Orioles reliever Darren O'Day said he hopes Friday's rehabilitation outing at Double-A Bowie is the last one he'll have to make as his absence from a high hamstring strain suffered in May stretches into its eighth week.
"I think my delivery is in a good place," O'Day said Saturday, a day after he threw 16 pitches in a scoreless inning while striking out two and allowing one hit. "I was making a lot of good pitches and everything was moving like it should. Hopefully, I'm back in the next couple of days."
O'Day reported nothing but positives about the outing in Bowie, save for the jersey, which was a tribute to the late musician David Bowie.
"Wore a pretty bad jersey — probably the worst jersey I've ever worn," he said. "But the outing was good, I felt good. I got to execute most of my pitches. It felt good to get back out there. I had a base runner, so that was good — I've got to remember what that's like, pitching with guys on base, working through counts. It was altogether positive."
Manager Buck Showalter said the decision of when to activate O'Day would be a "baseball thing" with options being activating O'Day ON Sunday, or letting him throw another rehab outing before being activated Monday. A decision on that was expected Saturday evening, Showalter said.
O'Day, who signed a four-year, $31 million contract this offseason, had made 22 appearances before the injury, with five home runs allowed in 20 innings causing his ERA to rise to 3.15 right before he went on the disabled list.
His return is seen as a boon to an Orioles bullpen that has struggled at times to deal with the consistently short starts turned in by the team's beleaguered starting rotation.
Rickard wants to return this year
Outfielder Joey Rickard, who on Friday went on the DL with what he called a high-grade tear of a ligament in his right thumb, said he'll avoid surgery because the tear wasn't a complete one, and hopes to return before the season is over.
Showalter had said the injury typically takes four to six weeks to heal before Rickard can resume baseball activities, and Rickard said he hoped it'd be sooner than that.
"Just as soon as possible," Rickard said. "My goal is to beat whatever they told me by whatever I can. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that happens."
Rickard suffered the injury when he jammed his hand into the wall on the first pitch of the game Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, and played through it, waking up unable to open his hand Thursday morning.
"It's part of it," Rickard said. "You never wish this upon anybody, but it is what it is. I'll be back there sooner than later to help out."
Wieters targeting Monday
Catcher Matt Wieters was out of the starting lineup for a sixth straight game after being hit in the foot with a pitch Monday in New York, and Showalter said he's targeting Monday's series opener against the Colorado Rockies for a return.
Showalter said Wieters was improving, and wasn't getting any additional tests done, indicating the diagnosis hasn't changed since an X-ray came back clean.
"I think they've done the MRI," Showalter said. "They've done everything. They know what they're dealing with. I'll be frank with you, I'm hoping Monday. I was really hoping to not have to do that night game, day game with Caleb [Joseph on Saturday and Sunday], but we'll see. If I have to put him in there emergency, then we may look at it differently depending on how he feels."
Around the horn
Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, who hasn't pitched since July 8, was at the hospital Saturday evening with his wife, who is eight months pregnant, Showalter said. Less than an hour before the game, the club placed Jimenez on the paternity list and called up right-hander Tyler Wilson from Triple-A Norfolk. … Showalter said left fielder Hyun Soo Kim (hamstring) will get two rehab games before he's activated. He is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment Sunday at Double-A Bowie, which would put him in line to come back Tuesday, when he's eligible to return.