This, that and the other

The Orioles were victims of a violent flood of injuries over the course of the season, threatening to sweep away their hopes to repeat as division champions, but players who are able to return will do so in trickles.

Reliever Jacob Webb appears the closest to reinstatement after Thursday night’s scoreless inning with Triple-A Norfolk. Manager Brandon Hyde told the assembled media in Detroit that the right-hander could be available this weekend. The Orioles just need to check his recovery.

Danny Coulombe could be right behind him after a second rehab outing, expected to be tonight. He threw 10 pitches Wednesday in a scoreless inning with the Tides.

The Orioles went slowly with Webb, giving him five days’ rest between appearances before Tuesday night’s outing. He pitched for a fourth time Thursday and the shorter break seemed like a positive sign.

Coulombe might not be on the same schedule. He faced hitters in live batting practice at least twice at Camden Yards. The elbow felt great.

Those tough roster decisions that we’ve talked about here are looming.

Pitching coach Drew French recently praised the unit and how it has bonded despite a plethora of changes.

“I think they’re becoming a bit of a family now,” he said. “We’ve had some consistency down there. And honestly, I sit in the dugout every night and I think about these things and I’m really proud of what this group did, especially starting on our road trip on the West Coast.

“I think adding (Seranthony) Domínguez was a really big kind of continuity factor and just sort of a mature kind of a dad-like presence down there. But we have a good culture and we have a good environment starting with Cuz (catching instructor Tim Cossins) and Grant (Anders, development coach) down there and I think everybody kind of builds off that.”

Grayson Rodriguez is advancing to live batting practice after a series of bullpen sessions, but this is still going to take a while. He’s got to go on his own rehab assignment and get stretched out, and Norfolk’s last game is Sept. 22.

Cade Povich starts Sunday for the Orioles but he’s keeping a rotation spot warm for Rodriguez. Albert Suárez seems to have his heels dug into the mound. No way to move him.

Povich allowed five runs and 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings at Dodger Stadium, blanked the White Sox over 7 1/3 innings and struck out 10, and allowed four runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings at Fenway Park. This feels like a big start for Povich beyond the pennant race.

Trevor Rogers has notched three quality starts in a row with Norfolk. I don’t know if it’s a factor, but I’m tossing it out there anyway.

Jordan Westburg has gone from dry swings to hitting in the cage, but this, too, is going to be a while. He’s got to play in games and won’t do it until he regains full strength in his right hand. Those dry swings only began Wednesday.

The Orioles can get creative in finding extra at-bats for Westburg before reinstating him. Simulated games are easy to arrange. You can’t spell “simple” without “sim.”

Ramón Urías is ahead of schedule rehabbing his sprained right ankle, though it doesn’t sound like he’s doing full baseball activities. The man isn’t ready to sprint up the first base line.

This bring us to Ryan Mountcastle. I wrote earlier in the week that he was down in Sarasota, and Hyde told the media yesterday that he hoped the first baseman could start swinging a bat in a few days.

Mountcastle is the one guy whose return in the regular season is questionable. The others are just a matter of when, but Mountcastle’s updates are wrapped in “hope” and “I don’t know.” He hasn’t played since spraining his wrist while diving into second base on Aug. 22. The defense at first base tends to get overlooked and it shouldn’t. And his absence has made it harder to sit Ryan O’Hearn, who is 5-for-37 this month and has two hits in his last 30 at-bats.

O’Hearn went 0-for-2 with a strikeout last night before Austin Slater pinch-hit for him. The Orioles’ only hit was Gunnar Henderson’s triple with two outs in the ninth. They didn’t have a baserunner until Adley Rutschman drew a leadoff walk in the eighth.

The Tigers started an opener on Friday the 13th and the Orioles nearly landed on the wrong side of baseball history. It's a mess.

Their deficit in the American League East has grown to three games and they lead the Royals for the first wild card by only two.

* Corbin Burnes starts tonight in the second game of the series in Detroit. The Tigers didn’t list last night’s starter until posting their lineup, going with right-hander Beau Brieske, and they’re TBA again today.

They did make a commitment for Sunday with right-hander Keider Montero.

Burnes has faced the Tigers three times in his career and allowed only two runs while recording 20 strikeouts in 15 innings. His only start came at Comerica Park on Sept. 9, 2020 and he tossed seven scoreless innings with only one hit, no walks and 11 strikeouts.

He must be the stopper tonight. He must pitch like an ace. And the offense must do a heck of a lot more than it's delivering or it won't matter.

* Random stat of the day (yesterday):

Anthony Santander is the fifth Orioles player in team history to hit at least 25 home runs on the road, tying Nelson Cruz in 2014 and Chris Davis in 2013 and trailing Brady Anderson (31) in 1996 and Jim Gentile (30) in 1961.

Santander is tied with Aaron Judge for most road home runs in the majors this season.