Orioles bringing up Sisco, Álvarez, Rickard and Yacabonis

The first wave of Orioles call-ups on Friday will include catcher Chance Sisco, the top prospect in the organization, and veteran Pedro Álvarez.

The Orioles will select the contracts of Sisco and Álvarez, according to a source, while also recalling outfielder Joey Rickard and reliever Jimmy Yacabonis.

More players will be added after Monday.

There are 39 players on the 40-man roster, so the Orioles must clear a spot.

Shortstop J.J. Hardy will remain on the disabled list unless there's a sudden change, but he still could come to Baltimore. Manager Buck Showalter was trying to contact him following tonight's 11-8 loss to the Blue Jays at Camden Yards.

Álvarez had two hits tonight in Norfolk's 13-3 loss to Gwinnett, and is batting .239 with 31 doubles, 26 home runs and 89 RBIs in 138 games. He reworked the opt-out in his contract this summer, but hadn't received a promotion to the majors.

The Orioles chose Sisco, whose defense has improved this summer, over veteran Francisco Peña. There also was some interest in Double- A Bowie catcher Austin Wynns.

Sisco is batting .267/.340/.395 with 23 doubles, seven home runs and 47 RBIs in 97 games. The Orioles would have needed to put him on the 40-man roster to protect him in the Rule 5 draft, so they're getting a head start.

Yacabonis allows the Orioles to go back to a seven-man bullpen, and he won't be the last reliever added in September. Donnie Hart and Mike Wright must stay down for a minimum of 10 days after being optioned.

Yacabonis is 4-0 with a 1.32 ERA, 11 saves and 0.95 WHIP in 41 games with Norfolk. He registered a 6.75 ERA in four games with the Orioles, allowing five runs and walking six batters in 6 2/3 innings.

Meanwhile, still no trades as the midnight deadline approaches. The Orioles talked to the White Sox about Miguel Gonzalez, according to two sources, but he was dealt to the Rangers after clearing waivers.

Interest in Gonzalez had been percolating for a little while, but discussions never seemed to reach the critical stage where a deal was close.

Here's manager Buck Showalter on tonight's loss:

On Hellickson and the two-out walks: "He's a pitch away. He had a lot of balls elevated and paid a price for it, but we didn't particularly pitch well. We swung the bats good tonight. (Marco) Estrada's been a tough pitcher for us. Our guys did a great job off him. Hoping you could hold them there, but we couldn't seem to stem the tide."

On Hellickson in the fifth inning: "Elevated some balls. Jeremy's a guy that locates fastballs, changeups, curveballs, a strike pitch when he needs it or take it out of the zone, and he wasn't able to do it that inning. Kept waiting for him to get one more out. Actually, when they scored the other run. I think all of them were with two outs."

On whether loss is reminder of how hard it is to build winning streak: "No, I don't need any reminder. Our guys don't. They know. We've played, what, 130-something games and it's real hard. Winning a major league game and putting together things. There's a lot of good things have to happen. It's not just pitching and we did a lot of good things tonight. We just didn't pitch well enough to win the game, obviously. But a lot of good things happened. We finished up a good month in August when a lot of people are really challenged physically. And I'm real proud of the month our guys put together to get back in this."

On Mychal Givens: "Mike, it's kind of like Richard (Bleier) a little bit. They come in and that job unfortunately, it's not a hitter to kind of get dialed in. He wasn't the only guy who walked (Josh) Donaldson tonight. Of course, you look at (Kendrys) Morales' numbers in this ballpark over his career, we knew he was going to be a challenge, but we were hoping it wasn't going to be to the extent of tonight. But we couldn't do anything with him and we kept walking the guy in front of him."

On Darren O'Day: "That's another reminder how this is. Mike's had a good season and he's not getting the results he's capable of right now. Darren, it comes and goes. Look around baseball. This is hard to do. We're lucky to have all those guys. They're one of the reasons why we're still in this this. But they'll get it going when he need it again.

"Darren is a guy that's very quietly helped us through this streak, pitching like we know Darren can. I was close to having to use Chris (Tillman) in the ninth inning. But a normal workday for him, a couple days off would have been OK. Trying to stay away from that if we could. We had two guys down in the bullpen. What's tough is when you get behind, you really, that's the challenge trying to get though that game, not only stay competitive tonight but tomorrow."