López falters in fifth and offense late to fire up in 4-2 loss (updated)

The Orioles gambled today by leaving their tired bullpen intact and counting on Jorge López to provide some length. But they didn't necessarily bypass an obvious solution.

The pitching staff at Triple-A Norfolk isn't loaded with 40-man options. Hard decisions are pending, with Hunter Harvey's return from the 60-day injured list, perhaps by early June, just one of them.

Manager Brandon Hyde wasn't going to use a couple of his relievers tonight after an exhausting homestand. Finding a hot hand already has been difficult. Now he was fishing in a more shallow pond.

"We're pretty banged up," he said this afternoon, "so would love to get some innings out of Lopie."

The pitcher who completed five innings only twice in his first eight starts. Who got past the fifth in one game.

The dice were rolled and López again impressed through the fourth, holding the Nationals without a run. But they scored twice in the fifth with two outs, Rule 5 pick Tyler Wells began to warm and the Orioles fell 4-2 in D.C.

López allowed two runs and seven hits in five innings, with three walks and eight strikeouts, and the Orioles lost for the 11th time in 13 games. They're 17-27 overall and 11-9 on the road.

"It was a lot of things positive from the last start. Way, much better," López said on his Zoom call.

Stephen Strasburg came off the injured list today and shut out the Orioles on one hit and four walks in 5 1/3 innings. López didn't get any support.

The Orioles were outhit 18-2 yesterday and 12-4 tonight, including two Trey Mancini doubles that gave him 100 for his career and Freddy Galvis' two-out, two-run homer off Brad Hand in the ninth.

Anthony Santander played his first game in a month and lined a single into center field leading off the second inning for the only hit off Strasburg. He struck out to end the sixth.

Mancini, seeking his 23rd RBI this month, doubled into the right field corner off Kyle Finnegan with one out in the sixth. Austin Hays hesitated at third base, saw that Juan Soto missed the cutoff man, didn't see that Josh Bell retrieved the ball and was thrown out at the plate.

"It's not ideal aggression when you're down two and Santander is coming up," Hyde said on his Zoom call. "I kind of understand from my angle. He hits the base, he turns, he finds the ball, that's proper baserunning. He sees a high throw, he sees space in between the first cut and Bell and he decided to go for it. I'm sure he would have liked to stay at third there, looking back, but I kind of understood it at the time. But not an ideal spot when you're down two."

"I got the stop sign at third," Hays explained, "so as I was rounding third I was stopping, but I was picking up the ball. I saw the ball go over the cutoff guy's head and initially I did not see Bell, so when I saw the ball go over the cutoff guy's head, it looked like it was rolling to the infield and that was my initial read, so I took off to score, thinking that that was a loose ball. I was about halfway down the line when I saw Bell field it and I realized it was a bad read at that point, but my initial read, I did not see Bell. I just saw the ball go over the cutoff guy's head. So that was a judgment call on my part and obviously that was the wrong call there

"We've got Santander coming up, it's a righty versus a lefty matchup and we would have had runners on second and third. That's our big power guy in the lineup. I wish I could have that one back, but it was just a bad initial read."

Bell and Kyle Schwarber had back-to-back doubles in the fifth, Starlin Castro reached on an infield hit and Josh Harrison lined an RBI single into right field for a 2-0 lead.

López threw 17 pitches in the first inning and 19 in the second, when he stranded two runners in scoring position. He lost out on a possible 1-4-3 double play with a wide throw that tested Stevie Wilkerson's flexibility in making the catch and keeping his foot on the bag.

The Nationals went down in order in the third on only 12 pitches, but Schwarber led off the fourth with a double. Castro was called out on strikes, Harrison lined to Galvis, Yan Gomes was walked intentionally, Strasburg worked the count full and walked, and Andrew Stevenson - a career 4-for-11 hitter with the bases loaded - struck out on three pitches.

López struck out to strand two runners in the top of the fifth and headed to the mound at 67 pitches.

"Not much of a decision the way our bullpen was tonight," Hyde said of letting López bat. "Got four shutout innings. I know he's had trouble in the middle part of the game. I was trying to push him there. For me, we didn't have many innings out of the bullpen tonight, so he needed to go back out."

Gomes struck out on López's 88th pitch to end the fifth. The right-hander's season ERA in that inning rose to 27.21.

"I thought he still had really good stuff through the fifth," Hyde said. "I wanted him to go back out there for the sixth, to be honest with you. His third time through the order, he's got a couple outs, got an open base, makes a bad pitch to Schwarber on a strike curveball after blowing balls by him the ABs before. ... They decided to go strike breaking ball there for whatever reason, and then the bad luck single to Castro.

"So two-strike breaking balls to Bell and Schwarber there, I thought the pitch selection was a questionable. But I thought he still had really good stuff and probably could have gone back out for the sixth. We just need to score some runs. It's a little bit challenging when we didn't score until the ninth."

Soto had an RBI single off Wells in the sixth for a 3-0 lead. Bell had an RBI single off Shawn Armstrong in the eighth.

There wouldn't be a ninth.

Hyde needed only two relievers, which counted as the breather. Armstrong is out of minor league options and carrying an 8.62 ERA.

Non-roster pitcher Thomas Eshelman was slated to start tonight at Norfolk, but the Orioles pulled him in favor of Connor Greene, who allowed one run in seven innings. Perhaps the Orioles are keeping him available in case they need a long reliever this weekend.

The 40-man includes Isaac Mattson, Zac Lowther, Alexander Wells and Mike Baumann. Four rookies, with Baumann at Single-A Delmarva on an injury rehab assignment.

Lowther allowed five runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings in Wednesday's start against Jacksonville. Wells didn't pitch in spring training due to a strained oblique and has a 10.45 ERA in three starts. They'd obviously benefit from getting steady starts in Triple-A, for the sake of their development.

Left-hander Brandon Waddell hadn't pitched since the Orioles claimed him off waivers from the Twins on May 8. His debut came tonight, where it belonged, and he threw a scoreless inning with one hit.

Otherwise, the choices are non-roster relievers who require corresponding moves to create room.

Eric Hanhold is on the injured list, but the reports are good on veteran left-hander Fernando Abad. Konner Wade has a 0.57 ERA in three games, including one start, but he isn't available after working 4 2/3 scoreless innings on Wednesday.

Knuckleballer Mickey Jannis threw five perfect relief innings Thursday, taking the loss in the 10th on a sacrifice bunt and fly ball that scored the runner placed on second base. He'll need some recovery time.

Evan Phillips has allowed seven runs in 4 1/3 innings, Cody Carroll five runs in 3 1/3.

Marcos Diplán has tossed 7 2/3 scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts. Manny Barreda has allowed only one run and struck out 10 batters in 7 1/3 innings. Dusten Knight worked a scoreless eighth tonight to run his season total to 5 1/3.

All of them non-roster, but trying to force a move.