Orioles stay on wrong side of lopsided score in 13-2 loss (Ortiz optioned)

Luis Ortiz was given orders to attack.

Don't nibble or the Red Sox will devour you. Work quickly, throw strikes, stay aggressive.

A high pitch count and short outing would be frowned upon on a club scrambling late last night to find a starter and freshen up the bullpen. Do anything to avoid it.

Pitching coach Doug Brocail visited Ortiz by the third inning, which included a bases-loaded jam and prolonged at-bat by Brock Holt, who homered earlier in the game. Holt struck out looking at a slider that appeared to miss outside, but Ortiz's count climbed to 70. The plan wasn't taking hold.

The deficit grew in the fourth with Christian Vázquez's leadoff home run, Ortiz retired only one more batter and replacement Dan Straily served up four home runs in the Orioles' 13-2 loss before an announced crowd of 19,383 at Camden Yards.

Ortiz was charged with four runs and four hits with five walks in 3 1/3 innings and the Orioles tumbled to 21-48 overall and 9-26 at home. They're 3-5 against the Red Sox.

They've been outscored 25-5 the past two nights.

Straily let an inherited runner score to complete Ortiz's line and J.D. Martinez hit a two-run homer later in the inning. Straily surrendered two-run shots to Jackie Bradley Jr. and Michael Chavis and a solo shot to Martinez in the fifth to raise the total of the Orioles pitching staff to 138.

Bradley stood at second base with one out in the fourth and Hyde hesitated before coming to the mound in order to give Straily a few more warmup tosses in the bullpen. Ortiz threw 80 pitches, 44 for strikes, and what comes next for him is up in the air.

Does he return to Norfolk on Saturday, with another arm delivered to Camden Yards?

Holt's first home run of the season was a two-run shot in the second inning that gave Boston a 2-1 lead. Ortiz already had thrown 43 pitches and walked three batters in two frames, but he collected two strikeouts and a double play and his fastball touched 96 mph.

Trey Mancini hit his 15th home run in the first inning to stake Ortiz to an early lead. The ball sailed over the home bullpen, a 429-foot shot with an exit velocity of 107.2 mph, per Statcast.

Former Orioles prospect Eduardo Rodriguez lowered his head as Mancini made contact. No need to watch the flight of the ball. He knew exactly where it was headed.

Rodriguez didn't allow another run over seven innings. Keon Broxton's infield hit with two outs in the ninth scored Anthony Santander.

Ortiz injured his hamstring in his first major league start on Sept. 14 while trying to cover first base. He had the same task tonight when Chavis led off by grounding to Chris Davis, who flipped the ball to Ortiz for the out.

A slimmer model reached its destination faster and without hitting any bumps.

Unable to complete the second inning in his other start, Ortiz ventured into the fourth before Hyde decided to make a change. Vázquez's ball traveled 443 feet. Bradley followed with a double, Eduardo Núñez flied out and Straily got the call for only the second time since June 2.

It went poorly, to say the least, with Straily allowing seven runs and seven hits in 1 1/3 innings and raising his ERA to 9.13.

Chavis singled to score Bradley and Martinez unloaded with two outs. Straily began the fifth by hitting Holt on the leg and then he took a beating, at one point squatting in front of the mound as Chavis' ball cleared the center field fence.

Straily has given up 19 home runs this season in 45 1/3 innings. He's one behind teammate David Hess and Seattle's Mike Leake for most in the majors.

Andrew Benintendi's two-run single off Josh Rogers in the sixth increased the lead to 13-1. At this point, Hyde had to be praying that Rogers would provide more length.

Recalled with Ortiz earlier in the day, Rogers covered the last 4 1/3 innings with two runs allowed on 82 pitches and deserved a variation of a save.

Maybe he deserves a start.

Pedro Severino thought he hit a two-run homer off Rodriguez in the sixth, trotting up the first base line after admiring his work, but Bradley leaped above the center field fence and slapped the ball back into play. No catch, but still a robbery, with Severino settling for a double.

Santander flied to right and Martinez threw out Mancini at the plate to end the inning.

The Orioles were down to a two-man bench with Hanser Alberto leaving the game due to illness. Hyde didn't resort to using a position player to pitch.

The only thing that went right.

Update: The Orioles optioned Ortiz to Triple-A Norfolk following the game. A corresponding roster move will be announced on Saturday.

Ortiz was charged with four runs and four hits with five walks in 3 1/3 innings.

"I would say it was a tough one, a tough one to get up here and not do so well," he said. "I was competing every pitch, but it is what it is. Go out and get better and learn from this mistake and this start and everything.

"They're a good team, they're a really good team. The AL East, a really good team. Me facing them for the first time, they've got some disciplined hitters up there, real patient, some are aggressive. I take what happened because I made mistakes out there on the pitches that I got hurt on."

Ortiz knew last night that he was joining the Orioles, but didn't learn that he'd start until today.

"I was just preparing myself as another start like always," he said. "Go out there and compete every pitch."

Ortiz said he felt more prepared tonight than during last September's start.

"Oh, yeah, mentally and physically," he said. "Mentally I was a lot prepared compared to last year, getting a taste of it. And also physically I'm in better shape than what I was last year, so I'm able to get into my delivery better now.

"Emotions were same. I knew I was coming up and getting an opportunity to come up here and compete and get the ball and compete for these guys like they do every night. It was just, I don't know. Just another start."

Hyde said he thought Ortiz did "a decent job."

"Eighty pitches with the third time through the order in the fourth," he said. "We had very limited options tonight, honestly, and I didn't want to throw Mike (Givens) or Rich (Bleier) in a game that we were losing. So we were going to try to somehow navigate through with Ortiz, Dan and Rogers. And Rogers did a nice job there for the last four innings."

Straily surrendered four home runs and allowed seven runs and seven hits in only 1 1/3 innings.

"I thought he threw the ball well a couple days ago and I was trying to ... I didn't want to bring Rogers in with guys on base and was hoping Dan could just get through the game for Louie and it just didn't happen," Hyde said.

"And once the game got out of hand, we kind of needed him to suck it up and go a little bit because I didn't know how long Josh was going to be able to go and that's all we had left.

I can't pinpoint anything from the side, I haven't looked to the video or anything. It just seems like he's getting hit and we'll try to work through it."

Asked whether he would have done anything differently with his pitching plans the last 36 hours, Hyde said, "I think we ran into some tough luck there with (Andrew) Cashner getting the blister. I don't know what else really we could have done."

The past two games have ended in lopsided losses after Hyde's been praising his club for staying competitive.

"It's tough," Broxton said, "especially losing close games and this happened tonight. It's pretty tough, but all you can do is wash it and get ready for tomorrow."

But how?

"You just prepare yourself for the next day," he said. "Once the game's over, you've just got to learn from everything that went on during the game, go back and think about ways that we can change and get better, wash it and get ready to play the next day."