Samuel says...

I told you earlier that interim manager Juan Samuel will give the ball to David Hernandez tonight if he's confronted with another save situation. Here's more from Samuel: "Of course, of course. Stay with the hot hand," Samuel said. "He showed some poise last night. He came right after those hitters. Hopefully, if we're in the same situation tonight, he'll be the guy. "It's not an easy role. We're talking about a very young guy thrown in the fire. To me, he showed last night that he could do that. He went right after those hitters. He showed some poise last night." I reminded Samuel that Brian Roberts told viewers/listeners of The Scott Garceau Show yesterday that he hoped to get into a few games toward the end of the season, which didn't sound promising. Samuel agreed. "That doesn't sound good, toward the end of the year," he said. "We just want him to get better. We have our hands full up here. We have a job to do, try to get the best out of the guys we have here. If that's a decision that's going to be made, that's up to the doctor and front office. Right now, we just want him to get better, and we'll do what we can with what we have here." Alfredo Simon could be activated from the disabled list without a minor league rehab assignment. He'll throw a simulated game Sunday in Sarasota and possibly rejoin the Orioles next week on the West Coast. "Hopefully, after that we'll see him up here sooner (rather) than later," Samuel said. Here's Samuel on the possibility of sending down Brad Bergesen rather than having him sit in the bullpen: "We cannot get ahead of ourselves," he said. "We still have some games left. We have the starting rotation set up for at least the next three games. We'll see how things pan out from there." Samuel didn't get all sentimental over managing against the Mets, one of his former teams. "It's just a team that you try to beat," he said. "I was only there for a short period of time. I think it was a half a season only. None of those guys are on the club now. It's just another team we'll try to beat."