Injury updates, roster moves and Hardy's slump (O's lead 8-3)

BOSTON - Orioles top pitching prospect Hunter Harvey will throw a 25-pitch bullpen session on Friday as he recovers from ligament-reconstructive surgery in his right elbow.

"It will be good to get him back out there," said manager Buck Showalter. "We had hoped he'd make it back by June, so he's right on schedule."

Outfielder Michael Bourn played nine innings today at extended spring training and should be reporting soon to Triple-A Norfolk.

I wrote earlier that Double-A Bowie catcher Audry Perez went on the disabled list. He suffered a second-degree MCL strain in his knee and is expected to miss four to six weeks.

"They think initially there's nothing there that will require surgery, just rest," Showalter said.

Bowie outfielder Cedric Mullins, on the disabled list with a hamstring injury, is close to returning.

Bowie pitcher Jed Bradley told the Orioles that he's retiring. Bradley had an 11.70 ERA and 2.10 WHIP in seven appearances and 10 innings.

"He didn't pitch particularly well," Showalter said. "Sometimes that's like a gut reaction. I don't know. We all have those moments, right, where we contemplate?"

Center fielder Adam Jones reached 10 years of service time today, which gives him the right to refuse a trade. Not that the Orioles are looking to move him.

Showalter congratulated Jones in the dugout and also joked whether last night's ejection pushed back the day.

Earlier in the day, the Orioles optioned pitchers Richard Bleier and Alec Asher to Norfolk and called up Tyler Wilson, who's starting tonight, and Gabriel Ynoa. They needed fresh arms.

"I hate having those conversations with those two guys because neither one deserved to have to go down," Showalter said.

Bleier and Asher join the list of pitchers who aren't eligible to return because they haven't been down for a minimum of 10 days. Paul Fry, Mike Wright, Jayson Aquino, Vidal Nuño and Logan Verrett also fall into that category, but Stefan Crichton is eligible on Friday.

The exception, of course, is an injury replacement.

Wilson flew into Boston last night and initially was viewed as a bullpen piece. Ynoa arrived this morning.

"Spent a lot of the day trying to figure out a better way to make room for them," Showalter said, "but at the end of the day there wasn't one."

Showalter called Wilson around 11 p.m. to inform him of tonight's assignment.

"He can tell you it was a real short conversation," Showalter said.

"Tyler, welcome, glad you made the flight. You're starting tomorrow."

"Thank you, skip. Good night."

"Good night."

Ubaldo Jiménez couldn't make his start tonight after working three innings in relief, but those three scoreless innings were encouraging.

"One of the feelings I got last night was how I think he got a lot of satisfaction out of really serving the need for our club. That was big last night," Showalter said.

"People go, 'What's the big deal? He pitched three innings of relief.' That's a big deal. And I know his teammates, the bullpen, everybody really appreciated it. There was no question. He put his spikes on and went down to the bullpen. I started him about an inning and a half in advance to make sure he got enough time.

"Actually, some of his better pitch sequences and stuff that he's showed this year, other than Cincinnati. The problem is, it's not like he's going to be able to pitch tomorrow. Richard was down for at least three days, so we had to move him. And now we have to move some of the pieces around with (Kevin) Gausman and decide when he's going to pitch, and with (Chris) Tillman coming back.

"Sometimes, you deal with things that are self-inflicted and you just kind of wear it, and sometimes you deal with things that are byproducts of other things. You just have to deal with them."

Showalter didn't offer a firm confirmation that Jiménez will make his next start. It's hard to set a date with so much uncertainty, including the weather.

"Hopefully, hopefully," Showalter said. "Let's see how everything sorts out. We've got a lot of moving parts there. We're going to take it one day at a time."

Showalter said Gausman never was a consideration to start tonight.

"He had a work day, he had a full warmup, which was about 15 or 20 minutes, he got up twice, threw 20-plus pitches. That's a recipe for bad things to happen," Showalter said.

"Asher was trying to tell me last night that he could pitch in relief after 100 pitches and no days off, and he reminded me of that again today. He probably could, but that's not in his or our best interests. Same way with Gausman, same way with Jiménez about tonight. Try to think of things logically and realize it's the first part of May."

J.J. Hardy knows the date and still finds his level of play unacceptable.

Hardy was in a 3-for-36 slump before punching a single into center field Tuesday night in the top of the eighth inning. He grounded out and struck out in his first two at-bats last night, but he delivered an RBI single in the six inning and singled again in the eighth.

Perhaps most bothersome to Hardy was a fielding error last night in the fourth and a throw home later in the inning that sailed over catcher Caleb Joseph's head. Hardy wasn't charged with another error, leaving his season total at three.

"I'll tell you, the last probably couple of weeks has probably been one of the toughest stretches defensively, offensively for me probably in my whole career," said Hardy, who made his major league debut in April 2005. "I've got no excuse for it. I'm doing the same stuff I've done the last 12 years - preparing, working hard - and it's just one of those stretches. I'm going to continue preparing, continue working hard and eventually you've got to get out of this."

It can be taken as a good sign at the plate that Hardy's single on Tuesday came on a line drive that barely eluded the glove of Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. For a split second, it appeared that Hardy would be left with another frustrating out.

The breaks finally may be going his way.

"It's crazy when you hit a ball like that and it's still almost an out, you feel like there's 20 defenders out there," he said. "Off the bat, yeah, I thought he was going to catch it, so it was definitely a relief that it got through. Like I said, just going to keep grinding, keep working hard and going to get out of it."

Update: Dustin Pedroia hit his first home run of the season leading off the bottom of the third inning to give Boston a 3-1 lead. No shutdown inning for Wilson after the Orioles scored in the top half on a doubel steal executed by Seth Smith and Manny Machado.

Boston scored twice in the first with two outs on Xander Bogaerts' RBI single and a botched rundown that followed, with Hanley Ramirez racing home while Bogaerts made it back to first base. No one was covering the bag as Jonathan Schoop chased Bogaerts.

Update II: The Orioles scored five runs in the fourth, the last three on Machado's third home run of the series, to grab a 6-3 lead.

Smith had a two-run double, making him 3-for-3 tonight and 15-for-26 lifetime against Kendrick.

Update III: The Orioles increased the lead to 7-3 in the fifth inning on Hardy's RBI single off Ben Taylor after back-to-back singles by Mark Trumbo and Schoop. Jones singled to make it 8-3, the ball deflecting off third base.