Burnes named Orioles Game 1 starter in Wild Card, plus other comments

MINNEAPOLIS – Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has made it official. Corbin Burnes will start Game 1 of the Wild Card game at Camden Yards on Tuesday.

Burnes was, of course, the logical choice, and Hyde was already talking about shortening his stint at Yankee Stadium since he would be taking a regular break in his next outing. Burnes had a ticket to Opening Day and Game 1 starting as soon as the Orioles acquired him from the Brewers in the winter for DL ​​Hall and Joey Ortiz.

The rest of the playoff rotation was not announced today. Hyde said he would only announce Burnes, but Zach Eflin is expected to pitch Wednesday and Dean Kremer in Game 3 if needed.

The opponent and the times are not fixed. The Tigers lost today and hold a half-game lead over the Royals for the fifth time. Kansas City owns the tiebreaker.

Burnes played in the playoffs with the Brewers, but only started twice. He has allowed six runs and 11 hits with six walks and 22 strikeouts in 19 innings.

Albert Suárez will start Sunday's regular-season finale against the Twins, pushing him back a day. It remains to be seen whether he will also be shortened, as a bullpen role awaits him in the Wild Card round.

Under normal circumstances, Kremer would have started on Sunday.

Matt Bowman is the starter tonight and Hyde said left-hander Tucker Davidson will get most of the game. The Orioles selected his contract earlier today.

“We’ll have some short-inning relievers,” Hyde said. “People who throw tonight won’t throw tomorrow. We're doing a little checking on everyone right now. We want to make sure everyone is as fresh as possible on Tuesday. And we need everyone to be available for at least two of these games.

“We’ll see how the game goes today and check the guys to see if they need to throw today or tomorrow.”

The club is discussing the composition of the Wild Card roster and whether to use 12 or 13 pitchers.

“I think it’s all possible,” Hyde said. “We'll have a roster meeting when we get back to town. I think everything is on the table at the moment. We don’t know who we’re playing yet, so there are a lot of things we have to take into account.”

Hyde welcomes the chance to give some players a break over the next two days. Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins and Jordan Westburg are on the bench in the penultimate game.

“Nice to see Gunnar up,” Hyde said. “It was nice to have Westburg, guys who grinned a lot. A couple of guys I'd like to show some clubs to – Mounty (Ryan Mountcastle) and (Ramón) Urías. Westy needs a little break, it's so nice to be able to treat him to a day off today. Gunnar definitely deserves a day off today. Ced also played a lot.

“Everyone will be playing for the next two days.”