Orioles’ Givens struggles in 10-inning loss to Red Sox; Hyde ejected; Hess sent to Norfolk

BALTIMORE—The Orioles headed to the West Coast after teasing the fans on Sunday. After scoring two runs in the eighth to take a one-run lead over the Boston Red Sox, reliever Mychal Givens allowed a ninth-inning home run to Marco Hernandez, tying the score, and a leadoff home run to Rafael Devers in the 10^th.

The 8-6 loss in 10 innings was the Orioles’ fifth straight and sends them on a seven-game trip to Oakland and Seattle with a 21-50 record.

They were trailing,  2-1, in the eighth. Jonathan Villar led off with a walk. He stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch by Marcus Walden to tie the score.

With two outs, pinch-hitter Stevie Wilkerson tripled to right and scored on Hanser Alberto’s single up the middle, giving the Orioles a 3-2 lead.

In the ninth, Givens tried for his seventh save, but he allowed the one-out home run to Hernandez to tie the score, 3-3.

Mookie Betts tripled, and Givens struck out Christian Vazquez and J.D. Martinez to end the inning. The Orioles didn’t score in the ninth.

Devers’ home run in the 10th was the eighth allowed by Givens, who has converted six save opportunities and blown five.

“We’ve had our fair share of tough losses this year,” said manager Brandon Hyde, who was ejected in the fourth after arguing a controversial play at first. “I’ve never seen a club go through so much in the first few months of the season.

“But I really liked the way we played today. We battled back twice. Jonny Villar made things happen, tied the game for us. A lot of good things happened in today’s game. It just didn’t end well.”

The Red Sox added four more runs in the 10th on two-run singles by Betts and Vazquez against David Hess, who had been moved to the bullpen on Saturday and was sent to Norfolk after the game.

Wilkerson hit a two-run home run, his sixth, and Trey Mancini hit his 16^th against Boston reliever Josh Smith in the bottom of the 10^th for the final margin.

“Very strange game, but in the end it’s a really tough loss,” Mancini said.  “We competed, we played well, but at the end of the day, that’s a game we needed to win.

“Good clubs win those games, and hopefully soon, we’ll do a better job of finishing games off or building bigger leads earlier in the game. There’s a lot of things we can do to improve, but this one’s definitely tough.”

Hyde criticized the team’s performance on Saturday after a sloppy 7-2 loss.

“I think we responded well, and he’s right,” Mancini said. “Everything he said was spot on. Yesterday wasn’t a good performance, top-to-bottom. Today, we did a better job. It wasn’t perfect still, and that’s why we lost the game. We’ve just got to play a little better than that, and maybe we win this one.”

Means’ day: Starter John Means labored through five innings, allowing two runs on seven hits. In his two previous starts against the Red Sox, Means combined to allow two runs on seven hits in 12 innings.

Four of those hits were grouped together in the fourth inning when Boston scored its two runs. Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr. each had RBI doubles.

” It was really a grind,” Means said. “I didn’t have anything today. And to get out of there with five innings and two runs is just — the whole game was just grinding, grinding, grinding. They had a good approach, and I couldn’t get them off it.”

Means threw two wild pitches in the fifth inning, doubling his season total.

Hyde ejected on Father’s Day: The Orioles thought they’d tied the game, 2-2, in the fourth when centerfielder Keon Broxton laid down a bunt near the first base line to score Anthony Santander.

Broxton was ruled out at first, although he wasn’t tagged by first baseman Michael Chavis, who came off the bag on a hurried throw by pitcher Colten Brewer. However, after the umpires conferred, Broxton was ruled out for interference for running inside the baseline, sending Santander back to third and Chris Davis back to first.

After arguing with home plate umpire Tripp Gibson and crew chief Mark Carlson, Hyde was ejected for the second time this season. Tim Cossins took over as manager.

“I knew I was going to be ejected.,” Hyde said. “Tripp … should have called runner interference right away, and he didn’t. He waited for the play to develop and that is what our discussion was about on the field. It’s just a really unfortunate play. Obviously, it blocks things out there when the run scores. So, they got extremely lucky with the poor throw. ”

It was Hyde’s second ejection this season. The first came at Fenway Park on April 15 for arguing about a replay ruling.

Hess sent to Norfolk:  Hess, who moved to the bullpen on Saturday and allowed two runs in relief of Givens in the 10th on Sunday, was sent to Norfolk after the game.

Hess has a 1-9 record and 7.36 ERA with the Orioles and has allowed 20 home runs in 66 innings.

Lucas on the injured list: A day after throwing three innings in a lopsided 12-3 loss to Toronto on Thursday, Josh Lucas was placed on the 10-day injured ist with a strained right shoulder.

He said it occurred in the ninth inning of the game, but he kept pitching.

“I felt a little bit of discomfort going into the first hitter and throughout the rest of the inning,” Lucas said. “Just got to grind through it. The bullpen needed a rest.”

Lucas said that he thought he’d be ready to pitch in 10 days. He didn’t accompany the team on its road trip to Oakland and Seattle. He’ll have some physical therapy before handling a personal matter in Florida and meet the team when it returns on June 25.

Smith almost ready: Outfielder Dwight Smith Jr., who’s on the seven-day concussion injury list, continues to improve. Hyde said that he thought Smith would go on a brief rehabilitation assignment before meeting the Orioles on the West Coast.

Pitcher Alex Cobb had hip surgery this week, and it went well, Hyde said.

Opening things up?: Hyde announced on Saturday that left-hander Josh Rogers would start Wednesday in Oakland. Now, he’s not so certain.

“We might start an opener that day,” Hyde said, referring to starting the game with a relief pitcher. “It’s still a little bit unsure. It’s kind of how things go the next couple of days. Really good chance that Rogers will pitch at length that game.”

Hyde said that he’s experimenting, and that he wouldn’t know until after Tuesday’s game who would open on Wednesday. He mentioned Miguel Castro and Jimmy Yacabonis as possibilities.

Hyde homecoming: Hyde grew up in Santa Rosa, California, about 65 miles north of Oakland. Although he was a San Francisco Giants fan and not an Athletics fan, he’s still relishing his first trip to the Bay Area as a big league manager.

“I always love going back to the Bay Area,”  Hyde said. “I see a lot of people I grew up [with] … My parents and my sister and her family will be there. They live in Berkeley. Staying in San Francisco and playing in Oakland is always special. I get to see a lot of people that I just don’t get to see very often. It’s a nice homecoming for me.”