Hyde on Harvey and more, Mountcastle on rookie honor

The latest injury to Orioles right-hander Hunter Harvey may keep him out about a month, according to manager Brandon Hyde. Harvey went on the 10-day injured list today with a strained lat, and lefty Zac Lowther was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk.

Harvey felt something on what was to be his last warmup pitch in the bullpen Wednesday night at Houston. He was about to be summoned into the game, but instead is headed back to the injured list.

"He went and saw the doctors yesterday," Hyde said during his pregame Zoom session today. "Lot of us were expecting worse, to be honest with you. Just kind of the way it happened. It was the last pitch of his warmups to go in the game and he felt something in his armpit, kind of underneath in the labrum area. And you know, came in and got checked out and saw a team of doctors yesterday. I think we're fortunate that ... we're hoping it's just a month. For me, that would be a best-case scenario."

In nine games, Harvey has posted a 4.15 ERA and 1.269 WHIP in 8 2/3 innings.

Meanwhile the team will be without right-hander Travis Lakins Sr. for an extended period. He left a start in the second inning on Tuesday with an elbow issue.

"He got tested again yesterday," Hyde said. "It's a significant elbow injury. I'm not sure the timetable on it, but it's significant."

The Orioles are not starting third baseman Maikel Franco tonight but he is available after suffering a sprained right ankle while trying to run a ball down in the last inning on Wednesday night at Houston.

"Franco is day-to-day," said Hyde. "Got X-rayed and it came back negative. Got a little bit of a sprain. Lot of rehab yesterday. Rehab again this morning. Feeling a lot better and should be available off the bench. We got lucky there."

The Orioles will not face right-hander Shohei Ohtani on the mound in this series but he is batting second tonight for the Angels. He's batting .277 and leads the majors with 28 homers and is third with 63 RBIs. Ohtani leads the big leagues in extra-base hits (49), is second in total bases (183) and slugging (.685), and is third in OPS (1.045) and tied for fourth in triples (4). He also has 11 stolen bases (tied for ninth in the American League) and has made 12 pitching starts, going 3-1 with a 3.60 ERA, 83 strikeouts and .194 average against.

"He's a great player, one of the most exciting players in our league," Hyde said. "Extremely unusual, talented player. To do what he does is, I don't think we've ever seen it before. Extremely dangerous at the plate and just one of the great players in our game. I'm not upset we are missing him on the mound, his stuff is so electric. But he is as dangerous as it gets at the plate."

No June swoon for this guy: Ryan Mountcastle talked to reporters this afternoon from Anaheim via Zoom on winning the American League Rookie of the Month award for June. In 26 games he hit .327/.382/.634/1.015 with four doubles, nine homers and 26 RBIs.

"It means a lot," he said. "There are a lot of good rookies in the AL and the NL too. To be named the (rookie) player of the month is really cool."

Mountcastle's bat has been on a steady climb up since the season began. He posted an OPS of .515 in April, .748 in May and 1.015 in June.

"I mean, that first month and a half was tough," he said. "But you know, I just tried to stay confident and know that I'm better than what I was playing at. Yeah, going out there every day and trying to win is really all you can do right now, and I'm going to keep doing that.

"I feel pretty good how it's gone so far. I've handled all the different adversity and just trying to keep my head and keep grinding every day."

Now Mountcastle and his teammates will try to build on the sweep in Houston and keep playing better baseball.

"I think last series we all played really well," Mountcastle said. "Offensively, we were getting big hits in big situations. Pitching was really good, we had a lot of big outs in those games. Hopefully we keep it rolling here in L.A."

The last O's player to win AL Rookie of the Month was lefty pitcher Brian Matusz in August 2010.