Coby Mayo is getting his first start at George M. Steinbrenner Field tonight and Adley Rutschman is on the bench for the third game of the series against the Rays.

Jordan Westburg is playing third base and batting second. Ramón Laureano is the cleanup hitter.

Ryan O’Hearn is the designated hitter and Colton Cowser is in left field. Cedric Mullins is batting ninth.

Cowser has hit three home runs in 11 games since returning from the 60-day injured list.

The Orioles have won 12 of their last 17 games since May 30, and the .706 winning percentage is tied with the Astros for best in the majors.

The sun came up today. Well, not really because we continue to experience disgusting weather here in the D.C. region, with clouds, rain and humidity that makes it feel like South Florida instead of the Mid-Atlantic. But regardless, the Nationals are playing another game tonight, another opportunity to try to end their losing streak, which has now reached 10 games.

As always, it boils down to getting the game off to a positive start. They need to score some runs off Germán Márquez, who like Antonio Senzatela last night enters with a bloated ERA but unlike Senzatela did not face the Nats earlier this season. So we’ll see how they fare against the Rockies right-hander.

And it boils down to Mitchell Parker getting through a clean top of the first and then giving his team a chance. Parker did not do that last time out against the Marlins, giving up a run in the first, another in the second and then four in third. He simply can’t dig his teammates into a hole tonight, not the way things are going around here.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. COLORADO ROCKIES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Thunderstorms, 83 degrees, wind 8 mph out to center field

ROCKIES
DH Tyler Freeman
2B Kyle Farmer
LF Jordan Beck
1B Michael Toglia
CF Brenton Doyle
3B Orlando Arcia
RF Sam Hilliard
SS Ryan Ritter
C Braxton Fulford

The Orioles have made the following roster moves:

• Recalled LHP Trevor Rogers from Triple-A Norfolk. He will start tonight’s game.
• Optioned LHP Grant Wolfram to Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles recalled left-hander Trevor Rogers from the taxi squad to make tonight’s start against the Rays in Tampa, and reliever Grant Wolfram was optioned after spending one day with the team.

Rogers started Game 2 of a May 24 doubleheader in Boston and allowed two hits over 6 1/3 scoreless innings. He issued no walks and struck out five.

In four starts last season, Rogers threw first-pitch strikes at a 70.7 percent rate. The percentage was 81.8 against the Red Sox.

Rogers has made two career starts against the Rays and allowed four runs with 15 strikeouts in 12 innings. Yandy Díaz gets small-sample-size recognition for going 2-for-2 with a double and walk.

Rogers is working on five days' rest tonight. 

It all happened so fast from Cole Henry’s perspective. He entered a 3-1 game in the top of the seventh Tuesday night at Nationals Park. Four batters later, he departed a 7-1 game with many in the crowd of 17,232 booing.

The rookie reliever knew what was going on: “I’ve had a couple times this year where I just get too quick on my back side and start rushing,” he explained. But he couldn’t fix the problem in the moment, and so he was left to endure through a nightmare scenario that saw four straight Rockies batters reach base, the last two belting home runs to blow the game wide open.

A starter throughout his college and minor league career, Henry is learning on the fly how to deal with the unique responsibilities of life as a major league reliever. After a postgame conversation with Nationals pitching strategist Sean Doolittle, he realized he’s going to have to get better at making quicker adjustments in this role.

“As a starter, you have a couple innings to figure something out. As a reliever, you don’t have time,” he said. “You’ve got to figure it out within a batter. For me, it’s just trying to get back to the basics, try to stay within myself, not try to do too much. I just started pressing a little bit, trying to make stuff too perfect, trying to make my stuff nastier than what it needs to be.”

Henry’s rookie season has been an overwhelming success so far. He’s been scored upon in only four of his 24 outings. His fastball-curveball combo has been devastating for big league hitters when he commands both pitches. He entered Tuesday night with a 2.22 ERA and 10 strikeouts per nine innings.

TAMPA – The Rays’ offense entered tonight’s game scorching hot. In four consecutive games, all wins, Tampa had posted at least seven runs. 

For the first time in what has felt like a long time, the Rays were stifled. Orioles pitching won the night in Baltimore's 5-1 victory. 

"It seems like 26 guys are playing well right now," interim manager Tony Mansolino said after the game.

The story was Dean Kremer and the bullpen, but the O's offense got things started. 

All Jordan Westburg has done since returning from the injured list is produce. His second-inning double, hit over 110 mph off the bat, set the Orioles up with their first scoring chance of the night. Ryan O’Hearn pushed him to third, and Ramón Laureano brought him home to make it 1-0 Baltimore. 

The Orioles are heartbroken to share the news of the passing of minor league infielder LUIS GUEVARA.

“Luis was a beloved member of our organization, and we are devastated following his tragic passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and teammates and we ask for their continued privacy during this difficult time,” said Orioles Executive Vice President and General Manager MIKE ELIAS.

Guevara, 19, was signed by the Orioles as an international free agent out of Tinaco, Venezuela in January 2023. He appeared in 30 games this year, his first season in the United States, playing in 24 games with Single-A Delmarva, four with the FCL Orioles, and two with Double-A Chesapeake. He spent his first two professional seasons from 2023-24 with the DSL Orioles.

--- 

Con profundo dolor, los Orioles lamentan al compartir la noticia del fallecimiento del jugador de las ligas menores LUIS GUEVARA.

The boos came in waves during the top of the seventh from a crowd of 17,232 tonight at Nationals Park, each time a Rockies player circled the bases after hitting a home run. It happened four times during that jaw-dropping inning alone, plus again in the eighth, impossible for Davey Martinez, Mike Rizzo and their players not to notice.

It can always get worse, they say. It’s hard to imagine that right now around here.

The Nationals lost to the Rockies tonight 10-6, a final score that looks much closer than it was because of a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth that showed some spunk but still fell well short. On its own, that would constitute a really bad night, given the quality of opponent (or lack thereof). Under the current circumstances, it felt like a knife through the heart of a team that has collapsed this month.

For only the second time in club history, the Nats have lost 10 consecutive games. The last five have come at the hands of two of the worst teams in baseball: the Marlins and Rockies. When the streak began, the Nationals were not in that conversation, owners of a respectable 30-33 record and hoping to feast on supposedly inferior competition and surpass the coveted .500 mark.

Instead, that record is now 30-43. The .500 mark is a distant dream at this point. The question now is what, if anything, is forthcoming from Martinez, from Rizzo or from ownership.

TAMPA – Nobody would blame Ryan O’Hearn for paying close attention to stats.

In the midst of a career season, the 31-year-old is hoping for his first All-Star selection. For a player optioned or designated for assignment five times during his professional career, the bid would signify the epitome of perseverance in the game. 

As such, the do-it-all slugger has earned the right to doom scroll box scores when he wakes up in his Florida hotel tomorrow morning. 

Instead, he’ll be doing arts and crafts. 

“Get out of the hotel, go serve somebody beside yourself, people who really need it,” O’Hearn said. 

Riley Adams has received more playing time in recent weeks than at any point in the last year-plus, certainly more than he ever does when Keibert Ruiz is healthy. Each of the Nationals’ catchers has started six games so far in June, a stark contrast from the previous stretch that saw Ruiz behind the plate in 14 of 16 games.

The idea was to get Adams into some kind of rhythm at the plate. The results, though, have been anything but.

Adams currently finds himself in an 0-for-30 slump, reaching base only once (via his only walk of the season), striking out 13 times. His batting average is down to .091 (5-for-55), his OPS down to .325, lowest among all National League players with at least 50 plate appearances.

Manager Davey Martinez said the 28-year-old hasn’t been able to keep his bat in the hitting zone long enough, his hips opening too soon as the bat lags behind. And as the 0-fers have continued, the pressure has only mounted to try to snap out of it, compounding the problem.

“He’s trying too hard to do well. So is everybody else,” Martinez said, referencing the team’s current offensive struggles during a nine-game losing streak. “We’ve got to get him to slow his feet down a little bit. He’s got a tremendous amount of power. Just get him to stay on the ball and not worry about doing much.”

Left-hander Trevor Rogers has joined the Orioles in Tampa and is on the taxi squad.

The Orioles need a starter on Wednesday and Rogers appears to be the choice. He tossed 6 1/3 scoreless innings against the Red Sox in Game 2 of a May 24 doubleheader in Boston.

Coby Mayo is out of the lineup again tonight, as the Orioles try to bounce back from last night’s 7-1 loss to the Rays. Ryan O’Hearn is playing first base and Cedric Mullins is the designated hitter.

Colton Cowser is in center field. Jordan Westburg is the third baseman and cleanup hitter.

Gunnar Henderson has a 10-game hitting streak. He’s slashing .322/.402/.411 (29-for-90) in his last 24 games.

There has been only one 10-game losing streak in Nationals history. It came all the way back in August 2008, the first year of operation at Nationals Park, when a team that went into the season believing it was good enough to win proceeded to lose 102 games. The streak would reach 12 games, but loss No. 10 came at home against the Rockies.

Tonight, the Nats will attempt to avoid reaching that ignominious 10-game mark again, and to do that they’ll have to beat the Rockies. This should be a favorable matchup for the home team, but as we saw Monday night and over the weekend when the Marlins were in town, there’s no such thing as a favorable matchup right now.

Colorado’s starting pitcher tonight is Antonio Senzatela. He is 1-10 with a 7.23 ERA this season. His lone victory came against the Nationals, who managed just one run in six innings against him on April 20 in the nightcap of a doubleheader at Coors Field. They scored that run in the top of the first, with James Wood drawing a leadoff walk, moving to second on Keibert Ruiz’s grounder and scoring on Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single.

Michael Soroka did not pitch in that series, because he was on the injured list at the time. The right-hander is fully healthy now, but still seeking some consistency on the mound. Soroka sports a very solid 1.119 WHIP, with a strong 4-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. So why does he also have a 5.14 ERA? Because he’s been prone to one or two critical mistakes per outing, which is most notably in the eight home runs he’s allowed over only 42 innings. He’s got to avoid those killer mistakes tonight if he wants to help pitch the Nationals to a desperately needed win.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS vs. COLORADO ROCKIES
Where: Nationals Park
Gametime: 6:45 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, 87.7 FM (Spanish), MLB.com
Weather: Thunderstorms, 78 degrees, wind 8 mph out to left field

Colin Selby threw two scoreless relief innings last night in Tampa and he’s headed back to Triple-A Norfolk.

Another swap of arms has brought left-hander Grant Wolfram to the Orioles. They recalled Wolfram today and optioned Selby.

Wolfram has appeared in two games with the Orioles and allowed two runs and three hits in 1 1/3 innings. He pitched in back-to-back games in Detroit on April 26-27.

Wolfram has a 4.87 ERA and 1.426 WHIP in 18 appearances with Norfolk. His stay with the Orioles could be as brief as Selby’s, since they need a starter for Wednesday night.  

Dean Kremer has allowed nine runs and 13 hits this month in 12 1/3 innings and he gets the ball tonight. He was used in bulk relief in his last outing, covering seven innings and allowing four runs in the fourth.

The Orioles have made the following roster moves: 

• Recalled LHP Grant Wolfram from Triple-A Norfolk.
• Optioned RHP Colin Selby to Triple-A Norfolk.

As he contemplated Monday night’s game roughly 30 minutes after it ended, Nationals manager Davey Martinez kept pointing out the positive developments he saw from a number of his players, especially young players.

Brady House looked comfortable in his major league debut. Daylen Lile looked great in his second big league stint, launching his first career homer. CJ Abrams made one of the best defensive plays of his career. James Wood had another big night, doubling, homering and drawing a walk. Jake Irvin overcame another first-inning mistake to deliver a quality start. Brad Lord was lights out in two innings of relief.

“We played really well,” Martinez said to open his postgame press conference.

The end result, of course, was a loss. Maybe the biggest gut-punch loss of the season after Kyle Finnegan gave up two home runs in the top of the ninth to turn a 4-3 lead over the Rockies into a 6-4 loss to far and away the worst team in baseball.

That’s nine straight losses, by the way, matching the second-longest streak in club history. Every other one of this length, including the club-record 12-game losing streak from August 2008, has come from a team that ultimately lost 100-plus games.

The Orioles are back on the road and my mailbag is adamant about missing the Tampa portion of it. No Trop, no trip.

Let’s do some dumping and count how many questions are related to the trade deadline and whether the Orioles will buy or sell. That’s a popular one these days.

The answer isn’t as clear anymore.

You ask, I answer, and we have the latest sequel to the beloved 2008 original. I was gonna edit for clarity, length and style, but decided against it. I edited that idea. Sorry to disappoint again. And that's what I said.

Also, you should know that my mailbag receives the most All-Star votes and your mailbag is confused by the ballot.

TAMPA – The Rays and Orioles entered play tonight as two of the hotter teams in baseball. The Florida heat only added to their rising temperatures. 

Tampa Bay had won 18 of their last 25 and were on the heels of a three-game sweep of the New York Mets. The Orioles went 15-10 over that same stretch, 11-4 in their last 15, and were fresh off a three-game sweep of the Angels. 

Something had to give. 

Tonight, it was the O’s starting pitching that gave in a 7-1 loss. The pillar of their recent stretch of success was anything but. 

Tampa Bay struck early and they struck often. On Zach Eflin’s fourth pitch of the game, Josh Lowe skied a ball to right field that found some outfield seats. At 334 feet with a 97.9 mph exit velocity, it was hit just well enough to get out of the ballpark. 

The Nationals promoted Brady House from Triple-A Rochester today not because they believed their 2021 first-round pick was going to singlehandedly snap their eight-game losing streak, but because they believed his presence would at least help the cause.

There was nothing, of course, House could do about what transpired during a nightmare top of the ninth with Kyle Finnegan on the mound, one that sent the home team to the worst yet of its nine consecutive losses.

Serving up a pair of home runs to Hunter Goodman and Mickey Moniak, Finnegan turned a one-run lead into a 6-4 loss to the worst-in-the-majors Rockies, leaving a season-low crowd of 11,370 stunned and dismayed at the new depths the Nats have now reached.

"When you get a chance to put your closer in for the ninth, that's what you want," manager Davey Martinez said. "Today, we just came out on the wrong side of the field. I'm excited about the way the kids played. ... Those guys are going to be all right. They'll help us win games. This was a tough one."

Finnegan took the mound with a 4-3 lead in hand, made possible by homers from Daylen Lile and James Wood, a quality start from Jake Irvin and two perfect innings of setup by Brad Lord. He needed merely to record three outs against a weak Colorado lineup. That was easier said than done. Goodman, who had already homered off Irvin way back in the top of the first, mashed a 97 mph fastball to left-center for the game-tying homer.

TAMPA – For the second consecutive road series, the Orioles find themselves in a minor league park. 

The Rays’ temporary home of George M. Steinbrenner Stadium, though, has a bit more familiarity than the Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. 

“I mean, it’s Yankee Stadium, it’s just in Florida,” Tony Mansolino said today. “So, we kind of know the stadium.” Just a bit hotter than New York. 

“I do think actually playing in Sacramento kind of prepared you to come here because it got you out of the big league stadium, and the energy and atmosphere that a big league stadium gives you,” Mansolino added. “Understanding that we’ve kind of got to create that ourselves, we definitely learned that in Sacramento.” 

Getting two key pieces back in the lineup is certainly cause for a boost in energy. 

Brady House had just left Innovative Field, taking his girlfriend to the Rochester airport and then making plans to get dinner and pack his bags for an expected week playing in Lehigh Valley when his phone rang. He was told he needed to turn around and come back to the ballpark for a meeting, and suddenly the 22-year-old had a hunch what this was all about.

“I had an idea, but obviously you don’t want to get yourself too excited in case it doesn’t happen,” he said. “I was just trying to get ready for whatever that meeting was.”

House’s hunch was right. Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy told the young third baseman he was getting called up by the Nationals and would be making his major league debut tonight. His girlfriend wouldn’t be boarding that flight. The two of them would be driving together to D.C., with the rest of his family making last-minute plans to fly here and witness a moment they’ve long anticipated.

“I was, honestly, getting ready to go get some dinner and do laundry and all that stuff,” he said. “And then that was the best surprise.”

House will bat sixth and start at third base tonight against Rockies left-hander Carson Palmquist. Manager Davey Martinez says he’ll be out there every day, perhaps bumped down a slot when facing a righty but here to play alongside the organization’s other top prospects who arrived in the majors ahead of the 2021 first-round pick.