Povich in Baltimore and likely to start Saturday

Left-hander Cade Povich is with the Orioles and expected to start Saturday night against the Red Sox. He’s spending tonight on the taxi squad with no indication from the club that he’s staying beyond the weekend.

Manager Brandon Hyde explained in his media session that Povich “potentially” would join the active roster and pitch Saturday and Albert Súarez would get pushed back to Sunday. Trevor Rogers would start Monday night against the Mets at Citi Field.

No one in the rotation is being skipped and the long-term plan isn’t for a the same six-man rotation that the Orioles used down the stretch last year.

“Probably not,” Hyde said. “We’d like to give these guys as much of a break as possible. We’ll see what happens. But we feel like, especially Al, Al threw more than he’s ever thrown before the last start. We’re kind of getting in a spot in the schedule where a lot of guys are getting up there in innings and aren’t used to it, so anytime we can give a guy a break or an extra day or two, we’re going to.”

Suárez has offered back-to-back scoreless outings since replacing Grayson Rodriguez in the rotation. He threw 94 pitches on Sunday at Tropicana Field, and his 6 2/3 innings were a career high, exceeding the 6 1/3 he logged on June 7, 2016 with the Giants.

The 2024 season is allowing Suárez to get reacclimated to the major league grind. He pitched in Japan or Korea from 2019-23 before signing a minor league deal with the Orioles.

Hyde isn’t singling out Suárez for special treatment.

“It’s more the entire staff,” Hyde said. “If we can insert a starter in there and give everybody an extra day, I think that’s important right now.

“We’re just pushing guys back. More than likely.”

It should be made official Saturday.

The Orioles will need a corresponding move to accommodate Povich. One possibility is optioning reliever Bryan Baker again.

MLB Pipeline ranks Povich as the No. 5 prospect in the system. He's 1-5 with a 6.27 ERA and 1.688 WHIP in his eight starts with the Orioles and 6-1 with a 3.48 ERA and 1.107 WHIP in 15 games (14 starts) with Triple-A Norfolk. He's averaging 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings with the Tides.

Povich has made two starts this month and allowed six runs and 11 hits in 14 innings.

Adley Rutschman is leading off tonight with the Red Sox using left-hander Brennan Bernardino as an opener and backing him up with right-hander Cooper Criswell. Rutschman has hit leadoff twice this season, most recently on June 25.

Gunnar Henderson has done it 96 times, Colton Cowser 16, Jordan Westburg six and Austin Slater two.

“At least one at-bat against a left-hander tonight,” Hyde said of Rutschman.

Rutschman is 12-for-40 (.300) this month after batting .132/.258/.224 in 21 games in July. He’s hitting .363 with a .987 OPS right-handed this season and .224 with a .654 OPS from the left side.

“He’s scuffling a little bit,” Hyde said. “Right side swinging the bat well. … He’s grinding. He’s working on some things. The swings the last week have been a little bit better. You saw the line drive over the shortstop’s head a couple days ago. For me that was a positive. Looked more like him. But he’s so good, I expect him to come out of it anytime soon.”

The Red Sox reinstated Triston Casas from the 60-day injured list and he’s in tonight’s lineup.

For the Red Sox

Jarren Duran LF
Wilyer Abreu RF
Triston Casas 1B
Rafael Devers 3B
Connor Wong C
Masataka Yoshida DH
Nick Sogard 2B
David Hamilton SS
Ceddanne Rafaela CF

Cooper Criswell RHP