Orioles lineup reflects injuries and IL move (O's down 4-3)

ARLINGTON, Texas - The Orioles made their roster move official this evening by placing outfielder DJ Stewart on the 10-day injured list with a sprained right ankle and recalling super-utility player Stevie Wilkerson from Triple-A Norfolk. Wilkerson is in the lineup in center field and Keon Broxton is the only healthy reserve.

The Orioles optioned Wilkerson after Sunday afternoon's game. He's on the 40-man roster and versatile, two qualities that make him an appealing option for the club.

Stewart injured the ankle last night when Hanser Alberto slid into him as they chased a foul ball down the right field line. The swelling overnight made it impossible for Stewart to avoid the injured list.

"It didn't feel really good today," he said before the Orioles announced the move. "Play it day-by-day, I guess, and see what they want to do.

"I knew I was going to be sore, but it's more than I expected it to be, to be honest. You never know with ankles, honestly, all the tiny ligaments and tiny bones in there. But I'm just fortunate that nothing is broken and hopefully get it healed sooner than later."

The Orioles waited for doctor approval to place Stewart on the IL, which explained the delay in posting the lineup and announcing the move.

"We think it's going to be probably close to 10 days," said manager Brandon Hyde. "Obviously, we have some other things going on, also, so Stevie gives us some versatility and someone who can play the infield and the outfield. We're comfortable with him, obviously, being here.

"With an ankle, you've got to be careful and you don't want to come back too soon. He woke up really sore today, so it's going to be a little while."

Hyde mentioned on Tuesday that Wilkerson could be back with the club in the near future.

"This is the game we play. You just never know what's going to happen," he said.

"Who knew that we were going to have three guys go down last night, right? So that's baseball. I've seen it before. It's a part of it where some nights you're going to have to play short, then you go three months where everybody's healthy. Some things you can't control, so that's where we are today."

Catcher Pedro Severino didn't want to come out of last night's game after taking a foul ball off the mask, but plate umpire Brian O'Nora motioned to the Orioles dugout and initiated the move.

"After the ball hit me, every time he asked me, 'How do you feel, what do you feel?' I just said, 'I don't know. I feel like weird, but I don't want to go out of the game. I want to stay in the game.' Especially with one catcher on the bench, it's really hard," Severino said.

"I just need a little break and keep playing. When the ball hit me I didn't feel nothing. I just felt regular. So every pitch, I'm looking down, I'm looking up, and my head started to be kind of dizzy. One of those, I just put my knee down and said, 'I don't feel good.' The umpire asked me, 'Really, you don't feel good?' And I said, 'No, I don't feel good right now, but don't call anybody. I don't want to come out of the game.'"

Severino suffered a concussion after being hit in the back of the head by a line drive in the dugout while playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic and missed a month. He knows head injuries and wasn't concerned about last night's encounter with the foul tip.

"I'll be good for tomorrow," he said.

"Severino is a lot better today," Hyde said. "He got checked out last night. We got lucky there He's having no concussion symptoms, so he's good to go."

Hyde described Jonathan Villar as "day-to-day" with a thumb injury.

"He's still a little bit sore," Hyde said, "but a lot better today."

Villar is available to pinch-run and come into the game as a defensive replacement. He isn't sure whether he'll be ready to bat Friday or Saturday in Houston.

The soreness in his right thumb was caused by a slide into second base in the fourth inning. He jammed it into the fielder's glove.

"I feel better," he said. "I think tomorrow, maybe two more days off."

Villar injured the same thumb last season and wonders whether last night's incident is related.

Villar was the second of three players to leave the game with an injury, a three-man bench emptied in a 2-1, 12-inning loss.

"It was unbelievable. That was my first time to see something like that," Villar said.

"I was like, 'Oh, my God, I don't want to see another guy hurt because we don't have a position player right now.' The pitchers were ready to play."

Hyde had a couple of volunteers for left field. No one suggested the infield.

Chris Davis is in right field while Trey Mancini serves as the designated hitter to offer some relief for his aching left foot.

"He's excited about it," Hyde said. "He told me his arm plays better in right, so we have him in right, we've got Noonie (Renato Núñez) at first and Trey, who's got a real sore foot, is going to DH. So add that to the list."

The Orioles discussed the merits of optioning a pitcher and going with a four-man bench, but decided against doing it.

"We considered everything because I think we were so unclear about Sevie and Jonny also that we didn't know," Hyde said. "We had a bunch of different scenarios going on to get players here."

For the Orioles
Stevie Wilkerson CF
Trey Mancini DH
Dwight Smith Jr. LF
Renato Núñez 1B
Rio Ruiz 3B
Hanser Alberto 2B
Chris Davis RF
Chance Sisco C
Richie Martin SS

David Hess RHP

Update: Mancini homered in the first inning, his 13th, for a 1-0 lead.

Update II: Hunter Pence homered in the second to tie the game and Ronald Guzmán's RBI double with two outs gave Texas a 2-1 lead.

Update III: The Orioles tied the game in the fifth on Wilkerson's run-scoring single after Chance Sisco led off with a double.

Update IV: The Rangers broke the tie with two runs in the fifth, one unearned after Davis overran Delino DeShields' single for a two-base error. But Davis had an RBI double in the sixth to reduce the lead to 4-3.