O's set to use an opener in Wednesday's series finale (game update)

OAKLAND - Barring something unforeseen, the Orioles will use an opener tomorrow, and they intend to send right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis to the mound to start the Wednesday afternoon series finale in Oakland.

Yacabonis had an impressive two-inning scoreless outing in last night's game, when he walked two and fanned three pitching the seventh and eighth innings of Oakland's 3-2 win. He pitched 1/3 of an inning on Sunday, throwing nine pitches. So starting tomorrow would have him on the mound three times in four days.

But that is the plan, with lefty Josh Rogers likely to follow Yacabonis as the pitcher expected to provide length and throw the most innings in the game.

In his third stint with the Orioles this year, Yacabonis is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA. In 20 innings he has walked 10, fanned 12 and has a WHIP of 1.600.

"We want to start a right-hander against majority right-handed bats, and yeah, Yac has thrown the ball well, obviously," manager Brandon Hyde said before tonight's game. "He did throw a couple of innings last night, but should be OK tomorrow to give us an inning or two,"

And so the plan is for Rogers to follow Yacabonis?

"Yes, but we are keeping him available tonight. You never know," Hyde said.

Rogers threw 4 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on Friday against the Boston Red Sox. Hyde is very aware of course, of his Triple-A numbers this year. Rogers has gone 2-6 with an 8.51 ERA for Norfolk, not exactly forcing his way to the big league team.

"It sounds like he was pressing early in the year (at Triple-A), maybe trying too hard," said Hyde. "But where we are organizationally, we don't have a ton of guys on the roster that are throwing the ball great and can give us innings. He is getting this opportunity without dominating Triple-A. Louie (Luis Ortiz) and him both didn't have very good numbers at Triple-A but got to the big leagues. It's not the ideal situation, but it's the situation we are in. Hopefully, he turns it up when he is here."

Hyde is a fan of Yacabonis' talent. He just needs to command the ball better. But that has been true for several seasons now.

"Yac's got swing-and-miss stuff," Hyde said. "Now is about commanding his swing-and-miss stuff. Being able to understand he can throw his 95 with sink on both sides of the plate and work a slider for a strike and work a slider strike-to-ball when he has the opportunity. And last night he did that at times. So that is good to see. He has stuff to pitch in the American League East. Last night's outing was fantastic."

Orioles pitchers need to begin to get some early-count outs more often. Hyde today answered a question about his club averaging 9.7 full counts per game.

"We are trying to preach to get guys out in less than three pitches," he said. "It is just tough to do in the big leagues. Especially in the American League with some veteran lineups that are able to wait guys out and spoil pitches. We get in a lot of deep counts, and some of these veteran clubs foul off a lot of pitches and get pitch counts up. We've just got to do a better job earlier on the count so they can go deeper in games.

"To pitch in the AL East, you have to have swing-and-miss stuff in the strike zone. Little bit different from some of the National League teams I saw. To go through some of these veteran lineups is very, very challenging. They just do not expand (the strike zone). So you have to get guys out in the strike zone in this division. Some of our guys are predictable and might not have the putaway secondary stuff that you need in this division to be successful."

Right-hander Andrew Cashner is optimistic - but not certain - that he'll make his next start on schedule. Pitching on extra rest last night due a blister on his right middle finger, he allowed just one earned run over six innings at Oakland. But he did not get through it without any issues.

"I haven't thrown today, so I think I'll know a lot more tomorrow," Cashner said. "I'm more optimistic than I was last time, I'll say that. Happened in the third inning last night. Just keep grinding. But it's doing better today."

A's score first: Batting ninth, Oakland catcher Beau Taylor hit his first major league homer in the last of the third to give the A's a 1-0 lead. He connected off O's starter Gabriel Ynoa in his fourth big league game and drove one 416 feet for the lead.

Adding to the lead: Ramón Laureano's three-run homer in the fourth was No. 11 on the year and provided the A's a 4-0 lead.

O's on board: A solo homer by Jonathan Villar and a throwing error by Oakland provided two runs for the O's in the fifth, and they trail 4-2.

And then the deluge: The A's put up a 10-run sixth, pummeling Ynoa, Paul Fry and Dan Straily. The home team now leads 14-2.

More pain: Straily came back out to pitch the seventh, apparently taking one for the team as the Orioles bullpen remained quiet. Pinch-hitter Chad Pinder greeted him with a two-run homer, the sixth for the A's, and the third off Straily.