Smith latest injured Orioles player in 4-3 loss (updated)

ARLINGTON, Texas - The 62nd game of the season produced the 62nd different lineup posted by Orioles manager Brandon Hyde.

Hyde isn't trying to earn points for creativity. He's searching for a winning combination. He's playing matchups. And he's making concessions again tonight for a rash of injuries.

A three-man bench hasn't limited the ways that Hyde maneuvers personnel. Nor has one healthy reserve.

Chris Davis made his first start in right field since 2016. Stevie Wilkerson batted leadoff for only the second time this season upon his recall from Triple-A Norfolk. Chance Sisco made his first start behind the plate.

Trey Mancini was able to trot around the bases on his sore left foot in the first inning, his 13th home run staking David Hess to a quick lead. Dwight Smith Jr. crashed into the fence in the fourth and exited with the latest injury, the Rangers broke a tie in the fifth - aided by Davis' two-base error - and the Orioles lost to the Rangers 4-3 at Globe Life Park.

The Orioles failed again to win their first series since April 22-24 and are 19-43 overall and 11-20 on the road as they make the short trip to Houston.

Hunter Pence homered with one out in the second inning to tie the game 1-1 and Ronald Guzmán's run-scoring double with two outs gave Texas the lead. Wilkerson knotted the score in the top of the fifth with a single that plated Sisco, who led off with a double and advanced on Richie Martin's sacrifice bunt, but the Rangers surged ahead for good in the bottom half.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa reached on an infield hit with one out, Delino DeShields singled to right field and Davis overran the ball. Kiner-Falefa scored, DeShields moved to third base and Danny Santana followed with a sacrifice fly for a 4-2 lead.

Davis drove in his first run since May 12 and snapped an 0-for-18 streak with a fly ball in the sixth that fell inside the line for a two-out double.

Smith made a running catch of Rougned Odor's fly ball for the final out in the fourth, slammed into the fence at full speed and collapsed on the warning track. He bounced into a double play to end the fifth, returned to left field in the bottom half and walked off the field with head athletic trainer Brian Ebel before Hess threw a pitch.

Can't blame a guy for trying.

Though it looked as though Smith's shoulder and chest absorbed much of the impact, the pain appeared to radiate down his neck as he returned to the dugout. He tilted his head a few times and winced.

Keon Broxton shed his reserve status and headed to center field, with Wilkerson moving to left. The bench was down to catcher Pedro Severino, who sustained a contusion on his head last night but passed concussion tests, and infielder Jonathan Villar, whose sore right thumb restricts him to defensive work and pinch-running.

Will the Orioles be forced to make another roster move on Friday? If so, do they finally option a pitcher and add a position player, which requires an awful lot of trust in the bullpen?

Hess has surrendered 20 home runs to lead the majors and he remains winless since April 1. He threw nine pitches in the first inning, 21 in the second and nine in the third, and he made it through the sixth.

Hyde removed Hess after Guzmán's leadoff single in the seventh. Hess allowed four runs (three earned) and eight hits with one walk and two strikeouts. He threw 90 pitches, 63 for strikes, and registered his second quality start by definition - the first coming when he tossed 6 1/3 hitless innings in Toronto for his lone win.

Sisco threw out Guzmán trying to steal to remove the runner that Miguel Castro inherited and complete Hess' line.

Villar pinch-ran for Sisco after a two-out walk in the ninth and he swiped second base, but Martin struck out.

The game was halted due to rain with two outs in the top of the fourth inning, a passing shower causing a delay of only 13 minutes.

Fortunately for the Orioles, no one was injured while sitting through it.

Update: Smith is undergoing concussion protocol and likely headed to the injured list.

Smith also is having his shoulder X-rayed and won't fly with the team to Houston. The Orioles are preparing a roster move.

"I don't know if I've seen this many guys go down in two days," Hyde said. "It's just obviously a little bit unlucky right now and we're pretty banged up. Definitely didn't want to see that and we're hoping he's OK.

"At least we're not flying anywhere far. He's going to be out for a while. He's going through concussion protocol, they're going to X-ray his shoulder up here that he banged in the wall and he's holding his jaw. It was like a car wreck."

"My first thought was just hoping he's all right," Hess said. "That was a really hard hit, an incredible play. That's something really special that he did, but more than anything, just seeing guys the past couple days, just hoping that he's all right still, hoping that everything goes well for him.

"He's a guy that we really like having out on the field. He shows up every day, competes really hard. That's a guy we want out there as much as we can."

The Orioles could recall Joey Rickard, Anthony Santander or Cedric Mullins, three outfielders on the 40-man roster.

Asked about the likelihood of a roster move, Hyde replied, "That's probably, yeah. I think we're going to find out some more things and we have wheels in motion if that's the case, so I'd expect that's probably going to be the case."

Smith batted the next inning after slamming into the fence.

"He kept saying he's OK, and then when he ran, I guess is when he started feeling like he wasn't," Hyde said. "They checked him on the field, I checked with him in the dugout before he went on deck and he said he's good to go, and then he started feeling lightheaded."

"It's been tough on us and hopefully Dwight's OK," Mancini said. "He made a great catch there, and unfortunately, hit the wall really hard. Kind of a tough series for us on the injury standpoint.

"It's scary. I've been on a team with a lot of guys that have run into the wall hard. It's definitely something you want to be careful with and that's why we do all the concussion protocols at the beginning of the year. We take the baseline tests, things like this.

"It's definitely something that has to be protected against in every sport. I know baseball is probably not the predominant sport you hear about concussions, but it's still a big issue in sports that you want to get ahead of."

Mancini's sore foot won't preclude him from playing in the field if needed.

"Yeah, yeah. I could have," he said. "Even this morning, when I got up, I was limping, but throughout the day, I started feeling better and I felt like I could have gone out there. Yeah, I'm glad it wasn't anything too bad. Just got me on a really weird spot."

Hess turned in his second quality start but hasn't earned a win in his last 11 outings.

"I thought this was Hess' best start in a long time," Hyde said. "Thought he threw the ball well. Did a nice job keeping his pitch count low, pitched into the seventh inning. Just some misplaced 0-2 pitches that kind of hurt him, but thought he competed and he gave us a chance."

Hess agreed with Hyde's assessment of his start.

"I think the one thing that really stuck out was fastball command was a lot better tonight," he said. "I think the only thing I really want to focus on going forward is putaway pitches. I got to two strikes a lot, but just couldn't seem to put guys away. That allowed them to score a couple runs right in big situations, so that's something to improve on."

Davis' two-base error allowed the tiebreaking run to score in the fifth and Hyde blamed the conditions.

"I just think it was unlucky," he said. "Ball snaked in the wet grass and Chris is pretty good with ground balls, so I think it was just more of a surface issue. He made a really nice play going into right-center. That was it, I think.

"For what our record is, I'm really proud of how we're competing. We're playing so many one-run games and we're playing ... that's a veteran lineup. Three veteran guys in the back of their bullpen, and we're in every single game. We're playing short obviously and to play competitive ... I think our guys come to play and they're doing everything they can to win the game. A lot of nights, we're just a little short."