same,” Martinez said of the team’s injury report to start his pregame session with the media. “I'm hoping, honestly, that Joey Gallo this weekend makes some progress and he'll go out on a rehab assignment sometime early next week. So right now that'll be the only change.”

While the slugger struggled at the plate, Gallo was playing solid defense for the Nats at first base, with 6 Defensive Runs Saved in 316 ⅓ innings. He also won both of his Gold Gloves earlier in his career while playing the outfield, so the Nats may have him play more out there over these next two months. Although Dylan Crews’ anticipated major league debut during that time would probably limit opportunities there.

The Nationals just finished a brutal stretch. Over the last week-plus, they have been no-hit by Dylan Cease, lost back-to-back games in walk-off fashion, suffered a club-worst 17-0 loss, traded away three of their most productive players and been swept twice. Now they enter the dog days of August.

After sweeping the Marlins on June 16, the Nats were one game under .500. Since then, they've gone 14-24 with only three days off, plus the All-Star break. But with yesterday’s day off, they have an off-day in seven of the remaining nine weeks. That hopefully will help them finish the season strong.

What would also help them to start this 10-game homestand is another strong series against the Brewers, against whom the Nats won two of three in Milwaukee right before the break. Jake Irvin, who starts tonight, took the mound in that final game looking for the sweep, but was charged with seven runs (six earned) in four innings while taking a loss. But the right-hander has been solid to start his second half of the season, allowing only four runs with 12 strikeouts over 12 ⅓ innings against the Reds and Cardinals, with the Nats winning both of those games.

Frankie Montas makes his second start against the Nats in the past two weeks, this time as a member of the Brew Crew. The right-hander was traded from the Reds to the Brewers for two players on Tuesday before the deadline. This will be his first start for Milwaukee after the Nats got to him for seven runs in 4 ⅔ innings in his penultimate start with Cincinnati opening the second half.

Note that tonight’s game is exclusively on Apple TV+ for a national broadcast.

CLEVELAND – The prospect watch has lost another participant. Coby Mayo officially is in the majors.

The Orioles selected Mayo’s contract today from Triple-A Norfolk, filling the one vacancy on the 40-man roster. Livan Soto was optioned as the corresponding move on the active roster, a day after he was recalled and met with the local media.

Mayo was told yesterday to have his passport overnighted, but he didn’t find out officially about his promotion until his removal from last night’s game in Charlotte. He went 4-for-6, came out in the eighth inning and received the news from manager Buck Britton. He boarded a flight this morning to Cleveland.

The move was inevitable for the No. 3 prospect in the system. Mayo, a fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft, was batting .301 with 22 doubles, two triples, 20 home runs, 61 RBIs and a .961 OPS despite missing a month with a rib injury sustained in a collision with a dugout railing.

Injuries pulled Mayo out of the minors. Jorge Mateo has a dislocated left elbow and Jordan Westburg has a fractured right hand, and their absences will extend deep into September. Mayo can play third base, where Westburg made 64 starts this season. He’s another right-handed bat for a team that wanted to correct its imbalance.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Selected the contract of INF Coby Mayo from Triple-A Norfolk. He will wear No. 16 and his first appearance will be his Major League debut.
• Optioned INF Livan Soto to Triple-A Norfolk.

Additionally, LHP Matt Krook has been outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles’ 40-man roster currently has 40 players.

Everybody in the majors plays roughly the same schedule by season’s end: 81 home games, 81 road games, 52 division games, 64 more intraleague games, 46 interleague games. But the path to get to those eventual totals differs from team to team.

And in the Nationals’ case, there’s been a distinct difference to the 2024 schedule to date: Way more road games than most others.

Wednesday’s series finale in Arizona was the Nats’ 109th game of the season but their 59th road game. No other National League team has played so many games on the road, and only the Yankees (60) have played more in the American League.

The Nationals have been on three separate three-city road trips (San Francisco-Oakland-Los Angeles in April, Boston-Chicago-Philadelphia in May, Colorado-San Diego-Tampa Bay in June). They’ve yet to be rewarded with a homestand of more than two series.

It’s made for an at-times grueling schedule, including the 17-days-in-a-row stretch they had to endure prior to the All-Star break. The good news: It’s finally about to get better.

PHOENIX – In his 16 seasons as Nationals general manager, Mike Rizzo has found himself on both ends of the trade deadline spectrum. He’s been a buyer many times. He’s been a seller with some frequency as well. He’s even had a few quiet Julys when he could stand pat and play out the rest of the season.

But he’s become way too familiar with the selling process the last four years. Every trade deadline deal the Nationals have made since 2021 – and there have been 13 of them in total – has involved the swapping of major league players for prospects.

Suffice it to say, Rizzo would much rather find himself adding than subtracting this time of year.

“It’s more fun, I know that much,” he said. “Way more fun grabbing All-Star players than giving away All-Star players. … This is challenging. This is a tough time for players, and we recognize that. But we think it’s a necessary time. I think this organization, this front office, did a remarkable job.”

The initial reviews of the Nats’ four deadline moves – Hunter Harvey to the Royals for Cayden Wallace and a draft pick used on Caleb Lomavita; Jesse Winker to the Mets for Tyler Stuart; Lane Thomas to the Guardians for Alex Clemmey, Rafael Ramirez Jr. and Jose Tena; Dylan Floro to the Diamondbacks for Andres Chaparro – have been positive.

PHOENIX – A road trip that began on the heels of a no-hitter, then included an extra-inning win, a 14-run explosion, back-to-back walk-off losses, a 17-run blowout loss and the trades of three popular veterans ended this afternoon with the closest thing the Nationals have had to a normal day in the last week. And even then, there was still some top-of-the-ninth drama just to make sure nobody got too complacent.

After eight relatively sleepy innings at the plate, the Nats came up to bat down three runs in the ninth, got two runs home and loaded the bases with two outs before coming up just short to seal a 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks.

They nearly pulled off the kind of improbable comeback Arizona pulled off against them Monday night, getting an RBI double from CJ Abrams and then back-to-back walks drawn by Juan Yepez and James Wood to knock closer Paul Sewald from the game. But with the bases loaded and one out, Harold Ramírez struck out against Ryan Thompson. And though Thompson allowed another run to score on a wild pitch, he proceeded to get Riley Adams to bounce out to second to end the game.

"We worked good at-bats. We tried to get the ball in the zone," manager Davey Martinez said of his team's approach in the ninth. "We've got to be conscious of that from the first inning on. When we get the ball in the zone, we hit the ball well."

With a chance to at least emerge from this tumultuous trip with a 3-3 record, the Nationals instead got an improved-but-not-great start from MacKenzie Gore and then a mess of a relief appearance from Jacob Barnes that left them in a 5-1 hole in the sixth.

Liván Soto finally is going to play for the Orioles in his third stint in the organization.

The circumstances, however, are crushing.

Soto will be recalled from Triple-A Norfolk for Thursday night’s series opener in Cleveland as the injury replacement for Jordan Westburg, according to an industry source.

Westburg was hit on the right-hand today by a 95.2 mph fastball from Blue Jays reliever Yerry Rodríguez in the fifth inning. X-rays revealed a fracture.

Westburg circled the bases on Jackson Holliday’s first major league home run, a grand slam onto Eutaw Street in the Orioles’ 10-4 win. Ramón Urías replaced him at third base.

For the Orioles, the high they felt of winning 10-4 today at Camden Yards as Jackson Holliday hit a grand slam to lead the O's past the Blue Jays lasted briefly. The attention immediately turned to Jordan Westburg, who was hit in the hand with a fastball.

A team that has lost pitchers Tyler Wells, John Means and Kyle Bradish for the year and hopes to get Danny Coulombe back late in the year, and recently saw Jorge Mateo also get hurt, lost infielder Westburg. He will miss significant time after getting hit in the right-hand today by a 95 mph fastball in the fifth inning from righty reliever Yerry Rodríguez. He fractured his right hand.

Westburg, who has made starts at second and third, has batted .269 with 25 doubles, five triples, 18 homers, 58 RBIs and a .815 OPS in 101 games.

“All-Star player,” said manager Brandon Hyde, who hopes Westburg can make it back before the end of the regular season. “So, injuries are a part of the game. We have to pick up the pieces for him. We’ve got to play well. He is a huge part of our lineup, our culture, really everything. He’s right in the middle of everything and so we have to have other guys kind of step up in his place and fill the void.”

During the same series when catcher James McCann was hit in the face by a pitch Monday suffering multiple nasal fractures, now the O’s lose Westburg.

On the first full day after the trade deadline, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias expressed optimism that his roster was “fortified,” his pitching staff improved and that his team has “as good a shot as anybody.”

This morning the O’s began the process of retooling their roster after the flurry of deadline trades for the stretch run and trying to turn a recent small stretch of winning into a larger one.

With three wins in their past four games scoring 29 runs, the O’s took the field amid the Baltimore sunshine today looking for yet another American League East series win.

Ryan Mountcastle’s two-run triple to right in the last of the first got the Orioles off to a good start. They built an early 3-0 lead.

The deadline deals opened the door for Jackson Holliday’s return to this team. He electrified the crowd today when his first major league homer was a grand slam in the last of the fifth. It opened an 8-3 lead and led to a Holliday curtain call. The crowd was on its feet and roaring for Holliday, who went 2-for-34 with the Orioles in 10 April games.

PHOENIX – It’s been an eventful road trip, to say the least. The Nationals went to St. Louis and won a game in extra innings, scored 14 runs while trading Jesse Winker mid-game and lost on a walk-off homer. Then they came to Arizona and traded Lane Thomas before Kyle Finnegan gave up five runs in the bottom of the ninth, then kept Finnegan but traded Dylan Floro before suffering the most lopsided loss in club history. Whew.

And now we finally come to the final game of the trip. Will it be relatively normal, or will some other wild development overtake matters and turn this into another crazy afternoon? If they win, the Nationals somehow would head home 3-3. All things considered, that wouldn’t be bad at all.

They need MacKenzie Gore to be good, though. And that’s something that hasn’t happened in a while. The left-hander hasn’t delivered a quality start since June 14 against the Marlins, and over his last four starts he’s got a 10.80 ERA while totaling only 15 innings. He knows he needs to be better. He’s openly said it. Now it’s time for him to actually do it.

It’s been a bit of an erratic year for Zac Gallen as well, but the Diamondbacks right-hander still enters with a 3.70 ERA and back-to-back wins over the Cubs and Pirates. After getting shut out for the 13th time this season Tuesday night, the reconfigured Nats lineup would love to take an early lead today and take some of the pressure off everyone.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
Where: Chase Field
Gametime: 3:40 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 88.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

The Orioles, still a work in progress with their roster after the trade deadline, take the field today with Jackson Holliday back in the lineup as they host Toronto to wrap up the four-game series.

The Orioles (64-44) lead the American League East by 1/2 game over the Yankees and by seven games over the Red Sox after last night's 6-2 win. They have taken two of three in this series, are 22-10 in division games and have scored 29 runs in winning three of the past four games.

The Orioles, now 7-6 the last 13 games, are hoping they are in the beginning stages of an extended stretch of winning as the playoff push is on now post-trade deadline.

The Orioles are 11-13 this month, so they are about to have a losing month for the first time since September of 2022. The nine consecutive winning months were the longest active streak in the majors. 

Today's roster moves included the recall of Holliday from Triple-A. In other moves, lefty Gregory Soto was activated after being acquired yesterday. In corresponding moves, catcher Blake Hunt, who was added to the active roster right before the game last night, and infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra, who had his contract selected from the Tides yesterday, were optioned to Norfolk (Hunt stayed in Baltimore on the taxi squad).