An oblique injury in the spring and, more seriously, a torn ulnar collateral ligament prevented Jordan Westburg from playing this season and created opportunities at third base that hadn’t been anticipated back when president of baseball operations Mike Elias was building the roster.

Blaze Alexander took full advantage, counting it among his six positions, but he’s out with a non-displaced fracture in his left hand.

Coby Mayo made 50 starts at third in the first half and another Friday night, and he’s one of the players counted on to field and hit in Alexanders absence.

Mayo slashed .174/.230/.406 in 20 games last month. He was 3-for-13 in July heading into Houston, and two of those hits were a home run into the second deck and another off the facing of it.

“I don’t know how to describe that power. It’s impressive, though,” said manager Craig Albernaz.

“When he gets a good pitch to hit and gets his swing on it, he’s dangerous.”

Consistent contact would go a longer way toward keeping Mayo in the lineup. He should be an automatic inclusion against left-handers, and especially with Alexander on the injured list.

Mayo was slashing .288/.366/.726 in 82 plate appearances against lefties before the weekend. Being an everyday player hinges on whether he can offer the kind of defense needed and also improve on his .150/.216/.235 line against right-handers that included a single Friday night.

The 12 home runs rank fourth on the team behind Pete Alonso’s 21, Gunnar Henderson’s 17 and Samuel Basallo’s 16.

“There’s been, obviously, parts of this year where I’ve felt really good,” Mayo said last weekend. “You’ve got to kind of, when you get those streaks, remember what you’re feeling and just go out there and play and have fun. Trust the work that you put in, especially on defense, too. Trust the work you put in and good things happen, especially when you’re confident in yourself. You do some things right and you build some more confidence and you just continue it day after day and see how long that streak can last.

“Baseball is a tough game, so whenever you’re on a high, you’ve got to try to stay on there as long as possible.”

*Kyle Bradish was scheduled to start this afternoon while the Orioles try to sweep the Astros and extend their winning streak to seven games in a row, but Brandon Young is staying in turn and taking the ball.

Bradish signed his five-year contract extension yesterday. He’ll start in Boston as the Orioles continue their road trip.

Young, as you’ll recall, took a perfect game into the eighth inning last season in Houston. Former Orioles infielder Ramón Urías broke it up with an infield single with two outs.

The Orioles acquired reliever Cam Sanders from the Pirates for cash considerations on Monday and they recalled him from Triple-A Norfolk four days later.

You never know how these things are going to work out.

Sanders earned his first major league win Friday by escaping the bases-loaded jam that he inherited in the seventh inning, and he recorded his first major league save yesterday with a scoreless 11th inning. He had 26 saves in eight minor league seasons.

*The 2026 draft was a rousing success for long-time scout David Jennings.

Jennings, who’s based in Alabama and also covers the Florida Panhandle, Mississippi and Louisiana, followed Oak Grove High School’s Eric Booth Jr. prior to the outfielder’s selection at No. 7 overall.

That wasn’t all.

Jennings also scouted fourth-round pick Kevin Roberts Jr., an outfielder from Jackson (Miss.) Preparatory School, sixth-rounder Zane Adams, a left-hander from the University of Alabama, and 10th-rounder Carlos Sanchez, a utility player from LSU Shreveport.

Four of the top 10 is a pretty good haul.

“The specimen that Kevin Roberts is, I mean, he’s tooled up,” Jennings said. “He can run, throw, he’s got power. Obviously, hitting’s always a question, especially for a 17 year old high school kid, but athleticism there is really good.”

Jennings is an Auburn fan – you’ve got to choose a side when living in the state of Alabama – and joked about his reaction to the Orioles selecting Adams.

“I was like, ‘Oh man, I’ve strayed,’” he said.

“Zane Adams has a really good fastball, really good changeup. I think it’s a four-pitch mix with him. Could be a four or five-type starter. Big, strong body. He’s 6-4 220, right around there. Yeah, he’s a good-looking kid, too.

“Carlos Sanchez, just the ability to play everywhere – right field, second base, catch. He played in the (MLB) Draft League and he did really well there. So that just kind of bumped him up. He came to one of our workouts over in Dallas and bounced around the infield, outfield, catching. Had some good exit velos and bat speed. He can run a little bit. There were definitely some tools there that you liked, especially coming from a small school like that. He was impressive for us.”

Reports have the Orioles reaching signing bonus agreements with Adams and Sanchez.

*The Orioles used their third-round pick and the 82nd overall on University of Kansas right-hander Dominic Voegele, the fifth-highest selection among pitchers in the Elias era.

Ahead of Voegele are left-hander Joseph Dzierwa (second round 2025), the No. 3 prospect in the system per MLB Pipeline, right-hander Jackson Baumeister (second round 2023), traded to the Rays in the Zach Eflin deal, right-hander JT Quinn (second round 2025), the No. 19 prospect, and right-hander Nolan McLean (third round 2022), who didn’t sign.

Voegele set a school record this spring with 120 strikeouts in 97 innings, but it came with a 5.85 ERA in 17 starts. He registered a 5.22 ERA in 48 starts over three seasons.

High college ERAs don’t dissuade the Orioles from making selections, as vice president of domestic scouting Will Robertson explained after Day 1 when he said, “There’s a whole host of things we look at, from the pitch velocity, movement profiles, from the release point.”

“We’re definitely focused on what kind of prospect and eventual major leaguer they’ll be, rather than how effective they are today,” Robertson added. “Obviously, it gives you a good sense of comfort when they’re already preventing runs and getting through innings. We definitely do value that. But again, we’re trying to put the holistic picture together and value a lot of other things that we find to be predictive.”

The Orioles liked Voegele’s durability, his strikeout-to-walk numbers and much more. And they believe that there’s a lot of meat left on the bone, with room for him to improve.

“We do see some things under the hood both metrically and visually with his delivery,” Robertson said. “He has a very fast arm, quiet head. It’s a pretty low effort visual for someone who’s able to run it up into the upper 90s across five, six, seven inning outings. And then the spin rates on the breaking stuff give a really, really appealing ball of clay to turn it into a very formidable breaking ball package.”

The Orioles have signed Voegele to a $897,500 bonus, per reports.