Dan Duquette on today's roster move (O's lose 8-4)

The Orioles aren't letting their roster grow stagnant in the second half.

Outfielder Travis Snider becomes the third player designated for assignment in the past week, joining pitcher Bud Norris and outfielder/first baseman Chris Parmelee.

Snider cost the Orioles minor league pitchers Stephen Tarpley and Steven Brault, who were sent to the Pirates in the January trade. He's under team control through 2016, but he didn't make it past the first week in August.

Snider batted .237/.318/.341 with three home runs and 20 RBIs in 69 games. He went 3-for-36 in his last 13 games and didn't homer since June 28.

The writing was on the wall when Snider appeared in only one game after July 28.

"They're all tough," said executive vice president Dan Duquette. "This one was tough. It just didn't work out."

Snider batted .288/.356/.524 with 13 doubles and nine home runs in 60 games in the second half last season, which prompted the Orioles to make the trade. They hoped that he could replace Nick Markakis in right field, but he fell considerably short.

"We tried to have as much patience as we could," Duquette said. "Sometimes, these things work out and sometimes they don't. I think Travis gave his best effort and we tried to have as much patience as we could, but our production from our outfield has been below average. We tried to address it last week with the addition of (Gerardo) Parra and this is another effort to address that by the team."

Duquette will attempt to trade Snider.

"We'll see," he said. "That's certainly our intent."

Duquette also is trying to find takers for Norris and Parmelee.

"We're still working on that," he said.

Duquette spent a few days at Triple-A Norfolk and decided that outfielder Junior Lake was the best replacement for Snider. Lake was 4-for-12 in four games with the Tides after the Orioles acquired him from the Cubs on July 31 for reliever Tommy Hunter. He batted .316/.411/.464 with seven home runs and 31 RBIs in 62 games between Norfolk and Triple-A Iowa.

Lake is a career .287/.335/.450 hitter in 171 major league at-bats against left-handed pitching.

"He looks like he's made a good adjustment on his pitch selection," Duquette said. "He's shown good patience at the plate and also the ability to hit the ball hard and with power. And defensively, he's caught the ball well. He's also stolen a couple of bases. But he's a proven major league hitter against left-handed pitching, and that's why we brought him up.

"He's already done it in the big leagues against left-handed pitching. And we wanted to add another right-handed bat to the ballclub."

The Orioles chose Lake over Dariel Alvarez, who's batting .271/.297/.423 with 22 doubles, 14 home runs and 64 RBIs in 110 games at Norfolk.

"Junior Lake is proven in the big leagues," Duquette said. "He's a .287 lifetime hitter and he's made an adjustment to become more patient at the plate. He's already proven that he can do it in the big leagues."

Update: Angels starter Andrew Heaney hadn't allowed more than two runs in any of his first seven starts, but he's trailing 3-1 tonight in the fourth inning after Jonathan Schoop's tie-breaking two-run homer.

Earlier tonight, Nolan Reimold registered the Orioles' 32nd outfield assist, tops in the majors. But Reimold was thrown out at third and Adam Jones was thrown out at second within the first three innings.

Kevin Gausman walked two batters in the bottom of the fourth, which led to the game-tying runs.

Update II: Matt Wieters hit his fifth home run, tying last year's total, to give the Orioles a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning.

Update III: The shutdown inning continues to elude the Orioles, with Chris Iannette's two-run double in the bottom of the sixth giving the Angels a 5-4 lead and knocking Gausman out of the game.

Chaz Roe let an inherited runner score.

Update IV: C.J. Cron's long two-run homer off Brad Brach extended the Angels' lead to 8-4 in the seventh. One run was charged to Brian Matusz.