Updating Smith injury and wrapping up a 9-3 loss

CINCINNATI - The Orioles are prepared to make at least one roster move before Wednesday's game against the Reds after using long relievers Vidal Nuño and Tyler Wilson in a 9-3 loss at Great American Ball Park.

Nuño and Wilson combined to work 4 1/3 innings and the Orioles may not have sufficient coverage behind starter Ubaldo Jiménez.

"They're both down for tomorrow," said manager Buck Showalter. "Wanted to get Mychal (Givens) out there. He had missed five days with the off-day. We didn't pitch him for three days with the back issue that he had. It's good to get him out there. That's why I pitched him first, because I knew I had Wilson in case he had a back issue again and didn't want to pitch him last with no backup.

"We've got people we could have pitched, but I was trying to stay away from them. There's potentially a move or two coming."

The other move could involve outfielder Seth Smith, who exited the game in the bottom of the sixth inning with a strained right hamstring. Showalter said the disabled list is a consideration, but Smith downplayed the injury.

"In the fifth inning at-bat and then in the outfield after that, I felt it getting a little tight," he said. "Super mild, but it was just a thing where I didn't feel like I could push it and if I did, if I had to run really hard after something, it might get worse. So it was kind of, I guess, a pre-emptive or precautionary kind of let's not get this any worse."

Asked if it's a DL situation, Smith replied, "We'll see how it feels tomorrow, but I don't think it will be."

The same hamstring limited Smith's at-bats in spring training, but he noted how the discomfort tonight wasn't on the same level.

"It's a totally different thing," he said. "Just erred on the side of caution. I think I could have finished and I think I would have been all right, but my leg was kind of telling me I should shut it down.

"Show up tomorrow and see how it feels and see what it looks like and go from there."

Smith knows how to handle the situation. Hamstring soreness dogged him last spring, as well.

"It's your legs," he said. "You kind of know what they feel like and when it's good and when it's bad and when it could get worse quickly, so that's what we were trying to avoid."

Showalter replaced Smith with Trey Mancini in the bottom of the sixth inning.

"We'll see where we are tomorrow, but it was enough that he needed to come out of the game," Showalter said. "It's the same one. Talking to Richie (Bancells), it's a potential DL. We'll see where we are tomorrow."

Kevin Gausman didn't make it out of the third inning, leaving with two outs and seven runs on the board. He was charged with eight after Joey Votto homered off Nuño, who inherited Jose Peraza after a double to center field.

Gausman allowed eight hits, walked three batters and hit one. He threw 79 pitches, 42 for strikes, and raised his ERA to 7.23 in his four starts.

"Just command," Showalter said. "He never really got into a groove. You've got to tip your hat to them, too.

"He made mistakes with breaking balls in the zone. Really didn't present the command of secondary pitches that they could box out. Combination of command and really no secondary pitches there for him. Very unlike him, but you've got to tip your hat to them."

Gausman will study video of his starts from the second half of last season in an attempt to correct a mechanical flaw.

"I think my front hip is kind of coming open a little too soon and I'm not really driving the four-seam down and away," he said. "My ball is kind of coming back, and that's why even when I'm throwing strikes - at least today and really the first two starts of the season, too - the ball was kind of coming back to the middle of the plate. So that's something I need to get back to, look at some video.

"I think it's something that has a lot to do with my front hip and I'm leaking a little too soon, so I think that's why I've been a little sporadic, especially tonight."

Trouble came quickly, with the Reds loading the bases with no outs in the first inning and scoring twice. Adam Duvall hit a grand slam in the second.

"It's tough, but you have to make quality pitches and I was throwing the ball down in the zone, but a little too down in the zone and then sort of tried to bring it up and that's kind of when I got hurt," Gausman said.

"The biggest thing was, I don't know how many times I got into 1-0, 2-0 counts. It doesn't matter whether you're facing an NL team or an American League team, if you kind of continue to put yourself in a hole, it's going to come back to bite you eventually."

The Reds took a large chunk out of Gausman.

"It has a snowball effect on you," he said. "It's kind of like that thoroughbred mentality. Sometimes you want to go and go and go and you've got to be able to take your foot off the accelerator and hit the brakes sometimes and slow the game down. That's something I didn't do. I was trying to almost throw through my mechanics and hoping that I would figure it out. I just didn't make an adjustment."

Gausman didn't fall back on the excuse that he was facing a new team in a new ballpark.

"It's still baseball, it's still pitching," he said. "That's what I've been doing for a long time. Never will use that as an excuse. Overall today, it was just bad command, bad execution and getting myself in some holes. Yeah, it just wasn't good."

The next steps will lead Gausman into the video room and then to the bullpen, where he will try to carry what he learned into his side session.

"For a starting pitcher, it's about making adjustments on the fly," he said. "You make a bad pitch and being able to be good enough to make the adjustment. Tonight, I wasn't able to make the adjustment.

"I did on some certain hitters. I was kind of thinking that I was going to get the ball going, but I just didn't make an adjustment quick enough. I'll use my bullpen session this week and look at some video. I'll figure it out. I'll be all right."