Notes on Bundy, Trumbo, Mancini and more (O's down 6-1)

The cortisone injection in Dylan Bundy's right knee is having the desired effect and he remains confident that he'll be ready to come off the injured list when he's eligible.

Bundy played catch and ran earlier today and said he'll throw a light bullpen session on Wednesday if the knee responds favorably.

"It feels as good as it's felt since spring training," he said.

The Orioles can adjust their rotation again with Thursday's off-day. They start Aaron Brooks on Wednesday and could give the ball to John Means, Tom Eshelman and Asher Wojciechowski in the weekend series against the Red Sox at Camden Yards.

Bundy said he never received a cortisone shot until needing it to combat the tendinitis in his knee. He's had platelet-rich plasma injections in his elbow.

Mark Trumbo did some early hitting again today and is taking batting practice on the field while recovering from his September knee surgery.

"He's still resting it in the fact that he's not out there playing," said manager Brandon Hyde. "He's doing his rehab, he's starting to swing the bat a little bit more. He took BP with us the last couple days outside. He feels a lot better so we're being optimistic and hopefully he can return at some point, but right now he's still just going through his rehab process with the knee.

"It sounds like he's getting a little bit closer because he did hit with us outside the other day and felt pretty good. So not much more to report than that."

Hyde offered praise for Trey Mancini after the outfielder was chosen as the Orioles' recipient of the Heart and Hustle Award.

"I think it's fantastic," he said. "Trey's a pro and a class act and plays the game the right way and is the easiest guy to coach that you could possibly wish for. He's a great teammate. I just love the way he plays. He plays hard, he plays banged up and he wants to play every night. He's a pleasure to be around."

Mancini said he was excited to be selected as the Orioles representative, taking the baton from Adam Jones.

"He's somebody that I try to follow in his footsteps and play the game like he does," Mancini said. "More so than just about anybody I play with, he enjoys the game and gives it his all out there and that's what I try to do here, too."

All part of the new leadership role.

"It's definitely special," Mancini said. "It's something that coming in the year, I knew that I wanted to work on. It's still tough sometimes, but you always try to be the same guy out there no matter what's going on and I just want to look in the mirror after every game at night and say that I gave it my all and I didn't take anything for granted and I played at 100 percent. And I feel like I can do that every night.

"There's a lot of guys on our team. Everybody does such a good job with that. But it definitely means a lot to receive this."

Mancini is trying to bust out of a slump that's grown to 24 hitless at-bats in a row.

"It's just pressing," Hyde said. "One thing about Trey is he's unbelievably hard on himself. I remember spring training early, it was like the third or fourth game, and he was beating himself up over a couple of at-bats. I didn't know him obviously very well and I had to talk to him like, 'You're 1-for-9 in spring training.' But he's just really, really hard on himself and I tried to remind him a couple days ago to have fun. I kept telling him that.

"He takes a foul ball off the knee (Sunday). He's just hard on himself. So he's going to come out of it. He just needs to relax and go play."

The Orioles haven't struck another deal since trading Andrew Cashner to the Red Sox, but Hyde knows other moves could be coming.

The possibility doesn't interfere with his daily interactions or occupy his thoughts as he goes about his job.

"It isn't weighing on me," he said. "I think we're all aware of where we are. We have so much work to do to get better as an organization and to get players in here. It's just hard on a nightly basis. That's the hard part is you want to win games and you want to stay competitive and obviously losing really good players is going to hurt your chances of both those things. But you've got to try to focus on the guys you have and you've got to look big picture. It's a long way to go and we're just doing the best we can with what we have right now.

"I've been through that, too. I was there (in Chicago ) when we traded (Jeff) Samardzija and (Ryan) Dempster and these guys. But you got Kyle Hendricks, and you get (Pedro) Strop and (Jake) Arrieta for (Scott) Feldman and you get people that all of a sudden three years down the road you're playing in the National League Championship Series, so I totally understand kind of where we are."

The series enables Hyde to visit with his buddies on the Nationals side, including manager Davey Martinez , bullpen coach Henry Blanco and assistant hitting coach Joe Dillon, a high school summer league and junior college teammate.

"I have some close relationships on that staff," Hyde said. "I've seen the Nationals a lot the last handful of years, from postseasons to twice a year, so I know their club pretty well. But this will be a little bit different managing against them Davey on the other side."

Hyde and Dillon attended rival high schools.

"I'm very good friends with Joey," Hyde said. "I just saw him two nights ago. He's the same guy he was. One cool thing about Joe was I started coaching with the Marlins, I was an A-ball hitting coach, and he reached out to me. He was still playing and he didn't have a job and he had major back surgery and I called our farm director about him and said, 'Hey, I've got this guy, if we have any kind of fit, like a Double-A player type. And they signed him and a year later he's in the big leagues. He hit 40 homers that year. He made me look real good."

Dillon belted 30 homers with Triple-A Albuquerque and nine with Double-A Carolina after joining the Marlins system in 2004. His major league debut came the following year.

"He had a nice little run as a pinch-hitter platoon guy in the big leagues for a few years, made some money in Japan," Hyde said. "I've stayed in touch with him over the years. So happy for him. He got this opportunity last year and we've stayed very close friends."

Reliever Nate Karns is expected to resume his injury rehab assignment Wednesday at Double-A Bowie.

First baseman Chris Davis reached 10 years of service time today, an important milestone for a player.

Infielder Hanser Alberto could go on the paternity leave list Wednesday.

Update: Matt Adams homered onto Eutaw Street in the second inning to give the Nationals a 1-0 lead.

Update II: Alberto's home run in the bottom of the second tied the game 1-1.

Update III: Anthony Rendon's RBI double in the third gave the Nats a 2-1 lead.

Update IV: Juan Soto hit a 443-foot home run off Wojciechowski leading off the sixth and was replaced after 5 1/3 innings. Brian Dozier reached on an infield hit off Shawn Armstrong, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a balk for a 4-1 lead.

Update V: Rendon's second RBI double of the night, this one off Miguel Castro in the 7th, extended the lead to 5-1.

Update VI: Jimmy Yacabonis issued a two-out walk in the eighth and committed a throwing error on a pickoff attempt, and Victor Robles singled for a 6-1 lead.