ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Though he's serving as the Orioles' designated hitter tonight, Matt Wieters is taking ground balls at first base during batting practice to provide manager Buck Showalter with another option for the lineup. Wieters won't be catching until the discomfort in his right elbow subsides following Monday's MRI and yesterday's exam in Pensacola, Fla. Wieters has played one game at first base, making a start in 2011. Showalter said he wanted to play Delmon Young tonight,...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Matt Wieters has returned to the Orioles' lineup tonight as the designated hitter against Rays left-hander David Price. Caleb Joseph will make his second major league start behind the plate. Jonathan Schoop will start at second base after hitting a tie-breaking, two-run homer last night in the seventh inning. Chris Davis took 20 swings in the indoor cage today and said he felt better than before straining his left oblique. He's scheduled to take batting practice...

Sometimes the stat sheet doesn't tell the whole story. For O's reliever Zach Britton right now, it tells a lot. He is pitching well, he is pitching often, and he is pitching with great sink on his low to mid 90s two-seamer. Britton is 3-0 with an ERA of 0.89 in 15 games. He has already pitched 20 1/3 innings to lead all O's relievers. No one else has thrown more than the 12 2/3 frames pitched by Tommy Hunter and Ryan Webb. Britton has faced 79 batters this year and no other O's reliever...

The Orioles go for their first three-game sweep against Tampa Bay on the road since April 1-3, 2011. This would be the O's third series sweep of the season, because going 2-0 in rain-shortened series against the Rays and Pirates does count. The Orioles lost six of their last seven games at the Trop last season and went 3-7 there on the year. A win tonight would give the O's a 9-4 record in American League East road games. They won just 15 of 38 AL East road games all of last season. The...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - It's another gorgeous day here as the Orioles and Rays conclude their three-game series. Too bad the roof doesn't open. Ubaldo Jimenez would likely settle for pitching underground as long as it's May. He's coming off a start where he tossed 7 1/3 scoreless innings in Minnesota to lower his career ERA this month to 3.76 in 35 outings. Jimenez held the Twins to three hits, walked one and struck out 10 to earn his first victory with the Orioles. He was 0-4 with a 6.59...

The Nationals have left 266 runners on base. This is the second-most runners left on by any team in the National League and the team ahead of the Nationals, the Diamondbacks, has had three extra games to leave runners on. Saying a team has left a lot of runners on base sounds alarming, but it only tells one part of the story. If a team gets a two-out double and that runner is then driven in by a base hit ahead of the third out then a runner is left on base. The same outcome holds if the primary...

Right-hander Stephen Strasburg has had trouble this season getting off to quick starts in the first inning. Before Wednesday's game against the Dodgers, he had allowed nine runs, six earned, in seven previous opening innings. Same thing happened again in his eighth start. Four consecutive hits and two runs and the Dodgers led 2-0. But then that is when something unusual happened. All season it was the Nationals that had to find a way to come back. Down 2-0, this time they didn't wait until...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Nationals made a pre-emptive roster move yesterday in order to clear a spot for Doug Fister, who will start tomorrow night against the Athletics in his Nats debut. I'll admit that said roster move caught me a little by surprise. The Nats decided to option Tyler Moore to Triple-A Syracuse, leaving three catchers on the active roster for the time being but also leaving the team without a true backup first baseman. The logic here has a lot to do with Wilson Ramos coming...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Can the Orioles make it out of Tropicana Field tonight without more intrigue regarding an All-Star player's health? Can they avoid the letters MRI, which are a lot worse than LOB, though they don't show up in the box score? Look for Matt Wieters to serve as the designated hitter tonight against Tampa Bay left-hander David Price, which puts Delmon Young on the bench. Nelson Cruz isn't going to sit, and he's due for a lot more starts in left field if Wieters remains...

The Orioles can thank the longball for Wednesday night's win in St. Petersburg, Fla. All four runs were scored via the home run. Adam Jones hit a pair of solo shots and Jonathan Schoop delivered the two-run go-ahead blast in the top of the seventh that secured the O's victory. Wednesday was Baltimore's third game with three or more home runs (April 8 versus the Yankees and April 24 against the Blue Jays). Not surprisingly, the O's are 3-0 in games in which they go deep three times or...