Means, Fry and tonight's Orioles lineup

The bullpen bond that John Means has formed with Paul Fry will be interrupted at least temporarily when he moves into the rotation Tuesday night against the Athletics at Camden Yards.

Means doesn't know how long he'll be starting. He replaced TBD on Tuesday, a major league career consisting of four relief appearances about to take another turn.

Maybe it's one and done, with Dan Straily replacing him, or manager Brandon Hyde could give him another shot.

A team in need of dependable relief is willing to remove Means from the bullpen for at least one turn. He's allowed only run and struck out nine batters in 5 2/3 innings, used in high-leverage situations to give him something else in common with Fry.

The only roles are to start warming when told and get outs. Means picked up his first major league victory on March 31, with Fry earning his third save to clinch a series win in the Bronx.

"We actually play catch together, too, so we kind of work on some stuff together and discuss how we want to attack hitters because we have to have pretty much the same mindset with guys," Means said. "We talk about it before the game."

"We do bond," Fry said. "It's everybody in the bullpen, too. We all want to have each other's backs. I had (Nate) Karns' back (Saturday) and helped him get out of a jam.

"I like when guys have each other's back out there. We take pride in that as relievers. Yeah, lefties doing well, it's great, but we want to see everyone do well, too."

For Means, it's the changeup that's been a primary source of his success, while Fry - with one run and three hits allowed in 5 2/3 innings - points to his slider.

"It's nice to see because that's one of the pitches I worked on in spring training a lot," Means said, "and to get some swings and misses, especially with two strikes, isn't something that I'm used to, at least in my career, so it's nice to see that I'm getting that pitch and locating it well.

"More of execution and release point. (Minor league pitching coordinator) Chris Holt is kind of like the changeup guru and he working on it with me and actually working on it with Paul, too. We were working on it a lot in spring training and he was showing me what I was doing wrong with it and what I need to be doing with it and it's been working well."

Fry already was a reverse-splits guy, but it's more pronounced this year with right-handers slashing .154/.267/.231. He inherited a bases-loaded, no-out jam from Karns Saturday and didn't allow a run. Or a baserunner in 2 1/3 innings.

The slider has been used 46 percent of the time this season, according to BrooksBaseball.net, and Fry has thrown the four-seam fastball 54 percent. There was similar usage last summer, but in 2017 he threw it 27 percent of the time.

"It's just confidence really with my slider and throwing it in whatever count that I want and seeing the results when I do," he said.

"It's just the mindset of going out there and just attacking with your best stuff. That's something that Broc (pitching coach Doug Brocail) has really told us every day is just trust your stuff and attack with what you have because it's good enough. And so just having that mindset out there is really huge."

Fry pitched as an opener in Clearwater on the penultimate day of spring training. He's entered game this season in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings.

"Just stay ready mindset all of the time - close game, not a close game, either way," he said. "We're going to have to pick each other up out there, cover some innings and do that kind of thing and be ready."

Andrew Cashner starts tonight for the Orioles and has posted a 6.84 ERA and 1.600 WHIP in eight career games against the Athletics covering 25 innings.

Kendrys Morales is 6-for-10 with three home runs against Cashner. Khris Davis is 6-for-17 with a double and home run. Matt Olson is 3-for-5 with a double and two home runs, but he's injured.

Marco Estrada doesn't have a decision in three starts with Oakland, but he's registered a 2.76 ERA and 0.796 WHIP in 16 1/3 innings. Left-handers have a career .216/.282/.401 slash line against him. Right-handers hit .255/.310/.447.

Estrada is 9-3 with a 3.43 ERA and 1.163 WHIP in 19 career games (17 starts) against the Orioles and 3-3 with a 3.83 ERA and 1.222 WHIP in 10 games (nine starts) at Camden Yards.

Chris Davis is 6-for-36 with three home runs, seven walks and 12 strikeouts against Estrada. He's moves up to sixth tonight.

Davis is hitless in 44 consecutive at-bats and 51 plate appearances. The major league records for non-pitchers are 46 and 57, respectively.

Joey Rickard is in left field, Trey Mancini is in right and Hanser Alberto is playing third base. Cedric Mullins is batting ninth.

Dwight Smith Jr. and Rio Ruiz are on the bench against a reverse-splits right-hander.

For the Orioles
Jonathan Villar 2B
Joey Rickard LF
Trey Mancini RF
Renato Núñez DH
Hanser Alberto 3B
Chris Davis 1B
Jesús Sucre C
Richie Martin SS
Cedric Mullins CF

Andrew Cashner RHP