Hyde updates Mountcastle and rotation plans, Burnes returns to club as father of twin girls

SEATTLE – Ryan Mountcastle is taking ground balls at first base during batting practice and might be available to play tonight.

Mountcastle hasn’t been in the lineup for the past three games.

“He’s still a little bit under the weather,” said manager Brandon Hyde.

“Hopefully he feels well enough to come off the bench and hopefully feeling a little bit better every day.”

Ryan O'Hearn gets another start at first base, which puts Heston Kjerstad in the designated hitter spot against Mariners right-hander George Kirby.

Dean Kremer will be reinstated from the injured list and start Wednesday night’s game. A corresponding roster move is pending.

Corbin Burnes will close out the series Thursday afternoon before the Orioles fly to Oakland. The starters were listed as TBA because the Orioles didn’t know when he’d be available.

Burnes rejoined the club following the birth of twin girls Charlotte and Harper early Friday morning in Arizona, less than 24 hours after his start at Camden Yards. His wife, Brooke, and their daughters came home Sunday afternoon.

“Been crazy going from one kid to three kids now, but it’s awesome,” Burnes said. “My wife did great. For a twin pregnancy, it was unbelievable, so proud of her and just excited to be a dad of three now.”

“Saw the pictures of the twins this morning. Really, really cute," Hyde said.

"Congratulations to their family. It’s quite a handful now. But it’s awesome and we’re happy to see him back.”

Hyde isn’t setting a precautionary pitch count for Burnes. The time away from the team won’t factor into his outing.

“I’m going to let him tell me how he’s feeling. He’s earned it,” Hyde said.

“He’s got two days to kind of get back on his feet and get acclimated and throw. A little touch today and play catch tomorrow. We’ll see how he feels. I’m sure he’s going to be fine. But I’ll rely on him to kind of tell me how he’s feeling throughout his outing.”

Burnes has a son, Carter, but is a girl dad for the first time. He wonders what it’s going to be like.

“That’s still to be determined,” he said. “But my son is at the age now where he’s starting to get into sports a little bit more and I was just starting to get a glimpse into that, and now I’m going to have to shift gears a little bit and get into the girl dad stuff. But I’m excited for it.

“(Carter) knew babies were coming, but I don’t think he really understood it until they were there. Sunday and Monday he was still a little hesitant. They would grunt and he’d say ‘babies.’ He knew they were there. But my wife’s been sending me videos today of him bringing stuffed animals to them, so he seems to be embracing the big brother role.”

The Burnes family learned about the pending arrival of twins about 10 days before the Orioles traded for the former Cy Young Award winner.

“The two weeks surrounding that was a little bit crazy, trying to figure out the logistics of it,” he said. “We were definitely shocked. Twins don’t run in the family. So it’s something that was just kind of thrown on us. You start doing your homework, start doing your research. Figure out how to gameplan with twins and also having three under three. But I told her we’re lucky we get two out of the way at once versus spreading them out. She didn’t think that was too funny. But yeah, we’re looking forward to it. We’re excited. Obviously it’s only been a couple days but they’re doing great.”

Having a young son already taught Burnes how to shift back and forth from personal and professional life. How to establish a routine and separate life from work.

“Obviously, being a husband and a father takes up more time than being a baseball player, but when I get here and change clothes and kind of strap everything on, I make sure I’m focused to get everything done so that if something happens that I have to bounce out of here, I can still go do that,” Burnes said. “But when I’m at the field I do what I can to be as business and professional as I can, and when I go home be the best husband and father that I can.”

Coby Mayo hit another home run tonight, his 18^th with Triple-A Norfolk and 21 on the season. First baseman Garrett Cooper had a two-run shot in the same inning.

Double-A Bowie’s Kyle Brnovich tossed five scoreless innings with three hits allowed.

Center fielder Thomas Sosa was removed from Single-A Delmarva’s game with a left shoulder injury.