Hardy and Lough talk about returning to the Oriole lineup

J.J. Hardy is back in the Orioles lineup tonight and feeling pretty excited about that. "Really good. It's been a long week for me," Hardy said this afternoon. "These back spasms are no fun. I hope they are behind me and I won't have to deal with them for the rest of the year." Hardy hasn't played since a week ago today at Detroit when he went 2-for-3 with a walk. He is batting .333 (5-for-15) on the season. The back spasms and tightness have kept him out of the last five games and six of the past seven. "I think I'll be 100 percent when I do something in the game without thinking about it," he said. "The last step is getting over it mentally. And that won't come until I do something, kind of a reaction play in the game and I then realize I'm better." Is it more of a problem at the plate or in the field? "It has happened both ways," he said. "The second game against Boston, I think the back spasms started when I was swinging. Played a couple games, very uncomfortable. Then the next time it happened with a ground ball. It is really both. It's going to be all parts of the game I need to get past." And as he said, his challenge will be mentally getting over it so he isn't concerned that the next quick movement he makes will bring the problem back. "It's tough. I thought I was all better going into Detroit in that game and I took that ground ball and my back locked up on me," Hardy said. "You just don't know and that is one of the hard parts to get past. I feel good about the way my back feels. I just need to get out there and move around and do things and then I'll start to trust it more." Meanwhile, outfielder David Lough is back in the starting lineup for the first time since Monday at New York. He did not have a concussion, but had some concussion-like symptoms that first started in spring training and recurred this week in New York. "I feel fine. Good. In the lineup, so obviously everything's fine," Lough said. "You know, it is the same symptoms I was dealing with in Sarasota. We took a different approach and hopefully this time we figured it out for sure." Lough said he did not want to discuss what different approach the doctors took this time. Is he confident the issue is finally in his rear-view mirror? "Yeah, if I'm in the lineup, you know Buck (Showalter) feels confident in me and I feel confident in myself and my ability to compete at this level and that's kind of where we are at," he said. So far, Lough is 2-for-19 in six games with a triple, an RBI and two steals. "Not the best start I wanted," he said. "But that is baseball and as athletes and players, we compete and get through that. Move on and just try to get better."