Leftovers on rotation, bullpen, Mancini, Flaherty and more

The Orioles bullpen finally took a beating yesterday in the series finale against the Yankees, and as is usually the case, a finger must be pointed at a rotation that's failing to work deep into games and ... wait for it ... relieve the pressure.

Dylan Bundy is the exception, covering seven innings Wednesday night against the Blue Jays. Kevin Gausman has worked 5 1/3 and 4 2/3 innings in his two starts. Ubaldo Jiménez lasted 4 1/3 and Wade Miley made it through the fifth yesterday despite walking seven batters.

An eight-man bullpen still is going to be tested, especially with Darren O'Day slow-played early due to the flu. He wasn't available on opening day and he walked a career-high three batters yesterday in two-thirds of an inning. He's still not back at full strength.

It may have been asking a lot of Miley to get into the late innings after coming off the disabled list, but he had no shot by walking seven batters and the bullpen had to get busy again. A unit that was working without Zach Britton, Brad Brach and Oliver Drake.

Britton and Brach each pitched in the first four games and Drake got into two. No one is more careful with his relievers than manager Buck Showalter. Being one week into the season with multiple off-days wasn't going to alter his approach.

It falls upon the starters to reduce their pitch counts and keep going while waiting for Chris Tillman to come off the disabled list. And the same responsibility falls upon whomever takes the fifth spot on April 15. Otherwise, the Orioles will be forced to show off their new-found maneuverability and rev up the shuttle to Triple-A.

Britton still is destroying bats with his hard sinking fastball, but hitters will have more to worry about as we get into the summer months.

"He hasn't really broke out the breaking ball yet," Showalter said. "I hate to tell everybody. I think when the weather warms up a little bit."

Miley picked off Matt Holliday yesterday after his first walk. Miley's 25 pickoffs since the start of the 2011 season rank fourth in the majors.

Shortstop J.J. Hardy had an RBI single yesterday, his first of the season, and is 14-for-43 (.326) with nine RBIs lifetime against CC Sabathia.

The Orioles drew 168,404 fans in their five games, an average of 33,681.

Trey Mancini served as the designated hitter yesterday, with Mark Trumbo in right field, and went 0-for-4 with an RBI on a fielder's choice. He's played only one game in right field and handled two fly balls while making the adjustment to a major league ballpark.

"So far, I haven't had too much trouble with the third deck," he said. "It's almost better to see here than Florida. I kind of know what they're talking about. They talk about the high sky. I don't know exactly what makes it a little easier to see off the bat here, but I found that to be the case. But I haven't played a game in the day, either, so that might make a difference. The third deck might be a little more prevalent there. At night it was pretty easy to see off the bat, I'd say.

"It's an ever-going process out there and I'm going to keep working on it because I know there's still a lot of work to be done. But I feel pretty comfortable out there."

Center fielder Adam Jones is easing the transition by keeping tabs on Mancini.

"Oh, it helped a lot," Mancini said. "Every play I'd look over at him and then look in to (Wayne) Kirby and then they'd help position me on where to go. I pretty much base where I'm playing off where Adam's playing, so if I see him take a couple steps to the right, chances are I'll take a couple steps to the right, too.

"Every pitch if I'm not in the right positon, he would holler over at me and tell me where to be. It really helped having him out there."

Not that Mancini suddenly began to play a shallow right field. There are limits to mimicking the center fielder.

"Not exactly," he said with a laugh. "They usually keep me back just because right field is a little more shallow and I have just one direction to go. Just forward. If I have to back up too much, I'll be at the wall. I'm playing a little deeper in right."

The Red Sox are starting left-hander Drew Pomeranz in Tuesday's series opener in Boston. Mancini is expected to be in the lineup with Joey Rickard on the disabled list, but will the right field experiment shift to Fenway Park?

"It's a big right field there," Mancini said, "and the only thing I can say about that is I shagged some BP balls at JetBlue Park down there, so I guess it's pretty similar dimensions. But I'm not going to say it's the same as Fenway, so I'll have to definitely get the lay of the land once we get there. Adjusting to different parks is definitely an adjustment, too."

Showalter explained Sunday why he put Trumbo in right field instead of Mancini.

"I want to keep Mark involved defensively," he said. "He's going to play some first base this year, he's going to play some right field, he might play some left field. This is a guy who played a lot of games in the outfield last year and just don't want him to get too far removed from that. A little later on in the season I might have DH'd Chris (Davis).

"There's a lot of unknown about what Trey's going to be able to do in the outfield. We've got an idea what we're going to get from Mark."

Infielder Ryan Flaherty is the only Oriole who hasn't appeared in a game. He had no shot yesterday with the Yankees starting Sabathia and he won't start Tuesday against Pomeranz. The Red Sox are putting a right-hander on the mound Wednesday, but Showalter may refrain from subjecting him to knuckleballer Steven Wright.

The Maine native is a lifetime .326/.375/.465 hitter in 27 games at Fenway Park, including seven doubles, a triple, a home run and 11 RBIs. He's 1-for-9 with a double against Wright.

No one on the team really hits Wright. He's held the current group to a .141 average (9-for-64), though Jones has a home run and Trumbo is 2-for-6.

Flaherty will get a start on the road trip, whether it's in Boston, Toronto or Cincinnati.