Notes on Harvey, lineup trend, bullpen, Cobb and more

Orioles reliever Hunter Harvey won't come off the 10-day injured list when he's eligible on Thursday, with manager Brandon Hyde noting that the right-hander is improving but still facing a number of tests.

Players on the injured list, including John Means and Dillon Tate, have moved to the alternate camp site in Bowie. Harvey is shelved with a right forearm strain that's been described as arm fatigue.

"He's still in a progression," said Orioles manager Brandon Hyde. "He's going to start playing catch here hopefully soon and it's going to be monitoring and a bullpen and probably a sim game or two. I don't think we have a timetable on it. We're just watching how he's progressing and it is getting better. Hopefully, he starts playing catch soon."

Means is expected to come off the IL for Thursday night's start against the Marlins at Camden Yards. He'll throw a bullpen session to prove that he's healthy.

It's early to start detecting lineup trends, with the Orioles preparing for their second game in 2020. However, Hanser Alberto moving up to second in the order and Pat Valaika playing third base against Martín Pérez could become a familiar scenario.

"Just try to get as many right-handers in there as possible," Hyde said.

"We don't have a ton of right-handed bench bats, so I think that I'd like get Val a look against Pérez, who's a lot better against left-handed hitters. Alberto, would love to see him do what he did last year against left-handed pitching. He's going to hit at the top part of the order."

Pedro Severino is catching a day game after a night game. Chance Sisco will be behind the plate in Sunday's series finale, when the Red Sox start right-hander Ryan Weber.

"I would normally not play Sevie probably today even in a shortened season, but I really wanted Sevie to play opening day and I wanted him to play against the left-hander today," Hyde said.

"I think Sevie's a strong young guy who will be all right a day game after a night game. I wouldn't normally want to do that, but it's the second game of the year and he should be fine."

Hyde doesn't want to pitch any of his relievers on back-to-back days at this early stage of the season. Cody Carroll, Travis Lakins Sr. and David Hess are unavailable today.

No matter who's on the mound today, Hyde needs to see more strikes.

"Well, 190 pitches in eight innings is not a real good formula for a win," he said.

"Your pitching's just not going to hold up if you can't come in and force contact and attack hitters."

Chris Davis is 3-for-19 lifetime against Pérez. Alberto is 3-for-6 with a home run.

Alex Cobb is back on the mound for the first time since April 2019.

"He's really throwing the ball well," Hyde said during yesterday's Zoom session. "In his last outing, he felt like his old self. I think that was the first time in a long time that Alex has felt like that. That's very, very encouraging.

"We have a young team, an inexperienced team. And Alex and guys like Wade (LeBlanc) and Tommy (Milone), Bryan Holaday, who's here on the taxi squad, these guys have been through a lot of major league baseball games. And Cobber has been pitching in the AL East for a long time and his numbers are really good against AL East opponents. That is not easy to do. So to not only have his presence on the mound but have his presence in the clubhouse, as well, as a voice is huge for everyone."

For the Red Sox
Andrew Benintendi LF
J.D. Martinez DH
Rafael Devers 3B
Mitch Moreland 1B
José Peraza 2B
Alex Verdugo RF
Jackie Bradley Jr. CF
Kevin Plawecki C
Tzu-Wei Lin SS

Martín Pérez LHP

Here are the pitching matchups in Miami:

Monday: Asher Wojciechowski vs. Pablo López
Tuesday: TBD (probably Kohl Stewart) vs. Elieser Hernandez.