Orioles adjust rotation for Yankees series (and other notes)

BOSTON – Jordan Lyles has been moved up to Friday night at Yankee Stadium, working on short rest with Aaron Judge one home run away from breaking Roger Maris’ single-season record in the American League.

Lyles was held to two innings on Monday due to the rain.

Austin Voth is pushed back to Saturday, with rookie Kyle Bradish starting Sunday on regular rest.

“This allows Voth to get an extra day, somebody that we’re monitoring closely,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “He’s thrown a lot of innings so far, so give him an extra day, and Jordan after that, bring him back a day early.”

Judge tied Maris’ record last night while in Toronto. The Yankees are off today.

Hyde said the change in starters wasn’t part of a Judge-related calculation.

“I was really hoping he’d hit one more last night,” Hyde said. “No, that didn’t have anything to do with it, honestly.”

The Orioles were the opponent for the last game at old Yankee Stadium and Derek Jeter’s final game in the Bronx. Now they’ve stepped into the Judge hoopla, with the abundance of national media attention.

“It’s going to be a little bit unusual,” Hyde said. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere. It’s going to be fun to be involved in that type of atmosphere. Let’s hope we pitch him well and win the games. But I don’t know what to expect, to be honest with you.

“I kind of watched how the Blue Jays pitched him this last series. Hats off to him yesterday for doing what he did. It’s cool for the game. The moment with him and his mom and the Maris family, that’s awesome. He’s a great guy, too, so happy for him.

“I hope he does it the series after us.”

Voth might be the guy trying to prevent Judge from breaking the record, though moving to Saturday gives him a small cushion.

“He’s having a great season and he’s definitely a big body in the box,” Voth said. “But at the end of the day, I’m going to pitch how I usually pitch. I’m probably going to throw him all types of off-speed pitches, try to get him off balance. But it’s going to be a great challenge, that’s for sure.”

The Orioles are 4 ½ games behind the Mariners for the last wild card and their magic number for elimination is down to three. They need a win to guarantee their first non-losing season since 2016.

“It matters to me, for sure,” Hyde said. “We’d like to win as many games as we can to end the season. We talked about finishing. We got beat last night by Rich Hill. We didn’t pitch very well the night before, unfortunately. Like to see us win today. Even the series and feel good going into New York.”

Hyde said he’s hoping to get at least five innings from Mike Baumann in the right-hander’s third major league start. Baumann worked four innings in his last outing.

“If it’s efficient and he’s pitching well, maybe more,” Hyde said.

The Orioles have hit five triples in this series. The only two previous series in club history with five or more triples, in 1957 against Washington and 1983 against the Angels.

A victory today would give the Orioles their first season series win over the Red Sox since 2017. The teams split 10 games in 2020.