Dan Duquette talks about today's roster move (O's win 4-2)

Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette expressed confidence tonight that the club will be able to trade outfielder Delmon Young, who was designated for assignment to create room for pitcher Tyler Wilson on the 25-man roster.

Duquette doesn't expect a deal to be completed tonight, but the Orioles have 10 days.

"Delmon is a qualified major league hitter," Duquette said, "and hopefully we will be able to find a spot for him in a few days."

Manager Buck Showalter met with Young after batting practice. Duquette didn't get a chance to speak with the veteran outfielder.

"They're all difficult," Duquette said. "We wrestle with these decisions and hash them out and go back and forth, and we try to develop more options for the team to keep all the players in the organization, but we couldn't come up with a solution to this roster move because we don't have the flexibility on our roster that we've had in the past.

"Buck likes to go with the extra pitcher and there's a lot of good reasons to have an extra pitcher on your roster, particularly if you have stress on your starting pitching, you get in an extra-inning game, so you have a fresh bullpen every night. And we do have some other options on the bench. Delmon Young did a nice job for the team. He had a really good year last year and he's contributed to this year's ballclub.

"In a similar situation last year, I think we asked outright (waivers) on Nolan (Reimold) and he got picked up by Toronto. And in the past, Steve Pearce has been on the waiver wire, so these are always tough. We do think we have a little more depth at that position. Christian Walker had a really good month at Triple-A. Dariel Alvarez continues to develop. So those are two young right-handed hitters that give us additional depth at that slot that we have at Triple-A. And Walker is on the roster and Alvarez is having a good year. He looked good in the spring and he's continued to do well.

"It's always very difficult. We looked for as many solutions as we could find to keep everyone, but we weren't able to do that in this case."

Young has been on playoff teams the past six seasons and the Orioles value his experience in October.

"That's a good point," Duquette said. "We wrestled with that. Delmon got a big hit for us in the playoffs last year. Who knows? Maybe we'll get him back.

"I like having the extra bats on the bench, there's value to that, but it's a constant balancing act with the roster. We do the best we can every day to have the most competitive team we can have out there every day. We look at it every day and night and sometimes long into the night. If you have depth you can keep things going and hopefully we keep things going."

Duquette feels fortunate that he hasn't often been forced to make this type of decision due to having more roster flexibility.

"Well, that's always the first choice and we work hard to keep as many players active in the organization that can capably help the team. We're not successful all the time, but we work towards that end," he said.

The Orioles will need to make another roster move on Thursday for starter Kevin Gausman, and second baseman Jonathan Schoop's rehab assignment runs through Friday, though he could agree to add up to five more days. The Orioles could choose to option Schoop.

"Jon's going to go play some games on rehab, so he'll get a little more time on rehab so we can decide on that," Duquette said.

Duquette expects to stay busy as the non-waiver trade deadline approaches on July 31.

"We're working on a number of different conversations," Duquette said. "We'll see how that develops. I'm glad we're back in the race and we've got a good roster at Triple-A and we've got a good roster in the big leagues. We're going to try to keep it going.

"We'll be active on the trade front. We've had active discussions with a number of teams already."

Update: Shin-Soo Choo homered off Wei-Yin Chen in the third inning to give Texas a 1-0 lead - the Rangers' ninth homer in three games.

The Rangers put runners on second and third with one out, but Chen escaped the jam.

Update II: Ryan Rua homered off Chen in the fourth to expand the lead to 2-0.

The Rangers have hit 10 home runs in 22 innings in this series.

Update III: Jimmy Paredes homered to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Rangers 2,
Orioles 1

All 10 of Paredes' home runs have been hit from the left side of the plate.

Update IV: The Orioles tied the game in the sixth on Ryan Flaherty's leadoff double, Adrian Beltre's error and Paredes' fielder's choice grounder.

Chen has thrown 65 pitches in six innings.

Update IV: Chris Davis extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh and J.J. Hardy homered with one out to break the 2-2 tie.

Chen has thrown 74 pitches in seven innings.

Update V: The Orioles defeat the Rangers 4-2 before 23,019 at Camden Yards.

Chen allowed two runs and four hits in eight innings, with one walk, two strikeouts and two home runs. He threw 87 pitches, 60 for strikes.

Chen retired 13 of the last 14 batters and lowered his ERA to 2.84 in 95 innings.

Zach Britton struck out the side and recorded his 23rd save in 24 opportunities.