More Orioles injury updates before tonight's game

BOSTON – More than half of manager Brandon Hyde’s pregame media session this afternoon again centered on injury and rehabilitation updates.

It’s become a daily roll call.

Jordan Westburg took dry swings earlier today in front of the dugout before fielding ground balls and making throws in the infield. His right hand is responding favorably, but there are plenty of other steps before he’s ready for reinstatement.

“He’s still got the hitting progression to do, but everything’s getting better,” Hyde said. “Doing dry swings today he felt OK after, so we’re continuing the progression. It takes a little time with a broken hand, unfortunately, but he’s right on track and looking forward to him hopefully taking batting practice here sometime soon.”

Reliever Jacob Webb made his third injury rehab appearance last night and tossed a scoreless inning with Triple-A Norfolk. He hasn’t gone multiple innings or back-to-back. He worked on five days’ rest last night.

“Still deciding if he’s going to do another one or not,” Hyde said. “We’re kind of waiting to see how he felt today after the outing. Also, just don’t want to throw him up here if he’s only able to throw one inning every few days. We want to be able to make sure that he’s able to bounce back, so we’re encouraged by how it went last night and we’re taking it from there.”

Left-hander Danny Coulombe’s first rehab appearance today was encouraging, with a scoreless inning for the Tides and nine strikes among his 10 pitches.

“Coulombe hasn’t thrown in months, so you have to build up the endurance and see how they feel after they threw one inning,” Hyde said.

Hyde’s bullpen management is a lot easier with a healthy Coulombe, who’s held right-handed hitters to a .130 average and .490 OPS and left-handed hitters to a .171 average and .400 OPS. Left-handers are batting .125 with a .433 OPS against Webb.

“Both those guys, they got huge outs for us, whether it’s in the fifth through the eighth inning a lot of times,” Hyde said. “Like a team like this (Red Sox) that can line change on you, and you bring in a reliever who can flip-flop and pinch-hit guys, it’s a lot of comfort knowing those two guys can get both sides out.

“Coulombe’s done it for us for a couple years. Same with Webby. We got him in August (2023). For them to be able to get both sides out, which our bullpen is fairly one-sided, that gives us a lot more flexibility.”

Grayson Rodriguez had another bullpen session today as he approaches the chance to face hitters.

“Sounds like it went OK,” Hyde said.

First baseman Ryan Mountcastle is down in Sarasota with other injured Orioles, rehabbing a sprained left wrist with no apparent timetable for facing live pitching.

The Orioles haven’t listed their starters for the three-game series in Detroit that begins Friday night. An uninterrupted order would send Zach Eflin, Corbin Burnes and Cade Povich to the mound.