Updating Adam Jones' injury and wrapping up an 8-6 loss

NEW YORK - The Orioles announced that they optioned reliever Oliver Drake and outfielder Junior Lake to Triple-A Norfolk following today's 8-6 loss to the Yankees. They can assist the Tides in their push toward the International League championship.

Norfolk faces Columbus on Wednesday in the first round of the playoffs.

Center fielder Adam Jones said he expects to be in Tuesday night's lineup against the Yankees after leaving today's game in the eighth inning with soreness in his right shoulder.

Jones apparently felt a twinge while trying to double off Jacoby Ellsbury at first base in the sixth inning after catching Chase Headley's liner to center. Manager Buck Showalter noticed it right away and Jones didn't argue when told to stay on the bench.

Jones missed eight games in June with a sore right shoulder. He's also been bothered by a sprained left ankle and he experienced concussion-like symptoms in Texas after crashing into the fence. Showalter said today that Jones also has a sore wrist.

No tests are planned on Jones, who continues to downplay his ailments and wonders why reporters hover around his locker for updates.

"Just playing this game hard. Playing hard, body is going through a little bit of soreness. It's fine. I'll be back out there tomorrow," Jones said after the Orioles' 15th defeat in the last 18 games.

"Now it's just playing through it, doing what I normally do. Play through anything. I'm human, though. I guess that's what it's boiling down to."

Asked if he felt the pain in his shoulder on his throw to first, Jones replied, "Ain't just that."

The list of aches and pains keeps growing.

"It's been different," he said. "Hit 30. Lot of people say when you hit 30 a lot of things change. It's what happens when you play 150-plus games. Bound to have something down there happen. Run into walls, dive. Play the game hard, play it the right way. Body just takes the brunt of it."

Jones knew that Showalter made up his mind to remove him from the game. No sense arguing about it.

"I know, man," Jones said. "I wanted to tell him, but sometimes you just can't fight it and normally I fight it. Probably 99 percent of the time. This time just couldn't fight it.

"Am I going to play tomorrow? Yeah. What else am I going to do? If I don't play I just sit here and eat ice cream and bother Buck. So probably try to get some rest tonight and hopefully it responds, feels better tomorrow.

"I always want to be out there for our players no matter what. If we're going good, going bad, it doesn't matter. I want to always be the guy, the leader on the field. If I'm in the dugout or not playing, I don't feel as if I'm the leader. When I'm out there playing, all the guys they seem to follow suit. That's why we've got guys who post up and play through nagging things because they see, not just me, but C.D. (Chris Davis), (Manny) Machado, (Matt) Wieters, (J.J.) Hardy, they see us grind through little nagging injuries that every guy has around baseball.

"We're not the type of guys to ask for a day off. We just play through it and sometimes it catches up to us."

Showalter said today's pain is "probably a derivative" of the injury in June.

"There's a lot of things that different guys are playing through this time of year, everybody in baseball," Showalter said. "This one just bit him pretty good on that throw to first base. He's not going to say anything. I'm going to say something for him. He's never going to ask to come out of the ballgame, but I didn't like ... he didn't want to say anything.

"He's icing it down. His wrist was bothering him, too. Just thought it was best to get him out of there and see where we are, if there's such a thing as a long recovery period tomorrow.

"I've been watching him for the last two weeks working through it. I watch him in between at-bats and talk to him. He knows that I'm not going to put him in harm's way and to the point where the sting doesn't go away. Sometimes you have to do it for him because he won't say a word. He's a tough guy. Everybody in baseball, I don't know if they're grinding as hard as Adam. There's not many who do."

Showalter confirmed that no additional tests are planned for Jones' shoulder.

"They've done a lot already, so structurally he's in pretty good shape," Showalter said. "It's sore in there from a lot of different things."

The Orioles' frustration as another loss loomed was apparent in the eighth when Caleb Joseph struck out to leave the bases loaded and broke his bat in half. He slammed it to the ground and snapped it across his knee.

"I like that," Jones said. "It shows you're human. Obviously, sometimes we do it professionally if we're struggling we might take it up the tunnel, might yell some gestures to ourselves on the field. We're not going to go out there and make it look like we're pouting. That's not the makeup of this team. But I like to see it.

"It's a situation where you know he wants to come through. And I'm glad he did it. Shows he's human."

Said Showalter: "Not frustration. I see it all the time with Caleb. He's as emotional as anybody we've got. He just doesn't always wear it out there where everybody can see it because then you get asked questions about it and you have to sit there and talk about it.

"They're very emotional as far as caring and whatever. I thought it was fine. It was great. I don't have a problem with it. He cares. Caleb cares as much as anybody we've got."

So does left-hander Brian Matusz, who faced reporters after serving up a tie-breaking three-run homer to Greg Bird in the seventh. Matusz got ahead 0-2 in the count.

"In that situation right there, I'm ahead in the count anad hanging the slider right there, that's tough. I'd like to take that one back, but just move on," he said.

"We battled the whole game. We were in that game all the way until the end. True testament to our hitters, playing all the way through the ninth inning. Just a couple pitches away. It's frustrating, but we've just got to keep it going."

The Orioles are going in the wrong direction and now are tied with the Red Sox for last place.

"It's been tough," Matusz said. "We've lost some close games. Obviously, we're not where we want to be right now, but we've just got to move forward to tomorrow's game. Rest tonight and be ready for tomorrow."

Five of the last 10 home runs that Matusz has allowed to left-handed hitters have come at Yankee Stadium since the start of 2012. He entered today holding left-handers to a .143 (12-for-84) average, the fourth-lowest in the American League.

Showalter noted how the pitchers' inability to put away hitters after getting ahead in the count continues to be a weakness.

"Yeah. If you look back at them, that's what happened yesterday with Tilly, that's what happened with Wei-Yin (Chen) and Brian today. And it's not just them," Showalter said.

"We're not taking advantage of the counts when they do get in our favor. Trying to go down and away, and middle-middle. He hung a breaking ball 0-2 to the first baseman. But that's been a challenge for us. It's something we're very aware of, but we just can't correct it."

It's also a challenge for the starters to work deep into games. Chen lasted only five innings today. The rotation hasn't produced a start of more than 5 2/3 innings in the last nine games.

"Well, September, it's not that big as far as arms, but it's tough because it's hard to get any momentum and make runs matter. And when you score runs, throw some zeroes up there," Showalter said.

"We made about three mistakes today, not just pitching, that cost us runs, too."

Chen couldn't hold a 4-1 lead handed to him in the second inning.

"I was really expecting a little more," Showalter said. "He had six days. We tried to freshen him up. You've all seen with what we've done with the starting pitching all year. It's more of a mental, emotional fatigue people have this time of year. Everybody in baseball has it if you've treated them properly during the year.

"We've made a lot of mistakes with 0-2, 1-2 counts for about three or four weeks. Today was another good example of that if you go back through them. We're not making the counts that we get in our favor work for us."

Chen has allowed 18 hits in his last two starts over 9 2/3 innings.

"I think I probably wasn't in my best shape during the past few starts and when you're getting into a slump, you tend to be overthinking about stuff and trying to not let anyone hit your pitches. I think that's kind of a vicious circle there," Chen said through his interpreter.

"Maybe because I was overthinking about things, that makes me couldn't make the key pitch to put the hitters out. So from now on, I have to clear up my mind and try to know what I should do in all kinds of situations.

"Our teammates, they score five runs for me. But for me, as a starting pitcher, all I need to is try to not to let the opponent score more than four runs. But I couldn't do the job. And so from now on, I need to make some adjustments and try to focus in the game and try to stop these kinds of things from happening."

The starters need to stop making early exits.

"I think every starter, we all want to go deep in the game, but for now I think I can only think about my situation," Chen said. "I can't think about other people. I think that's the same for every other starting pitcher. We all have to deal with ourselves and make our own adjustments and try to get better."

The Orioles have lost nine consecutive series openers in the Bronx since the start of the 2013 season. They've lost five straight games here since June 14, their longest streak since a five-game skid from July 30-Sept. 6, 2011.

The Orioles went 5-for-6 with a walk and hit batter during their four-run second inning. They were 1-for-16 against Michael Pineda in the other five innings.