Orioles updates on Mateo, Givens, Tate and more

Jorge Mateo is on the bench again tonight to rest his legs before the Orioles finish their homestand on Thursday and hit the road for series against the Blue Jays and Yankees.

Mateo is 5-for-43 this month after batting .347/.395/.667 in his first 23 games.

“It’s nothing about offense,” manager Brandon Hyde said when explaining Mateo’s absence from the lineup. “It’s more of he’s just dealing with that little bit of leg soreness that he’s battling for the last couple weeks. And with a day game tomorrow, he’ll be in there. Just want to make sure with two big series coming up, also.

“It’s mainly about the day game being tomorrow. I didn’t want him to play a day game after a night. So, giving (Joey) Ortiz a start tonight.”

Hyde doesn’t know whether Mateo’s prolonged slump is related to his health.

“He’s had a tough week offensively, but everybody’s going to have tough weeks throughout a long season,” Hyde said. “I know he’s working hard to get back on track.”

Mateo broke an 0-for-19 slump last night with a run-scoring single and also had a sacrifice fly.

“Great to see him last night with two really good at-bats,” Hyde said. “Love to see him hit the ball the other way the way he did with runners in scoring position, and the sac fly was huge for us. He’s still contributing for us, playing great defense.”

Mychal Givens will throw a bullpen session within the next few days, and the Orioles will decide whether he’s ready to be activated from the injured list.

Givens retired all five batters he faced last night at Triple-A Norfolk. He stranded the three runners inherited from Dillon Tate, who was charged with four runs and six hits in one-third of an inning.

Tate will have at least one more rehab game with Norfolk.

“It sounds like they both came out healthy, which is the No. 1 thing,” Hyde said. “The line score obviously with Dillon wasn’t real good, but you factor a lot of things – how his stuff was, how it played.

“When you evaluate a rehab assignment game, you’ve really got to watch because you can’t just go on a box score. D-Tate gets contact, some swinging bunts. But just mainly how their stuff looked. Sounded like Mychal threw the ball well, feels good. He’s in the building today. And Dillon’s getting better and getting close.”

Kyle Gibson, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer make the starts this weekend in Toronto.

I wrote last night about DL Hall being shortened to three innings and 45 pitches before Tate replaced him. His health is fine. He’s on a de-load and deliberate training period for the next several weeks.

“That’s a plan that they put in place with him to kind of build strength because he missed so much time with the back,” Hyde said today. “Just a little different plan for him. Lowering his pitch count for right now and getting him out on the mound more, but also allowing him to recover and build strength back.”

Former Oriole Dylan Bundy, traded to the Angels for a package that included Kyle Bradish, starts for Triple-A Syracuse tonight in Norfolk. Bradish is on the mound tonight for the Orioles.

For the Angels
Taylor Ward LF
Mike Trout CF
Shohei Ohtani DH
Hunter Renfroe RF
Brandon Drury 2B
Matt Thaiss 1B
Gio Urshela 3B
Chad Wallach C
Zach Neto SS

Griffin Canning RHP