Hyde on Davis, bench, Hess, Wynns and more (O's down 8-1)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A short bench for the Orioles has reached its tiniest stage with Chris Davis unable to play due a stomach virus.

Manager Brandon Hyde needs length from his starters. He won't get it from his bench, which is down to infielder Hanser Alberto and backup catcher Pedro Severino.

It's risky to use the second catcher, leaving Hyde with Alberto and fingers crossed.

"Options are a little short," Hyde said. "It's part of it. This happens a lot throughout the year where things come up. It's normal. It's just the adjustments you have to make and go from there."

Davis began to feel ill after the Orioles left Boston on Monday. Solid foods are the enemy.

"He's still not bounced back, not feeling well," Hyde said. "Saw the doctors just a little bit ago, still got a little bit of a virus. It's just not responding the way we would have liked."

Renato Núñez is starting at first base after serving only as the designated hitter in previous games. A sore elbow kept him off third and Rio Ruiz has been a defensive upgrade.

"He's been swinging the bat really well and he played well in spring training," Hyde said, "so it was a good opportunity for him to get the glove on and go out to first base."

David Hess is making his fifth appearance and fourth start and he'll continue to live upstairs with a four-seam fastball that's averaging around 94 mph, per BrooksBaseball.net, compared to 92.4 last year. He's using it 54 percent of the time, compared to 58 percent in 2018, but it's speed and location that are giving him different looks.

"He was kind of a two-seam guy," Hyde said, "and I think when we went over our stuff in spring training a lot with him and Broc (Doug Brocail) and Waz (John Wasdin), they kind of broke him down, how his fastball played. His four-seam fastball played really well, so we talked a lot about utilizing it more and being able to pitch in and pitch up more with it.

"That (no-hit) game in Toronto, that's what he did. He really elevated it well and was throwing 96 (mph) late in the game. So, yeah, he's gotten a real good feel for his four-seam and he's keeping his velocity throughout his start."

Another nod to the data supplied by the Orioles.

"When you can run the numbers and know how your stuff plays compared to others and how your stuff compares with pitches that work in the big leagues, then you're going to go to those pitches more often and David Hess' four-seamer up in the zone plays really well," Hyde said.

"It's got a lot of life and hop to it. So he's utilizing it more this year."

The Orioles removed catcher Austin Wynns from his injury rehab assignment with Double-A Bowie earlier today and optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk.

"We just didn't have room for him here as of right now, but we like Austin Wynns a lot," Hyde said. "Kind of a tough break there at the end of spring with the oblique, but he's 100 percent healthy. I'm sure we'll see him up here at some point."

Norfolk manager Gary Kendall needs to find playing time for Wynns while also carrying catchers Chance Sisco and Carlos Pérez.

"You can make it work with a DH," Hyde said. "Minor league roster always have turbulence. Things happen. I think you always find ways to get guys in the game."

Hyde said he didn't realized that Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier was caught stealing twice last night in the seventh inning until reading about it this morning.

"That's one of those freak things that happened," he said. "Kevin's an aggressive baserunner and an aggressive player overall. Sometimes those things happen."

Kiermaier was safe at second base after Jonathan Villar bobbled the ball. He broke early for third base and reliever Mike Wright stepped off the rubber, ran toward him and threw to Ruiz for the out.

"That's your picks and rundowns spring training fundamental drill where you've got a guy caught up between second and third, it's a step-off situation," Hyde said. "You try to no-panic for the pitcher and look to the lead base right away and Mike executed it perfectly.

"You see a lot of guys when that happens, there's a panic, but Mike did a nice job of keeping his cool, stepping off correctly and looking at the lead base. He executed it well."

Teammates yelled for Wright to "step off." Players on the field and pretty much the entire dugout.

"I think it's probably the whole infield," Hyde said. "The whole infield sees something like that happen, that's where everybody says it in a panic and you hope the pitcher doesn't panic. And Mike a really nice job of not panicking.

"I've seen it the other way a bunch where that's a balk a lot of times because when people are screaming at you, you're not expecting it and all of a sudden you do something not natural, and Mike kept his composure."

Told that Wright thought he balked, Hyde smiled and said, "Did he? Oh, maybe I should have looked at the replay first.

"I'm going to go along with the umpires."

Update: Brandon Lowe hit a three-run homer off Hess in the first inning to give the Rays a 3-0 lead.

Update II: Kiermaier led off the second with a double and scored on Mike Zunino's single for a 4-0 lead.

Update III: Ji-Man Choi and Yandy Díaz opened the third inning with home runs for a 6-0 lead and Hess is gone.

Update IV: The Rays took a 7-0 lead in the fifth on Kiermaier's RBI single off Tanner Scott with two outs.

Update V: Rio Ruiz homered in the seventh to cut the lead to 7-1.

Update VI: Diaz had an RBI double off Mike Wright in the seventh for an 8-1 lead.