Showalter catching on to backstop rotation

Orioles manager Buck Showalter wrote Caleb Joseph's name into Wednesday night's lineup against the Rangers, then switched to Welington Castillo on Thursday. He went back to Joseph Friday night in the series opener against the Astros and selected Castillo last night.

An early afternoon game today most likely will put Joseph behind the plate. No quick turnaround for Castillo.

For Showalter, it's nice to have catching choices.

Castillo began last night with eight hits in his last 18 at-bats, including a double and home run, to raise his average to .274. Joseph and Trey Mancini were tied for the team lead at .304.

An 0-for-4 night left Castillo at .269. Mancini also went hitless in four trips and is batting .300, leaving Joseph in the lead.

Joseph has four consecutive multi-hit games, going 8-for-16 in that span. He's hitting .357 (40-for-112) in 41 games since May 8, the highest average among catchers in the majors. It also was the third highest for any player before last night.

Two hot hitters allow Showalter to more freely alternate them in the stifling summer heat.

"That's kind of what we're doing," he said. "We're fortunate to have two catchers who are swinging the bat well and can catch well enough to be out there.

"Everybody's got things that they're a little better at than somebody else. Ubaldo (Jiménez) is so slow to the plate that nobody can throw those guys out. He goes through periods where he holds runners a little quicker, then all of a sudden he goes slow. Whoever catches when he pitches is going to have a low throw-out percentage, unfortunately.

"Both of them, we're going to take advantage of. And they both pull for each other and have a great relationship with each other. If we can catch them both a lot, it will make them a lot fresher this time of the year."

Joseph will catch Dylan Bundy, who has one career appearance against the Astros that came in relief last season at Minute Maid Park. He gave up a run and two hits and issued two intentional walks without retiring a batter.

To make matters worse, it happened in the bottom of the 13th inning and gave the Astros a 3-2 walk-off win.

Bundy replaced Mychal Givens and Tony Kemp greeted him with a triple to center field. With two bases open, Bundy walked George Springer and Jose Altuve to bring Carlos Correa to the plate.

Bases loaded, no outs. What could go wrong?

Correa lined a single up the middle on a 1-1 count to send everyone home. Well, the Orioles went back to their hotel, but the rest headed home.

Correa's on the disabled list now and Brian McCann is the only currently active Astros player with a hit off Bundy, the group going a collective 1-for-13.

Kemp has appeared in only two games for the Astros this season. He's hitting .334 at Triple-A Fresno.

Maybe Houston would include him in a package for Zach Britton, but I digress ...

Lance McCullers Jr. is 7-2 with a 3.28 ERA and 1.177 WHIP in 17 starts over 96 innings. He's allowed only six home runs and is averaging 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings. I'm guessing that he's not available.

McCullers has made two starts this month and surrendered nine earned runs (11 total) and 15 hits in nine innings. He faced the Orioles on May 28 and allowed two earned runs (three total) over six innings, striking out eight batters, in an 8-4 win. Jonathan Schoop hit a two-run homer in the first, the Orioles led 3-0 in the second and Alec Asher allowed six runs in the bottom of the inning.

Bad loss.

The Orioles haven't done much against McCullers. In his three starts, they've managed only four earned runs (five total) and 10 hits in 20 innings with eight walks and 29 strikeouts. He's never pitched at Camden Yards.

The current group is batting .145 against him with 10 hits in 69 at-bats. Adam Jones is 2-for-6 with a home run, Seth Smith is 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts, Chris Davis is 0-for-10 with six strikeouts, Johnny Giavotella is 0-for-9 and Joey Rickard is 0-for-5 with four strikeouts.