Showalter chooses Wright over Jimenez for Game 1 (O's lose 8-4)

Mike Wright was handed the ball for Game 1 of today's doubleheader against the Athletics, moving ahead of Ubaldo Jimenez, whose start last night was washed away by rain.

Jimenez is starting Game 2, a decision that came down to a couple of factors.

"It could go either way," said manager Buck Showalter. "I've found through the years young pitchers waiting around until 7 o'clock, some of the, not anxiety, but Mike had that kind of work day inning in between and I want to get him out there as soon as possible.

"Sometimes if it's 50-50, I'll let the more veteran guy (choose) and Ubaldo would rather pitch the night game. I found with veteran guys and young guys, you're better off getting the young guy out there early. But you could flip a coin. We didn't. If there had been a tiebreaker, we would have."

Jimenez has a career 3.86 ERA at night and a 4.42 ERA during the day, which doesn't seem to be enough of a difference to really matter. But Jimenez chose to start the nightcap.

Wright struck out Josh Reddick and Khris Davis back-to-back on 95 and 96 mph fastballs to end an 18-pitch first inning. Jed Lowrie was stranded on first base after a single.

The doubleheader leaves the Orioles needing a starter for Wednesday night in Minnesota.

"I think with the 26th guy and everything, that's probably one of the biggest challenges when you've got to double up without an off-day there. Or you pitch one of today's starters on three days' rest, which we'll look at once we get through today, if one of them qualifies for that," Showalter said.

The Orioles only briefly considered bringing up a starter for Game 2 as their 26th player.

"Who would it be? Who then?" Showalter asked. "We talked about it. There really wasn't a candidate yet there. There are candidates, but we didn't think better than (who's here). And with the weather and stuff, who knows?

"If you look at the weather in Minnesota, who knows what's going to happen the next few days. For that matter, who knows what's going to happen here? But you can't get into doing things according to weather or you're going to make some mistakes. We even thought about starting one of the games out of the bullpen, but you need your bullpen in a doubleheader. We like these options better than the ones we had."

Manny Machado doubled to left field with one out in the bottom of the first inning, his 14th two-bagger of the season to lead the majors with Houston's Jose Altuve. Machado is playing third base in Game 1, but he'll move back to shortstop for Game 2.

"I want to leave Manny alone there, but the wear and tear of 18 innings at shortstop ... " Showalter said. "There's a lot more physical and mental challenges at shortstop for 18 innings. He'll play shortstop in the second game. I didn't want to do that for two games. He can handle it, but ... Especially having Paul (Janish) here. But Manny will play shortstop in the second game if things go well in the first game."

Update: The A's collected four singles in the second and scored once on Marcus Semien's RBI hit to take a 1-0 lead.

Stephen Vogt and Yonder Alonso beat the shift by poking singles to left field. Semien's RBI came on a ground ball between Machado and Janish.

Update II: The A's are peppering Wright with jabs. They took a 2-0 lead in the third on a leadoff single by Jed Lowrie, a bunt single by Josh Reddick and a sacrifice fly by Vogt.

All seven hits off Wright are singles.

Update III: Wright has allowed a career-high nine hits in five innings - eight singles and Reddick's RBI double that gave Oakland a 3-0 lead in the fifth. He's thrown 90 pitches.

Update IV: Wright is charged with four earned runs and five total in five-plus innings. He allowed 10 hits, nine of them singles, walked two and struck out three. He threw 97 pitches, 61 strikes.

Both inherited runners scored after Wright left the game. Matt Wieters committed a passed ball that brought home Coco Crisp and Dylan Bundy surrendered a two-run single to Lowrie.

Update V: Semien hit a two-run homer off Brian Matusz in the eighth to extend the lead to 8-1.

The Orioles scored in the sixth on Adam Jones' fielder's choice grounder after Machado singled and Chris Davis was hit by a pitch.

Update VI: The Orioles scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth but came up short in an 8-4 loss in Game 1 of their doubleheader.

Nolan Reimold and Jonathan Schoop singled to start the rally and Joey Rickard collected an RBI on an infield hit. Pedro Alvarez, a late replacement at third base, doubled home two runs with two outs..