Orioles reliever Keegan Akin underwent an MRI this morning on his left elbow and the club is waiting for the results.

Akin was placed on the 15-day injured list shortly before last night’s game. He tossed two scoreless innings on Saturday.

According to manager Craig Albernaz, Akin did some throwing and informed the team in the trainers’ room about the discomfort. Josh Walker was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk.

“Doing the tests and talking with the medical staff and the team, it was decided to go the IL route, even though it was really late,” Albernaz said.

“The medical team and Keegan will look it (MRI) over and figure it out.”

Akin began the season on the IL with a strained groin. His 24 appearances rank sixth on the team behind Rico Garcia’s 38, Yennier Cano’s 37, Anthony Nunez’s 32, Grant Wolfram’s 31 and Tyler Wells’ 29. Nunez was optioned to Norfolk. Wells has spent time down there, and Wolfram was sidelined with a back injury.

Albernaz said he’s “always” concerned about the number of appearances made by his relievers, and that includes Garcia and Cano. They rank 19th and 24th, respectively, in the majors.

“Always mindful of that,” he said. “Always mindful of total number of pitches thrown. We haven’t had anyone go three in a row, so we’re very mindful of that, and three out of four. That’s something I’m always cognizant of. Frenchy (Drew French) is, as well, Hank (Conger). Constant communication.

“It’s the backbone of any team, the bullpen, and our guys have stepped up in a big way. So being able of being cognizant of their workload, not overuse them, yeah, that’s a big part of everything. Even though sometimes you kind of have to do it. But yeah, they’re the unsung heroes of any team.”

Garcia’s previous major league high in appearances came last season when he got into 29 games with three teams. He registered a 0.66 ERA and 0.366 WHIP in his first 15 games this season and a 0.77 ERA and 0.943 WHIP in 12 games last month, but he’s allowed eight earned runs and 10 total with 12 hits this month in 9 1/3 innings. He let an inherited runner score last night.

Asked whether the number of appearances could be the cause of Garcia’s recent struggles, Albernaz replied, “I think ‘struggles’ is a tough word to use. He was borderline unhittable to start the year, so there’s always, the league figures it out, and also, riding that hot streak for a while. But Rico, like yesterday, you can tell Randal Grichuk is pretty locked in when he has back-to-back challenges that are barely off the plate to swing the count. Great challenges by him, and forced Rico to get in the strike zone.

“Yeah, the workload, possibly. But also, like all of our guys, they’ve been throwing great and we trust them.”

Albernaz spoke yesterday about players having to ignore outside distractions, which is a reasonable expectation, as well as a necessity, when performing in the public eye. The subject came up again today.

“That was just more in generalities,” Albernaz said. “Every player, this team and every team throughout the league, every sport, there’s noise. It’s just all part of it now with social media, with people pulling at them outside the game, and rightfully so. So I think for any professional athlete it’s making sure that they can block out the outside noise and be able to go out and compete that night.

“They’ve been great. It’s like tongue-in-cheek when they get the DMs and the social media accounts, the different types of threats, which is always interesting and fun. And that’s kind of it.”

Albernaz addressed this subject in his first spring training meeting, and he has one-on-one conversations during the season.

“It’s just making sure that our guys, they’re in the right head space and ready to go out and compete,” Albernaz said, “and make sure that the distractions are at a minimal the best they can.”

The club heard some scattered boos last night after breakdowns in the field and on the mound over the last two innings turned a 2-2 game into an 8-2 loss. Albernaz heard it. The players heard it.

The negative reception coming from the stands wasn’t thunderous, but it was audible.

“The fans have every right to boo,” Albernaz said. “It’s one of those things where we play the game to win, to go out there and have fun. At the end of the day, this is a game, make sure our guys are going out and having fun. But also, we’re trying to go out there and win every night, and we have not been playing our best baseball.

“The fans that are there, they’re paying their hard-earned money to watch us play and win and play good baseball and competitive baseball, and they have every right to boo. It’s our job, for us, is to go out there and give the city and the fans something they can stand behind and have pride in. And right now, we’re coming up short.”

The Orioles held pitchers fielding practice and ran some bunt drills before taking BP. Dean Kremer was one of the participants.

The starter for Wednesday remains TBA, and Kremer is the leading candidate to make his first appearance with the Orioles since April 18.

For the White Sox
Kyle Teel C
Miguel Vargas 3B
Andrew Benintendi DH
Colson Montgomery SS
Braden Montgomery RF
Chase Meidroth 2B
Tristan Peters CF
Jacob Gonzalez 1B
Junior Perez LF

Erick Fedde RHP