Givens surrenders late home run in 4-3 loss (updated)

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde had "an idea" last night, as he put it, that Trevor Richards would start for the Rays in the second game of the series. He was waiting for confirmation, which can be a sluggish process. They stick with TBD for as long as possible while sorting through their available candidates in the bullpen.

Hyde thought the Rays might go with an opener in front of Richards. He didn't post the lineup until later, which made sense anyway because he had to check on the status of injured catcher Pedro Severino and shortstop José Iglesias.

"I usually make out the lineup the night before when I'm sure who the starter is for them," Hyde said this afternoon. "Our guys, I know who's available for tomorrow. Today I really didn't know, and I wasn't positive about Richards, either, so I waited until this afternoon.

Multiple lineups were written with options depending on the starter and the health of his own players.

Iglesias stayed on the injured list and Severino stayed on the bench. Hyde plugged in a few extra right-handed hitters as a nod to Richards' reverse splits.

He really needed Iglesias and Severino. The offense doesn't function the same without them.

Hyde watched his team take an early lead, lose it, fumble a succession of scoring opportunities, tie the game in the seventh and lose to the Rays 4-3 on Michael Perez's home run off Mychal Givens in the eighth inning.

The Orioles are 14-16 at the halfway point of the season. And they still must decide whether to play Thursday or join the other teams that refused tonight.

Anthony Santander won a nine-pitch battle with Pete Fairbanks in the seventh, delivering a two-out RBI single to tie the game 3-3 after Hanser Alberto reached on an error and moved up on a wild pitch. The Orioles were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position before the at-bat.

Paul Fry walked two batters in the seventh and Givens stranded them. He registered the first out in the eighth, but Perez lined a 95 mph fastball over the center field fence for his first home run of the season, the second of his career and the first surrendered by Givens this summer.

Givens struck out three batters in the inning, but he also took the loss.

The Rays loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth inning and moved ahead on Yandy Díaz's fielder's choice bouncer. Asher Wojciechowski was removed after Manuel Margot's leadoff double and Tanner Scott walked two batters and hit one.

Miguel Castro replaced Scott with a 1-1 count on Willy Adames, who replaced Kevin Kiermaier during the at-bat. Kiermaier experienced back spasms while taking a pitch. Because it's 2020.

Castro struck out Adames to limit the damage in one of more bizarre sequences of a crazy summer.

Keegan Akin made his second major league appearance by replacing Castro with a runner on second base and two outs in the sixth and retiring Austin Meadows on a ground ball. He's already trusted in high-leverage situations.

Brandon Lowe, who played at the University of Maryland, hit a game-tying two-run homer in the third inning. Wojciechowski was charged with three runs and four hits in four-plus innings, with three walks and three strikeouts. He threw 83 pitches, 49 for strikes, and his ERA is 5.13.

The Orioles are starting to get inside their opponents' heads with their small-ball approach at the top and bottom of the order.

Rays manager Kevin Cash said his club worked on its bunt defense Tuesday to prepare for the Orioles. Cedric Mullins didn't care.

Mullins led off tonight's game with a bunt single and scored when Alberto poked a single through the vacated right side of the infield and the ball rolled past Hunter Renfroe. Alberto raced to third base and came home when shortstop Joey Wendle gloved Renato Núñez's chopper and threw high to home plate.

An infield hit and a fielder's choice fueled a 2-0 lead.

Wojciechowski entered the game with a career 6.19 ERA in the first inning, but he stranded two runners in scoring position by getting a shallow fly ball and popup. Meadows walked in the third and Lowe yanked a 90 mph fastball into the empty right field seats.

Lowe has six home runs in 17 games against the Orioles.

Ryan Mountcastle had an infield hit in the fourth and would have scored the go-ahead run on Pat Valaika's two-out double to left-center field if the ball hadn't hopped the fence. Mountcastle was sent back to third base and Bryan Holaday grounded out.

Mullins reached base for a third time by drawing a leadoff walk in the fifth inning. He moved up on Alberto's sacrifice bunt and stole third base with one out, but reliever Ryan Thompson struck out Núñez and retired Chance Sisco on a liner to left.

The Orioles had stranded six runners as the game moved to the bottom of the fifth. Mountcastle led off the sixth with a single and Rio Ruiz grounded into a double play.

The teams chose to play tonight while other games were postponed to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. Baseball was following the lead of the NBA and WNBA.

The Brewers elected to skip tonight's game against the Reds. The Mariners voted against playing their game against the Padres. The Giants met on the field before batting practice and left the ballpark, with the Dodgers supporting the decision. Mookie Betts told the media that he wasn't going to play anyway.

The Rockies' Matt Kemp announced on his Instagram account that he wouldn't play against the Diamondbacks. The Cubs' Jason Heyward was a healthy scratch after meeting with manager David Ross. The Cardinals' Dexter Fowler was a healthy scratch against the Royals and teammate Jack Flaherty joined him.

Major League Baseball issued a statement that read:

"Given the pain in the communities of Wisconsin and beyond following the shooting of Jacob Blake, we respect the decisions of a number of players not to play tonight. Major League Baseball remains united for change in our society and we will be allies in the fight to end racism and injustice."

The early start time pretty much eliminated the possibility that the Orioles would decline to take the field.

"The 6:40 starter when everything was kind of breaking, 25 minutes, maybe, before the game, and we had players already out on the field when we were hearing about what was going on around the league with the Reds' and the Brewers' situation, it was fairly close to game time and Asher was already on the field. We had some guys," Hyde said.

"I met with our African-American players as well as people who travel with us and we discussed. I wanted to hear their thoughts, and we discussed briefly just because Cedric was one of them and he was leading off the game and we had about 12 minutes before game. But we did talk about it a little bit in a small group."

"Because of the timing of our game we had a really quick discussion," Mullins said, "and there was no indication from anybody that they didn't want to play, so we continued to prepare for today's game."

Maybe the conversation goes differently with a later first pitch.

"There's always a possibility," said Mulins, who participated in peaceful protests in Virginia following George Floyd's death in May while being arrested by Minnapolis police. "I know we would have had a team discussion about it. I fully support those teams and individual players that decided to not play.

"It's tough because us as professional players want to help our communities the best we can in the process of having successful careers. Before the game started I just recently found out the news on the other teams not participating in their games, and my support for them goes beyond just playing a game because I know why they're standing up for what they believe in."

"I support them," Wojciechowski said. "A lot of communities are hurting, a lot of people are hurting, and athletes are doing what they feel is right to bring awareness to the situaiton, and they have my full support in doing that."

Hyde said the subject will be brought up again on Thursday.

"It was such a rush before the game that I would have loved to addressed it with the entire team, but there were already people on the field, so I wanted to make sure that I talked to all the African-Americans who are in our clubhouse, and I wanted to see what their thoughts were, see if they had heard what was going on first and then talk about it and get their thoughts and opinions," Hyde said.

"We just had a great conversation. We have some really high-character, class guys that are very thoughtful, so it was a nice, quick meeting. And like I said, Cedric was leading off the game, so we had to wrap it up. But we'll continue to talk about it as a team, probably tomorrow."

Said Mullins: "We want to continue making decisions as a team and show each other support throughout this whole process. The pain that we're kind of going through throughout different communities."

Mullins said Givens and Hyde are facilitating these talks among the team.

"Givens has been a great leader for us in terms of bringing us together to have these tough discussions," he said. "Hyde has also taken charge of bringing us together to talk about it, as well, because he wants us to be a collaborative group and discuss these issues that we're having."

Hyde wasn't aware of anyone on the club wanting to sit out the game or have it postponed.

"They all wanted to play," he said.

The sloppy nature of the game could have been tied to what unfolded earlier in the afternoon and evening. The lapses in concentration. The inability to focus.

Hyde and his players kept checking their phones for updates around the league.

"I think there's a lot going on and there's a lot of things that are bigger than our game right now," Hyde said. "It could have definitely played a part for some and I can totally understand why, because there are things that are bigger than the game."

"It was tough," Mullins said. "Before the game, after having the discussion, I felt frustration, sadness, for Blake and his family and his community. It was definitely hard to push through."

Could the Orioles vote Thursday to not play the series finale?

"I have no idea," Hyde said. "And I will support them whatever they want to do."