Orioles place DJ Stewart on injured list; Chris Davis goes to right as Hyde juggles lineup

ARLINGTON, Texas—DJ Stewart’s right ankle was wrapped on Thursday, and he was placed on the 10-day injured list. Stewart was clipped by second baseman Hanser Alberto as both raced for a foul ball in the sixth inning Wednesday night, and the rightfielder sprained his right ankle in the collision.

After Wednesday’s 2-1 loss in 12 innings to the Texas Rangers, Stewart expressed hope that he would be able to avoid the IL, but that didn’t happen.

“It didn’t feel really good today,” Stewart said. “I knew it was going to be sore, but it was more than I expected it to be, honestly. You never know with ankles, all the tiny ligaments and tiny bones. I’m just fortunate nothing is broken. Hopefully, get it healed sooner than later.”

The Orioles recalled utilityman Stevie Wilkerson, who led off and played center field until moving to left when Dwight Smith Jr. had to leave the game after hitting the wall. Smith was placed in concussion protocol.

Wilkerson, who was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk on Monday, came into the game hitting .235 with five home runs and 14 RBIs  in 35 games with the Orioles.

Stewart was one of three players to leave Wednesday’s game because of injuries. Catcher Pedro Severino sustained a head contusion and Jonathan Villar left the game with a sore right thumb. Both are considered day-to-day.

Severino, who suffered a concussion in winter ball in the Dominican Republic, was hit by a foul ball during Delino DeShields’ first inning at-bat. Home plate umpire Brian O’Nora noticed that Severino was woozy and alerted Orioles manager Brandon Hyde two batters later.

“After the ball hit me, every time he asked me, ‘How do you feel? What do you feel?” Severino said.

‘I feel weird, but I don’t want to go out of the game,’ Severino told O’Nora. ‘I want to stay in the game.’

“When the ball hit me, I don’t feel anything. I just feel regular. Every pitch comes, I’m looking down, I’m looking up. I felt kind of dizzy. On one of those, I put my knee down, and I said, I didn’t feel good. The umpire asked me, ‘You don’t feel good?’ I said, ‘I don’t feel good, but I don’t want to be taken out of the game.’”

Villar injured his thumb sliding into second in the fourth inning.

“It was unbelievable to see something like that ,” Villar said of the injuries. “It was my first time to see something like that. Severino, he goes out first, and me, and then [Stewart]. I thought, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t want to see another guy get hurt because we don’t have more players right now.’”

For Thursday’s game, Chris Davis played right field for the first time since August 21, 2016. Renaldo Nunez played first, and Trey Mancini, who has a sore right foot because he fouled a pitch off there, was the designated hitter.

Keon Broxton, who was the Orioles’ only healthy reserve, had to enter the game after Dwight Smith Jr. banged into  the leftfield wall.

On Wednesday, when there were no position players available, Hyde had to think about which pitchers he could use to play the field in an emergency.

“Every pitcher thinks they can play,” Hyde said. “So, as soon as those kind of things happen, which I’m totally used to in the National League, everybody started volunteering. All of our starters had spikes on. They made sure their jerseys were on.

“They made sure to let me know which position they were more comfortable [with], and usually it’s out in the outfield. They all think they can hit.”

Hyde said the Orioles discussed many options, including sending a pitcher to the minors temporarily, to add an extra position players.

Minor awards: Delmarva left-handed pitcher Drew Rom was named organizational pitcher of the month for May. Rom was 3-0 for the Shorebirds with an 0.35 ERA in five starts.

Stewart was named player of the month for his .456 average for Norfolk.