Hyde on Trumbo, Santander, Williams, Sisco, more (O's up 4-0)

BOSTON - Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said he intends to put Mark Trumbo in Sunday's lineup to close out the season.

Left unsaid is how the game also closes out Trumbo's career with the Orioles. He'll decide later whether to retire or pursue a contract with another team.

Trumbo is 5-for-25 with three doubles this month since coming off the 60-day injured list. He didn't play in the three-game series in Toronto.

Hyde spoke with Trumbo earlier today about the weekend.

"He's going to be available off the bench," Hyde said, "and I'm going to start him on Sunday."

Anthony Santander remains out of the lineup while mired in a 1-for-23 slump. He's dealing with a couple of undisclosed physical issues and might play this weekend.

"I think it's more him being a little beat up and trying to play through some stuff," Hyde said. "I wanted to give him a breather here. He's been playing pretty banged up the last couple of weeks and to his credit not saying anything to anybody and wanted to be out there. He's a tough kid that wanted to finish the season strong, but physically he's just not quite right, so we'll see about the next couple of days.

"He just needed a little bit of a break physically."

Hyde declined to share the specifics of Santander's ailments.

"I just think it's a multitude of things that he has where he's just really, really sore and hurting a little bit," Hyde said. "He's been keeping it from everybody and trying to play as hard as he can. Hopefully he'll be in there tomorrow."

Outfielder Mason Williams won't play this weekend. His knee remains too sore after he crashed into the fence at Camden Yards on Sept. 17.

Williams' audition is over after he went 8-for-30 with a double and two RBIs.

"I just think the clock's going to run out," Hyde said. "The knee's still really sore. He's in the training room. So I don't see him playing this weekend."

Chance Sisco is catching tonight in what's expected to be his final start. The Orioles have a day game on Saturday and the Red Sox are starting left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez on Sunday.

Sisco is batting .212/.330/.400 with seven doubles and eight home runs in 58 games. He's thrown out five of 30 runners attempting to steal.

Sisco slashed .267/.389/.644 in 15 games in June, with five of his doubles, half of his home runs and 14 of his 20 RBIs. He's batting .171/.293/.248 in 123 plate appearances in the second half.

"Kind of up and down," Hyde said. "When he got to the big leagues with us he swung the bat really well and I think his catching's vastly improved. I think his receiving and his blocking. He's done a really nice job with some of the things we asked him to work on and improve in spring training. I think around the league they started making adjustments to him at the plate and he's had a little bit of a struggle the last couple of months, but it was a great experience for him. Now he's seen a lot of major league pitching and be able to go into this winter knowing the things he needs to work on.

"There's some swing mechanics stuff that we feel like he can improve on and we talked to him about it and looking forward to seeing what he looks like in spring training."

Hyde's had plenty of opportunities to evaluate players as the season motored along. It's been a nice way to get a head start on next spring's camp.

"I'm going to have an opinion, but I think guys can change, too, and guys can improve and sometimes what a player is at 24 isn't what he is at 28," Hyde said.

"I think I've played everybody and I think I've tried to give guys as many innings as possible and up to them to produce. Up to them to force our hand on the decisions we have to make from a roster standpoint at the end of the year. All those kinds of things. But I think we've given pretty much everybody a fair shake on seeing what kind of player they can be."

Hyde's been working to get a read on the younger outfielders, a group that includes Santander, Williams, DJ Stewart and Dwight Smith Jr.

"I think Tony, he really for me proved that he's a big league player," Hyde said. "I think Tony's got a really high ceiling. Up until the last couple weeks this guy was hitting .280 with 20 (home runs) and playing really good defense in two-thirds of the year. I think Tony can be a really good player.

"Smitty and Stewart, they've kind of had an injury-plagued season, so it's been a little bit difficult. Smitty got off to a really good start, pitchers started making some adjustments to him, then he got banged up, missed some time. And just hasn't had regular playing time since then.

"Stewart, too. Stewart's had a couple of unfortunate injuries that forced him to miss a lot of games and miss out on some at-bats at the big league level that would have really helped. So I think we're still evaluating those guys.

"But for me, Tony is one of the guys that I feel so good about that going into this year we wanted to see kind of what we had and who is he going forward. When this club is good, what kind of impact players are we going to have. Tony, Trey (Mancini), (Hanser) Alberto, Jonathan Villar, these types of guys."

Hyde apparently will go with a bullpen game on Sunday rather than start Dylan Bundy, allowing the right-hander to leave the 2019 season on a high note.

Bundy held the Blue Jays to two runs over seven innings Tuesday night in an 11-4 win at Rogers Centre. He's made 30 starts, one fewer than last season, and totaled 161 2/3 innings.

Update: Renato Núñez's three-run homer in the third inning gave the Orioles a 3-0 lead.

Update II: Nunez singled in the ninth to score Austin Hays for a 4-0 lead.