Notes on Hays' start, Sisco's at-bat, Castillo and more (O's down 4-2)

CLEVELAND - Austin Hays didn't know that he'd in today's lineup for his first major league start, batting ninth and playing right field, until he arrived this morning at Progressive Field and checked the lineup card. No advance warning, no whispers.

"I wasn't sure what was going to be going on. I'm excited to get out there and play," he said.

"I knew there was a possibility of me being in the lineup under any circumstance, so I'm not surprised."

Manager Buck Showalter has been waiting for an opportunity to start Hays, who arrived too late to play against a succession of left-handed starters. Left-handers are hitting .310 against Tomlin this season, but right-handers have posted a higher average over his career and Showalter leaned on the reverse splits.

"Just trying to pick a spot for him to get out there. Today's the day," Showalter said.

"We've gotten (Anthony) Santander a start, we'll probably get (Chance) Sisco one. It's what we have to do. It's his time."

Hays' first at-bat came in the ninth inning of Thursday's makeup game against the Yankees. He bounced to short on the seventh pitch from Ben Heller after playing right field in the top half of the inning.

Otherwise, Hays has been soaking up the atmosphere.

"It's great, it's great," he said. "Just getting to experience a big league locker room and see how the guys go about their business and how much the game means to them. Especially in the situation the team's in right now with the playoff run, it's been a lot of fun. It's awesome."

Sisco received his first major league at-bat last night and struck out looking on the sixth pitch from Indians reliever Bryan Shaw. He felt behind 0-2 and worked the count full.

"Just tried to calm myself down," he said. "I knew that the guy was throwing cutters, that's mostly what he threw, so I was just trying to see a pitch up in the zone and try to put the barrel on it. That's not how it went, but that's baseball.

"He just made a really good pitch. The last three pitches kind of got away from him. Ball two and ball three kind of went up and away, and that last pitch started off in the same spot and it came back over the plate and was kind of in a perfect spot. It was a strike."

Sisco had no idea that he'd get a chance to pinch-hit for Caleb Joseph.

"I'm always getting loose between innings and stuff, but J.R. (John Russell) just came up to me and let me know that I was leading off the inning," he said. "Just go get my stuff and be ready. I was loose and had been stretching between innings, so I was loose, I was ready to go."

Catcher Welington Castillo is in the lineup today after being a late scratch last night. His wife, Kissalry, and their two young sons were involved in an automobile accident in Baltimore - the car was struck from behind - and the Orioles arranged a flight home. But his family is doing fine and Castillo remained in Cleveland.

"They're back at the house," Showalter said. "That was scary for him yesterday. I thought he was going to fly home about 6:15, 6:30. We had a 9:40 flight that would have gone through D.C."

Manny Machado's wife, Yainee, assisted Kissalry upon hearing of the accident.

Showalter explained why he used Chris Tillman last night to face one batter in the eighth inning.

"Chris had been four days and we didn't have anybody else and I wanted to get him out there, and he had 20 minutes to get loose," Showalter said. "I think it was good for him mentally. I'll tell you, the last time he pitched he felt pretty good the next day. I'll be curious to see how he with the short turnaround.

"I had four guys yesterday I couldn't use and I didn't want to overuse (Richard) Bleier and not have him available today, because the next two hitters could have been 20 pitches. He had done a good job and I wanted to get him out of there."

Update: Singles by Manny Machado, Adam Jones and Trey Mancini in the first inning gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead. Machado and Mancini had infield hits.

Update II: Gabriel Ynoa retired the first seven batters before Yan Gomes singled and scored on Giovanny Urshela's double to center field. We're tied 1-1.

Update III: Carlos Santana led off the fourth with a double and scored on Jay Bruce's one-out single to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead.

Josh Tomlin has retired 13 in a row.

Update IV: Santana doubled with two outs in the fifth to score Lonnie Chisenhall and increase the lead to 3-1. Ynoa is done after 4 2/3 innings.

Update V: Tim Beckham led off the sixth with his 20th home run, his eighth with the Orioles, to reduce the lead to 3-2. Tomlin is out of the game.

Update VI: Francisco Lindor homered off Darren O'Day in the seventh to increase the lead to 4-2. O'Day has allowed a career-high eight home runs this season.