Notes on O's loss, final draft pick signed and farm player movement

The Orioles will be back at Camden Yards tonight against Miami looking to beat the Marlins for a two-game series split and a winning 4-1 homestand. Miami hit three homers in last night's 7-3 win over the Orioles.

O's right-hander Spenser Watkins gave up a three-run homer to catcher Sandy Leon on the eighth pitch of a sequence in the top of the second. That put Miami up 3-0 and they were never tied or trailed after that.

Austin Hays and Cedric Mullins hit solo homers for the Orioles. They've now produced a season-long streak of five straight games with multiple homers. It is the first time they've done that since doing so in 10 straight games from July 17-27, 2019.

Mullins recorded his 31st multi-hit game last night, going 2-for-4. He has now hit safely in 10 straight home games. The homer was his first since July 6, snapping a streak of 12 games and 52 at-bats without a longball.

Trey Mancini went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and extended his current hitting streak to a season-high nine games. It was the ninth time in his career he's doubled twice in a game, and the second time this season. Mancini has recorded an extra-base hit in a career-high-tying five games. His nine-game hit streak is tied for the fourth-longest of his career, and his longest since hitting in 11 straight from Sept. 13-24, 2019.

The Orioles have gone 6-4 since the All-Star break, and they have played seven of the 10 games versus teams with losing records. They have five more versus losing teams to go in this stretch, with one more tonight with the Marlins and then four at Detroit. The Orioles have gone 5-2 against losing teams since the break and 1-2 when they faced Tampa Bay, a club with a winning record.

Starting Monday, the O's resume play against the American League East and will play 13 of their next 16 games, beginning that night, versus winning-record clubs as they play the Yankees, Rays and Red Sox in that stretch.

They got the final pick signed: The Orioles will go 21-for-21 in signing 2021 draft picks. They agreed to terms with the last remaining unsigned pick on Tuesday as they added 14th-round right-handed relief pitcher Daniel Lloyd, a junior from the University of South Carolina.

The signing was first reported by my colleague, Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com.

Lloyd in 2021 went 0-1 with a 3.07 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 23 games, all in relief at South Carolina. Over 41 innings he allowed 29 hits but no home runs. He walked 16, fanned 42 and allowed a batting average against of .206. Lloyd, who turns 21 on Aug. 8, pitched to a 3.52 ERA in Southeastern Conference games.

Under executive vice-president and general manager Mike Elias, the Orioles have signed 91 percent of their draft picks since 2019 and 100 percent since 2020. They've gotten 62 of 68 since 2019, going 35-for-41 that year, 6-for-6 last year and 21-for-21 this year.

The farm system movement: There were numerous player moves up and down the O's farm system on Tuesday. They included right-hander Mike Baumann moving up to Triple-A Norfolk after a strong run of starts for Double-A Bowie. On July 9 at Prince George's Stadium, I saw one of those starts in person. Baumann looked good and his ERA is 2.05 for the Baysox in July. Over 22 innings he allowed 13 hits with four walks and 26 strikeouts.

Big Mike is movin' on up. After that earlier game in Bowie he talked about his season. A season that started a bit late for him. Baumann was shut down at the alternate Bowie camp late last summer with a right flexor strain, and had a reoccurrence of the issue right before big league opening day this year. He began pitching in games again on May 15 for low Single-A Delmarva.

Over 12 games for two teams, he is 3-2 with a 4.33 ERA.

"It's been a little up and down (this year), but I think outing to outing I've seen some progress. Just fun to be back out here after getting shut down. It's been long and a tough road, but you learn from that and try to keep getting better," Baumann said after that game outside the Baysox clubhouse. Now he's moving on to join the Tides.

So are right-hander Ofelky Peralta, who went 5-2 with a 4.53 ERA at Bowie, and righty reliever David Lebron, who has a 3.60 ERA to go with 26 walks and 64 strikeouts over 40 innings. Also moving up to Triple-A is lefty reliever Nick Vespi, who is 1-1 with a 1.42 ERA and has 26 strikeouts to nine walks over 19 innings.

Lefty starting pitcher Drew Rom is moving up from high Single-A Aberdeen to join the Double-A rotation at just 21. He may be slotted into the Bowie rotation for the first time on Saturday night. He has gone 8-0 with a 2.79 ERA for Aberdeen with 17 walks, 73 strikeouts and 1.14 WHIP in 67 2/3 innings.

Rom was taken by the Orioles in round four out of a Kentucky high school in the 2018 draft. Now he has advanced to Double-A.

In an interview early this minor league season, Aberdeen manager Kyle Moore provided these insights on Rom, a pitcher he also managed at low Single-A Delmarva in 2019.

"I love Rom," Moore said then. "I saw him pitch all season in 2019. A super-athletic lefty with a bunch of different pitches and commands all of them. So, when you are standing there, you have no idea what arm slot he's coming out of, and he's got five pitches, and at some point of the game he can throw them all for strikes. Really nasty split-finger. So that is his real nasty swing-and-miss thing. His velocity is 92, 94 (mph). He's got sneaky velocity. You think he's a normal lefty and you go back to the dugout saying, 'That thing really jumped on me.' Really like Rom's pitchability. He's young, a high school kid from Kentucky. But he has outstanding feel for his pitches for a young kid."

On the farm, the Orioles have certainly not been bashful about moving players along this year.

Last night on Milb.TV, I watched a bit of the start of 20-year-old right-hander Jean Pinto for Delmarva. His outing doesn't look great in the box score as he gave up two hits and three earned runs over four innings. But he fanned eight and showed quality stuff.

His fastball touched 97 mph on the telecast and he was throwing some nice secondary pitches. It was encouraging, and I look forward to seeing how he does moving forward from here. A young man from Valencia, Venezuela, and one of two pitchers (along with Garrett Stallings) the Orioles acquired from the Angels for shortstop Jose Iglesias on Dec. 2, 2020.