Rain delay not all bad for Tillman: Right-hander Chris Tillman said Thursday that it was frustrating to have his start against the Seattle Mariners cut short by rain, but that might turn out to be a blessing in disguise after his sore back forced him to wait nine days between appearances.
He looked healthy during the three innings he was able to pitch before a steady rain caused the game to be interrupted for two hours. He threw a couple of times during the delay, but there was no chance manager Buck Showalter was going to let him continue when the game resumed.
Instead, he got through a fairly low-stress outing without taxing his lower back and pitched well enough to remove any lingering doubts about his physical condition. He'll come back next time stronger and more confident as a result. And the Orioles held on to win the rubber game of the series, so it was all good.
Getting Wieters back: Catcher Matt Wieters will be eligible to come off the disabled list June 4 and could be very close to returning to the Orioles lineup by then, which will make for some lineup intrigue.
Wieters isn't likely to catch every day from the get-go, so Caleb Joseph will probably still get some playing time behind the plate. But Showalter might have a tough call to make regarding the designated hitter slot.
He'll need to get some at-bats for Wieters there to get him into a regular hitting routine, which means either reducing the playing time of hot-hitting Jimmy Paredes or finding somewhere to play Paredes in the field. Something will have to give, which means this is not necessarily a good problem to have.
Monday's unwelcome special guest: Talk about a mixed blessing. Orioles fans will get to see the hottest starting pitcher in baseball Monday afternoon when Houston Astros left-hander Dallas Keuchel takes the mound against Wei-Yin Chen. For the Orioles offense, however, it won't exactly be a holiday treat.
Keuchel has made nine starts and he's 6-0 with a 1.67 ERA. The Astros have won eight of those nine games and in the only team loss, Keuchel allowed just a run on five hits over eight innings. Not quite what the doctor ordered for an Orioles offense that entered the weekend averaging 3.3 runs in 18 games after the no-fan game April 29.
Keuchel has allowed a total of 26 earned runs in his last 16 starts dating back to Aug. 10, 2014, and has pitched at least six innings in every one of them.
peter.schmuck@baltsun.com
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