Orioles lineup, Hyde on bench and Fry, Burdi on new team

Center fielder Cedric Mullins is out of tonight's Orioles lineup for the opener of a three-game series in Toronto. Manager Brandon Hyde is resting him. There isn't an injury situation.

Ryan McKenna, recalled this afternoon, is playing center and batting seventh. Austin Hays is leading off and playing left field.

Jahmai Jones also is counted among the four reserves. Jorge Mateo is the second baseman tonight, with Ramón Urías at shortstop.

Ryan Mountcastle is batting second again.

A four-man bench enables Hyde to rest some regulars. Also, the Orioles are facing three left-handers in this series and probably two more in New York.

"It's needed right now with our guys, to be able to have an extra bench player is important right now," Hyde said.

"(Anthony) Santander is still, he's playing with the (sprained ankle) lingering still and Cedric's played a ton this year and played in the middle of the field, he's run all over the place. So to be able to give guys a break is important."

Reliever Zack Burdi is waiting to become the 56th player used by the Orioles. He also was recalled today after the Orioles claimed him from the White Sox earlier this month.

"It's going to be very nice for me to come in and get my feet wet and start to develop stuff that I've been wanting to work on and do all of that," he said. "I think when that stuff progresses and it gets to where I want it to be, I'll be valuable for the 'pen in a lot of different ways. I think I bring a lot to the table in the sense of my mobility around the 'pen and what I'm able to do in stretches of going one-to-three innings. I think that's valuable just about anywhere in the league, just to eat up innings and do all that.

"As a teammate, I think it's very valuable to have guys around the clubhouse who are talkative and like to express their emotions throughout the day and stuff like that, and luckily for me I'm pretty open and willing to meet new people and express myself around the clubhouse. So I think both of those are big things guys can bring to the table and I'm excited to do that and help this team out."

Burdi is a big strikeout guy in the minors, averaging 12.7 per nine innings, but has an 8.27 ERA and 1.898 WHIP in 14 major league appearances.

"Baseball's baseball," he said. "MLB is definitely faster, it's quicker than Triple-A, but in the same sense it's three outs and you're just trying to compete and get the job done."

Burdi is close friends with former Orioles pitcher Josh Rogers, who also pitched at the University of Louisville. Burdi is a former first-round pick of the White Sox.

"We're always in touch," Burdi said. "He was great throughout the transition, helping me with just getting to know faces and stuff like that. And culture and so on and so forth. It's really nice to sometimes have a guy who can bridge a gap for you. Unfortunately, Rog is with a different organization now, but definitely a big help making the jump from the Sox to the Orioles."

Burdi replaces Paul Fry in the bullpen. The Orioles optioned Fry yesterday after he served up Joey Wendle's grand slam.

Fry has allowed 17 earned runs and 19 total this month and walked 16 batters.

"I hope to have Paul back," Hyde said. "Give him some appearances in Triple-A and in a more low-pressure environment is going to do him some good right now. Just feel like he's lost a little bit of confidence and you see that in his misses, the walks, a lot of arm-side misses with the slider. I'd like to get his confidence back with his fastball over the plate.

"So we just felt like the right thing for Paul, which we believe in very much, is to have him to go down there and get some appearances in Triple-A and hopefully come back up here with the confidence he had in the first half."

The Orioles got three full innings and a batter out of Chris Ellis in his first start. He could be pushed a little more tonight, but probably not much.

"We'll see, I'm not really sure," Hyde said.

"The appearance before when he started for us, he went four innings out of the 'pen against us. He's not fully built up, so I'm not going to run him out there to 95-100 pitches, but we'll see how the game goes, see how he's feeling and see if he's pitching with traffic or not. A lot of that is going to determine how long he goes."

The taxi squad consists of pitchers Alexander Wells and Dusten Knight and catcher Nick Ciuffo.

For the Orioles
Austin Hays LF
Ryan Mountcastle 1B
Trey Mancini DH
Anthony Santander RF
Pedro Severino C
Ramón Urías SS
Ryan McKenna CF
Jorge Mateo 2B
Kelvin Gutierrez 3B

Chris Ellis RHP

The Brewers signed former Orioles infielder Renato Núñez to a minor league contract after the Tigers released him.