Mancini sits, Villar swings and steals, Severino sets target

The Orioles are wrapping up their series against the Rays today, and trying to win it, with Trey Mancini returning to the lineup.

Could be first base, right field or as the designated hitter. But he's going to play.

Manager Brandon Hyde has been wanting to sit Mancini, but he needed to find the right moment. Mancini is such an integral part of the lineup and Hyde is trying to win games.

Mancini stayed on the bench against Rays opener José Alvarado, who retired only one batter, and the three relievers who followed him.

"It's all about giving him a break," Hyde said yesterday afternoon. "He's beating himself up a little bit right now. I'm a few days late giving him a break anyway. I just feel like no matter who was pitching today he needed to take a night off."

Hyde discussed the plan with Mancini a few days ago and became convinced Friday night that it should be implemented. Mancini went 0-for-4 and struck out twice, making him 2-for-19 with six strikeouts in his last five games.

"After watching his at-bats," Hyde said, "kind of his body language, it was a pretty easy decision that today's the day that he needs to just watch."

Jonathan Villar hasn't missed a game this season and his next home run puts him in the 20-20 club. He's swiped 28 bases and thought about his 29th last night before scampering back to second and initially being ruled out. The call was overturned on the challenge.

No reason to try for third base there, but that's Villar's game. You can't shackle him. He was born to run.

Hitting a home run is more important to Villar because he really wants to go 20-20 in 2019.

"I'm sure he does and that's a great milestone and Jonny's had a really nice year," Hyde said.

"It's really hard to do, obviously, 20 stolen bases and 20 homers. His OPS is rising daily it seems like. I love that it's getting in the .800 range and really putting together a nice year."

Sitting Mancini led Hyde to bat Hanser Alberto and Villar first and second in the order, and they both homered.

"With the opener and then assuming (Austin) Pruitt is throwing behind (Alvarado), it makes putting together a lineup challenging and it's going to be similar (today)," Hyde said. "But I wanted Alberto to face Alvarado once and felt good about him, too, if they brought in Pruitt there, so led him off. And Jonny Villar is swinging the bat well, so obviously you want him to get as many at-bats as possible."

Because Hyde doesn't want to use Hunter Harvey on back-to-back days, "Squirrel" is likely to stay caged in the bullpen after working a scoreless eighth inning last night.

Harvey allowed one hit and struck out one batter. The fastball was 98-99 mph.

There's more to this kid than a mullet. Better to focus on the arm.

"I've been hearing about him for a long time," said catcher Pedro Severino, who hit his first career grand slam last night. "He's got great speed, fastball 100, commands the fastball great. He's one of the future guys with great potential."

Asked whether it's fun to catch someone like Harvey, Severino smiled and replied, "It's easy for me because when everybody's late for a fastball at 100, I keep calling, calling fastball. I like to see everybody late, but at one point, I have to mix it up and call a splitty.

"We threw one or two splittys today and he threw great."