The unsettled status of the Orioles’ rotation broadened yesterday with Zach Eflin’s lower back tightness and disappearance after only one inning. The series against the Rays concludes today with Dean Kremer starting, and the current roster has Trevor Rogers, Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano lined up for the Rangers series in Arlington.

Eflin’s availability for his next start is up in the air, and likely to land before Jonathan Aranda’s home run ball. His turn arrives on the off-day and he could pitch Friday night in Atlanta if healthy. A trip to the injured list, and it’s premature to speculate, could return Brandon Young to the majors. He must stay down a minimum 15 days unless replacing an injured player.

Off-days Thursday and July 7 could prompt the Orioles to stick with a temporary four-man arrangement.

The next call isn’t going to left-hander Cade Povich.

Povich is eligible to return on Tuesday but the Orioles want to give him more work on his injury rehab assignment. He started for Triple-A Norfolk Thursday and allowed three earned runs and five total with seven hits, one walk and three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. He threw 75 pitches

Zach Eflin’s attempts at a bounce back started with a thud.

Tampa Bay leadoff hitter Josh Lowe doubled in the first inning and chugged home on Brandon Lowe’s single. The throw enabled the runner to move into scoring position, but it didn’t matter.  Jonathan Aranda homered with one out, Junior Caminero and Jake Mangum singled, and a fielder’s choice gave the Rays a quick four-run lead.

The Orioles didn’t have another comeback at the ready. They didn’t have Eflin by the second inning.

Eflin threw 28 pitches and came out of the game with lower back tightness, replaced by Scott Blewett in an 11-3 loss to the Rays before an announced crowd of 30,491 at sunny Camden Yards.

Ramón Laureano hit his 10^th home run in the ninth after Coby Mayo singled, but quiet bats had influenced the outcome. 

Interim manager Tony Mansolino remains confident that infielder Jordan Westburg will avoid the injured list.

Westburg dived into second base last night and jammed the left index finger that he sprained in New York, but X-rays for a fracture were negative.

“Very day-to-day, not nearly as bad as last time,” Mansolino said. “Probably couple days would be my guess. So I think it will be a little quicker than last time.”

Emanuel Rivera is in the clubhouse to give the Orioles an extra infielder.

“With the way things are kind of situated right now, it made sense,” Mansolino said.

The ticking clock doesn’t make a sound in baseball parlance. It’s more of a visual thing, counting down until reaching a date and time of particular importance.

For the Orioles, the exactness is missing in their response to the trade deadline. Though it arrives on July 31, how they react remains in discussion.

When must the front office reveal itself as sellers or buyers? And is it pink for sell and blue for buy?

The day started with the Orioles 11 games below .500 and seven behind for the last Wild Card. They’d need to perform an Olympian vault over seven other teams to reach the postseason for the third year in a row.

The math says it’s a stretch.

The Orioles are hoping that they have more runs in the tank today after scoring 22 last night, which fell one short of the franchise record.

Jordan Westburg is out of the lineup after reinjuring his left index finger last night on a dive into second base. X-rays were negative for a fracture.

Needing another infielder while Westburg is day-to-day, the Orioles selected Emmanuel Rivera’s contract from Triple-A Norfolk, optioned outfielder Dylan Carlson and designated pitcher Kyle Tyler for assignment.

Carlson is batting .241/.278/.389 in 40 games. Rivera is hitting .232/.303/.275 in 25 games with the Orioles.

Tyler was selected on waivers from the Phillies on June 15. He made two relief appearances with Norfolk and allowed one earned run and two total with six hits in four innings.

As the industry perception builds that the Orioles will be sellers at the trade deadline, their bullpen is attracting the expected interest.

The collective stats aren’t impressive, but woven in are numbers from position players Gary Sánchez, Emmanuel Rivera, Jorge Mateo and Luis Vázquez. The first three combined to allow 17 runs in three emergency innings. Vázquez tossed a scoreless inning last Saturday.

Catcher Jacob Stallings, signed to a major league contract on Tuesday and sent to Triple-A Norfolk, has made nine career relief appearances and allowed five runs in 11 innings. But he’s in the organization to fill a need behind the plate, not on the mound.

Pending free agents Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto are obvious targets due to their contracts and past production. Domínguez retired the side in order last night in the sixth and extended his streak to 14 appearances in a row without an earned run allowed. An automatic runner scored against him in the 10^th inning Tuesday against the Rangers.

Domínguez has let only one of 20 inherited runners score. Mark Thurmond holds the single-season franchise record of 10.5 percent scoring in 1988. Domínguez’s five percent is second on the club this year behind Keegan Akin’s 4.2.

The good news came early for the Orioles tonight, as if they were owned a few breaks. The temperature dipped into the mid-70s to provide some relief from the scorching heat. CB Bucknor wouldn’t work the plate in the series, confined instead to the bases for three games. Tomoyuki Sugano struck out the first two batters he faced and retired the Rays in order. Jordan Westburg doubled in the bottom of the first on a 106.6 mph liner that deflected off third baseman Junior Caminero.

And then, the bad times rolled. Westburg dived into the bag and reinjured his index finger, which led to his removal an inning later. The Rays homered three times off Sugano in the second, including Brandon Lowe’s three-run shot.

The cliché about two teams heading in opposite directions unfolded and then paused, with the Orioles playing the opposite role in a big blown lead versus the Rays. They did the rallying this time, along with some major venting, in a preposterous 22-8 victory before an announced crowd of 20,047 at misty Camden Yards.

Gary Sánchez had four RBIs, including a go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth, Coby Mayo hit his first major league homer - off a shortstop - and also drove in four runs, and the Orioles (35-46) won for the second time in six games. The Rays (46-36) lost for only the fourth time in 14 games.

"You know over the course of 162 there's going to be a lot of ups and downs. There's going to be a lot of highs and lows, and we've had our lows. Tonight was a high," said interim manager Tony Mansolino.

Ryan O’Hearn isn’t pretending that he’s unaffected by a possible All-Star selection. He's excited about the support and the likelihood that he represents the Orioles in Atlanta on July 15.

O’Hearn received the most votes among American League designated hitters with 1,762,125 and advanced to Phase 2 opposite the Yankees’ Ben Rice, who received 674,120.

“I was blown away by the amount of votes when I saw it yesterday, so very humbling, awesome,” he said today at his locker. “We’ve still got to get through Phase 2, but very cool. I was blown away by seeing by seeing that number, 1.6-something or 1.7, whatever it was. And the fact that that many people voted for me, it blows my mind.”

O’Hearn has gone through too much on his journey to become an established major leaguer to downplay the balloting. The Royals trading him for cash, the Orioles outrighting him, the dip in his career followed by an ascension that should get him introduced at Truist Park.

“It would mean everything,” he said. “I’ve been the last guy on the worst team in baseball, I’ve been hitting in the middle of the lineup on a team that was considered one of the best teams in the American League. Seen a lot of angles in this game, and to be able to be an All-Star, it’s shocking to say. And humbling, amazing. Would be a huge blessing, an honor.

Coby Mayo is batting ninth tonight as the Orioles designated hitter, facing Rays right-hander Ryan Pepiot to begin the three-game series at Camden Yards.

Jordan Westburg is starting at third base and batting second. Ramón Laureano is in right field, Cedric Mullins in center and Colton Cowser in left.

Gary Sánchez is catching.

Tomoyuki Sugano has allowed four runs or fewer in each of his first 15 career starts, tied for the third-longest opening streak in franchise history behind Jim Hardin (19 games in 1967-68) and Tyler Wells (18 games in 2022).

Gunnar Henderson is a career .339/.405/.619 (40-for-118) hitter with five doubles, two triples, eight home runs and 15 RBIs in 30 games against Tampa Bay.

The Orioles went back to five starters and eight relievers today by optioning Brandon Young and recalling Kade Strowd from Triple-A Norfolk.

Young was sent down yesterday after facing the Rangers on Wednesday and allowing four runs in four-plus innings in his third major league start.

Strowd also made his major league debut this season and allowed one run and two hits in one inning May 18 against the Nationals. He’s registered a 5.02 ERA and 1.465 WHIP in 24 appearances with Norfolk.

Strowd is averaging 11.3 strikeouts per nine innings and has surrendered only two home runs.

Tomoyuki Sugano is on the mound tonight as the Orioles begin a three-game series against the Rays at Camden Yards. Sugano hasn’t completed five innings in his last three starts.

The Orioles continue their homestand tonight against the Rays, and this time, the teams get to play in a major league ballpark.

They split the four-game series at George M. Steinbrenner Field, losing an 8-0 lead on June 18 in one of the season’s low points. The Rays are in second place in the division, a half-game behind the Yankees. They hold the top Wild Card.

Some of the Orioles talked again about getting a reset yesterday. Maybe this one will stick. The others haven’t led to the kind of streak that thrusts a team into a thick of a pennant race. Seven teams remain ahead of the Orioles for the final spot. Five weeks remain until the trade deadline.

Think this is a big series? Every single one feels like baseball life or death.  Just wait until Texas and Atlanta on the next road trip, and a homestand that begins with three games against the Mets.

The offense needs to break out, which is one of the more obvious statements ever made about any team. The Orioles have been shut out in three of the last five games and one-hit in two. Opposing starters have carried a no-hitter through the seventh inning twice and the sixth once. The team ranked 24^th in runs scored yesterday with 315, 23^rd with a .236 average, .302 on-base percentage and .691 OPS. They’re hitting .224/.291/.391 with runners in scoring position and .218/.291/.302 against left-handers.

The Orioles probably won’t match last year’s total of five All-Stars, but they have a chance to send two starters to Truist Field in Atlanta.

Ryan O’Hearn and the Yankees’ Ben Rice are the finalists at designated hitter in the American League. O’Hearn received 1,762,125 votes and Rice garnered 674,120.

Jackson Holliday, in his first full major league season, and the Tigers’ Gleyber Torres are finalists at second base. Torres received 1,981,665 votes and Holliday 1,302,186.

Phase 2 of voting begins Monday at noon and concludes Wednesday at noon. The winners will be announced that night at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

Fans are allowed to vote once per day on MLB platforms, and totals will reset. Phase 1 balloting doesn’t carry over to Phase 2.

As the trade deadline gets closer, the industry is broken down again among teams that identify as buyers and sellers, and the group that balances on the bubble.

The Orioles knew who they were the last two summers. They acquired starter Jack Flaherty from the Cardinals on Aug. 1, 2023 for minor league second baseman César Prieto, left-hander Drew Rom and right-hander Zack Showalter. They acquired relievers Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto last July in separate trades with the Phillies, starters Zach Eflin from the Rays and Trevor Rogers from the Marlins, and designated hitter Eloy Jiménez from the White Sox. The biggest names surrendered were outfielder Austin Hays and prospects Connor Norby, Kyle Stowers and Seth Johnson.

That bubble was underneath them in 2022, and they played the odds more than other math by dealing first baseman Trey Mancini and closer Jorge López. Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias flew into Texas on the last day of the trip to meet with some veterans and offer assurances that there was “a plan in place.”

“It's going exceptionally well,” Elias said that day. “We’ve got a very bright future ahead of us. I don’t want us utilizing the opportunity of the trade deadline the way we did the last couple of days to speak to the fact that this is a team that’s going to have to be reckoned with from now and this point forward in our division. We’re going to have to scout and develop and manage the roster a certain way to maintain it that way. We’ve seen our competitors do that, and we’re there. We’re at that point.

“I think that it's liftoff from here for this team.”

The Orioles need wins in order to avoid selling at the trade deadline.

Their frustrations this season have spilled into the no-hit zone.

Jacob deGrom was the latest starter to flummox them, retiring the first 18 batters tonight before Jackson Holliday’s leadoff walk in the seventh. Colton Cowser let the dugout exhale with a ground ball single leading off the eighth, and deGrom came out of the game.

The Rangers gave him a seven-run lead, which is like gift vouchers for a billionaire. Don’t need ‘em.

The Orioles managed only one hit and were shut out for the eighth time in a 7-0 loss before an announced Pride Night crowd of 22,828 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles made the anticipated roster move earlier today, recalling Brandon Young and optioning reliever Yaramil Hiraldo.

Young is making his third major league start after allowing six runs and 11 hits in 8 2/3 innings. MLB Pipeline ranks him as the organization’s No. 19 prospect.

Jordan Westburg returns to the lineup, playing third base and batting second.

Gary Sánchez is the designated hitter and Chadwick Tromp is catching. Colton Cowser is in left field and Dylan Carlson is in right. Ramón Laureano is on the bench.

Laureano is hitting .583 and slugging 1.333 when ahead in the count this season.

It’s beginning to happen right before our eyes. The first-overall draft pick in 2022, formerly the top prospect in baseball, is drifting to star status and rising above the hype that could have buried him.

Jackson Holliday was gaining as much notice for his struggles in the majors as the tools that got him there. He experienced frustration and the disappointment of getting sent down as a rookie last season, batting .189 with a .565 OPS in 60 games while exposed for the first time to failure. He struck out 69 times, a total he matched in 86 more plate appearances going into last night.

Holliday was hitting .265/.313/.422 with 12 doubles, two triples, nine home runs and 32 RBIs. He tied his career high with four RBIs in the series opener against the Rangers and came within a triple of the cycle. And he did it again from the leadoff spot, where he’s become tethered.

Last night marked the 37^th time this season that Holliday batted first, the 32^nd since Tony Mansolino became interim manager. The lineup combinations spin like reels on a slot machine, but Holliday apparently won’t move unless he’s on the bench.

Mansolino said it casually Monday night, but he made one of the boldest statements of the season.

The Orioles looked like a team that finally had reached its limit, that was done being pushed around. They were no-hit for seven innings Saturday in New York and for six tonight on their home turf. And then they exploded, launching three consecutive home runs to take the lead.

But these aren’t the comeback Orioles of previous seasons, when they’d routinely close the deal. That’s why a club in a state of desperation to build a winning streak that might get it into the Wild Card chase can’t stop spinning its wheels.

Félix Bautista put a runner on second base with no outs in the top of the ninth and escaped the jam, but Evan Carter scored on Sam Haggerty’s fielder’s choice grounder against Seranthony Domínguez in the 10^th, and the Orioles lost to the Rangers 6-5 before an announced crowd of 16,909 at Camden Yards.

Cedric Mullins laid down a sacrifice bunt against Robert Garcia that moved automatic runner Luis Vázquez to third base. Dylan Carlson struck out and Jackson Holliday flied out. 

The outcome moved the Orioles 11 games below .500 again at 34-45. They can claim the series on Wednesday but they’re 3-9 in rubber games.

Pitcher Brandon Young and infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra are on the taxi squad from Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles haven’t listed a starter for Wednesday and Young could fill the role or be used in bulk relief. Either way, interim manager Tony Mansolino indicated that Young will pitch.

Young allowed six runs and 11 hits with eight walks and nine strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings in two starts with the Orioles this season, but he’s registered a 3.29 ERA and 0.841 WHIP in five outings with Norfolk. He pitched in Memphis on Friday and allowed one run and two hits in five innings in his return from right shoulder soreness.

Tomoyuki Sugano will be pushed back from his scheduled turn Wednesday. Mansolino said Sugano isn't a candidate for the injured list.

Vavra is on the medical taxi squad as insurance in case infielder Jordan Westburg goes on the IL with a sprained left index finger that’s kept him out of the lineup since Saturday in New York. However, Mansolino said "all indications" are that we'll see Westburg in the lineup Wednesday or Friday. 

The Orioles are in a rare catching bind with Adley Rutschman making his first career stop on the injured list and Maverick Handley placed on the seven-day concussion injured list yesterday. Apparently, it isn’t safe to swing in the cage or try to make a tag at home plate.

Gary Sánchez is less than two weeks removed from his own IL stay and could get worn to a nub if he’s forced to handle a heavy workload, especially in this heat. Interim manager Tony Mansolino gave him a slight break last night by using him as the designated hitter against Rangers left-hander Patrick Corbin.

Chadwick Tromp is back in the majors. He caught last night. David Bañuelos is making is living on the taxi squad. The Orioles like keeping him close.

Veteran James McCann was released Sunday by the Braves so that he could sign a major league deal with the Diamondbacks. The Orioles never came into play. The sides had some early talks but nothing recent.

The organization’s No. 1 prospect just happens to be a catcher, but 20-year-old Samuel Basallo remains at Triple-A Norfolk.

The Orioles’ strategy for beating the heat wasn’t sustainable, but they had a solid plan for winning a game.

How does a team prepare for a first-pitch temperature of 100 degrees?

“By being inside,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino.

The Orioles didn’t hit this afternoon or plan on taking batting practice before the next two games. But they eventually had to face the oppressive conditions, as well as the Rangers, and try to rebound from back-to-back losses in the Bronx.

The option to not hit would be lifted at 6:35 p.m. and Jackson Holliday went to work by driving in the Orioles' first four runs to support Trevor Rogers, who kept his cool with eight magnificent, scoreless innings in a 6-0 victory before an announced crowd of 13,929 at Camden Yards.