Stewart's three hits a highlight for Orioles in 3-0 loss (with quotes)

The reception for DJ Stewart tonight in his first at-bat of the season didn't force the young outfielder to choke back tears. Polite applause accompanied him to the plate. Nothing that would cause a player to step out of the box and gather himself.

Stewart was recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Norfolk, a popular move judging by the reaction on social media, if not in the stands. But the cheering increased in volume as he grounded a single into right field in the second inning and again after an infield hit. And especially after he lined a single into center field in the seventh, a scorching hot bat maintaining its temperature at sticky Camden Yards, where it was 89 degrees at first pitch.

The results this season won't mean as much to the Orioles as the development of their prospects and the ability to pump more talent into the system, with Monday's amateur draft a critical step. Stewart, a first-round pick in 2015, made it back to the majors. Others are expected to follow, the order and spacing to be determined.

Stewart had two singles and a stolen base within the first four innings against Tigers left-hander Matthew Boyd. His single in the seventh produced his first career three-hit game and forced a pitching change, but the Orioles were down early and couldn't recover in a 3-0 loss.

The Orioles are 17-38 overall and 7-20 at home and still trying to secure their first series win since April 22-24 versus the White Sox. They were shut out for the fourth time.

Stewart has a hit in his last four major league starts going back to Sept. 28. He ended the 2018 season 10-for-27.

Tonight marked his third multi-hit game, the last coming on Sept. 22 in New York.

Boyd scattered six hits in six-plus innings, including Jonathan Villar's leadoff single in the sixth. He picked off Villar, who got caught in a rundown.

Pedro Severino walked and Stewart singled to open the seventh, but Buck Farmer and Daniel Stumpf teamed up to strand them. Severino represented the tying run with two outs in the eighth and struck out.

Dylan Bundy surrendered two-out runs in the first and second innings to fall behind 2-0 and Niko Goodrum homered in the fifth on a fly ball that barely made it onto the roof of the grounds crew shed in right field.

The Orioles are 8-1 when they don't surrender a home run, the last win coming Monday afternoon. Bundy is responsible for 13 of the 115 this season.

Goodrum's ball had a 44-degree launch angle and a .180 expected batting average per Statcast. It still counted as a run.

Christin Stewart doubled in the first and scored on Miguel Cabrera's soft single into right field. Grayson Greiner singled with two outs in the second and raced home on JaCoby Jones' bullet into left-center on a 91 mph fastball up and over the plate.

Brandon Dixon led off the fourth with a double off the right field fence and was stranded, with Bundy getting a popup, ground ball and strikeout.

The pitch count wasn't an issue for Bundy, who threw 13, 14, 10, 14, 11 and 10 over the first six innings. He's allowed three runs or fewer in his last five starts.

Bundy didn't walk a batter in seven innings and struck out eight, including Jones on a 92 mph fastball to open the fifth. The next two strikeouts came on sliders, a pitch he's using with more frequency and challenging hitters to make contact. Reliance on the four-seamer is waning and Bundy is improving.

The eighth strikeout, on a 93 mph fastball to Greiner in the seventh inning, gave Bundy 500 for his career. Jones followed with a double, Stevie Wilkerson almost making a diving catch in shallow left field, but Goodrum popped up after Severino's throwing error on an attempted pickoff.

Bundy threw 17 pitches in the inning to leave him at 89 and Miguel Castro replaced him in the eighth. Bundy was charged with three runs and seven hits in seven innings and his ERA is down to 4.58.

Manager Brandon Hyde has used only three relievers in the first two games of the series, with Castro stranding Stewart after a leadoff double in the eighth and standing two more in the ninth.

Note: Mark Trumbo went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in his first injury rehab game at Double-A Bowie. He served as the designated hitter.

Stewart on whether this was carryover from Triple-A: "Anytime you get one hit, it's a good night. Three, it's a really good night, but unfortunately we weren't able to get the win."

Stewart on confidence gained with three hits versus lefty: "It gives me great confidence. It's something I've prided myself on my entire life is hitting the lefties because it's so difficult and you don't see them as much. You have specialty guys, but I've kind of prided myself on it my entire career."

Hyde on Bundy: "Bundy did a great job. Seven innings, held them to three runs and gave us a chance to win the game. Just tough time offensively tonight against a real good starter who's throwing the ball really well right now. Just had a tough time mustering any rallies and didn't hit many balls hard all night."

Hyde on Stewart: "That was impressive. I just like the way he hangs in there. Stays on the ball real good. It's not an easy assignment in your first game of 2019 in the big leagues to face a left-hander like that. Took some real good at-bats all night. Competitive. Outstanding."

Hyde on Boyd: "He really pitches in well to right-handers, so I think you saw us take a lot of strike three fastballs on the inside black. He's got a hard sweeping slider that dives right at your feet and it starts as a strike and ends up as a ball underneath. I watched his last start against Miami and exact same thing. He's able to locate in to right-handers really well. Got a nice changeup that he uses on the other side of the plate so you can't just sit on one side of the plate and we just had a tough time."

Hyde on Bundy's pitch mix: "I think his pitch mix is fantastic. He only made a couple mistakes. First inning with an open base to Cabrera, trying to go off the plate and not let him beat us and he just got a little bit too much. Miggy kind of punched it to the right. Hung a split to Goodrum that was a fly ball most places most nights. But besides that I thought his mix was outstanding, his fastball played up again because of a good curveball and two good breaking balls, so just a really nice performance."

Hyde on whether he envision what other prospects can do after watching Stewart: "Not during the game. During the game I'm trying to win a game with the guys we have in the dugout, in the clubhouse. That's the primary focus. I love to see DJ up with some energy. Saw him make some really nice throws from right field as well and hustles down the line. Runs well, throws well and competitive at-bats, so really nice night for DJ."

Hyde on whether Stewart success speaks to club's philosophy with prospects: "Yeah, I think DJ told us he was ready by how he was playing. And repeating the level from last year and swinging the bat really well this past month, six weeks, and really dominating the league. We're looking for guys to dominate the league. And once you dominate the league, then you're ready. And for the last six weeks, you look at his numbers and the quality of the at-bats he had, he was ready to come here. He stepped right in and didn't put too much pressure on himself and played the game. And that's what we're looking for guys to do."

Bundy on 500th strikeout and outing: "Yeah, I found out about that after the game. That's pretty neat. Definitely a ball I can hold onto and a start that I can keep building on."

Bundy on using his slider more: "It's important. That's a righty heavy lineup and I think you saw more sliders tonight. But really I was happy with all the pitches tonight. One changeup left up for the homer, but with that righty lineup the slider really played."

Bundy on whether he's on a roll: "Yeah, I feel good with my mechanics, I feel good with all the shape of the pitches. Just going out there every fifth day and trying to give your team a chance to win."

Bundy on whether he'd win nine times out of 10 with this stuff: "I don't know. I've got to do it 10 times, I guess, and find out. But that's how baseball works and we were in the game the whole game and just didn't come through tonight, (but) we'll be ready to play tomorrow."

Bundy on whether throwing less fastballs is part of recent success: "Yeah, I felt like I threw a lot of sliders. Like I said last outing, the fastball's not 94-95 anymore, it's 91-93, so I think it helps the fastball play up, especially later in the game."

Bundy on whether it took a while to get comfortable throwing more breaking balls: "I'd say getting it over the plate really helps. If you're throwing it for balls and working behind in the count, you have to throw a fastball and usually they can get you there. But just taking time on throwing pitches over the plate, working ahead."