This, that and the other

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde hasn’t confirmed his second-half rotation beyond Tyler Wells, Jordan Lyles and Dean Kremer for the Yankees series, which began last night with a 7-6 loss.

Unless there’s a late intruder, the first two games of the Rays series next week should feature Spenser Watkins and Austin Voth in whatever order.

The process of elimination is at work here. But also some suspicion.

DL Hall started last night for Triple-A Norfolk and came out after one inning, a planned removal to shorten up the young pitchers coming out of the break. Didn’t necessarily mean anything more than that, but it stirred up the local media for a few minutes.

There’s shortening and then there’s really shortening. One inning and 17 pitches?

Mike Baumann replaced Hall and worked two innings, allowing two runs and exiting after 32 pitches.

Hall has made five starts this month and allowed two earned runs and 10 hits with 42 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings. His fastball last night touched 98 mph. But he’s staying with Norfolk … for now.

Veteran Matt Harvey is listed for tonight. The calm after the fake storm.

The Sunday starter is TBA, but Kyle Bradish is expected to fill the spot after making two injury rehab starts with Double-A Bowie and tossing eight scoreless innings with one hit, no walks and nine strikeouts. He, too, could make a fast exit.

Hyde stated yesterday that Bradish would remain on the assignment, and he indicated that the right-hander would move up to Norfolk.  

Left-hander Bruce Zimmermann is one of the lurkers at Triple-A. He isn’t staying down for the rest of the summer. But the date of his return is unknown. Not even a rough estimate.

* The Orioles have had 55 games decided by two runs or fewer, most in the majors.

They’re 27-28 in those games.

"I feel like the majority of our losses are like this," Hyde said after the Orioles battled back from a 7-3 deficit and just fell short.

* Reliever Bryan Baker entered last night’s game with a runner on first base and one out in the seventh. Aaron Judge, who homered twice off Tyler Wells, struck out on eight pitches, the last a cutter.

What happened on the sixth pitch was almost as impressive.

Baker’s fastball reached 100 mph for the first time in his career. Judge fouled it off.

Baker has recorded a strikeout in all eight of his appearances this month.

* Norfolk’s Terrin Vavra led off last night’s game with a double, and he scored on Jordan Westburg’s double.

Vavra doubled twice and has reached base in 21 consecutive games, the second-longest active streak in the International League. He’s batting .333 with a .911 OPS.

Westburg has 29 RBIs in 33 games with the Tides. They’re tied for the team lead with 15 multi-hit games.

* Missed this one in the transactions page: The Orioles signed right-hander Carson King last week to a minor league deal.

King, 22, was in the Tigers’ system last year and went a combined 2-4 with a 5.74 ERA and 1.552 WHIP in 23 games (six starts) between the rookie-level Florida Complex League and Single-A Lakeland. He was released in December.

The Orioles assigned King to the FCL.