Nick Markakis is one hit shy of tying Brian Roberts (1,452) for seventh place on the Orioles' all-time list. Ken Singleton ranks sixth with 1,455.
Orioles vice president of baseball operations Brady Anderson drove to Prince George's Stadium tonight to watch Miguel Gonzalez make a start for Double-A Bowie and Nolan Reimold bat for the second consecutive game.
Gonzalez has allowed three hits in two scoreless innings with one walk, two strikeouts and a wild pitch. He's thrown 36 pitches, 24 for strikes.
Reimold went 1-for-3 last night and is 0-for-1 tonight.
Does he still fit on the Orioles' 25-man roster once his rehab assignment is done.
"Potentially," said manager Buck Showalter. "We'd like to think so. That's why we went through all this.
"Talking to him and hearing some of the feedback from him and Brady, this is the best he's felt since the initial injury. He says it's not even close. This is light years from where he felt at this time last year, so I'm hoping that he can come to us and be a contributor. But we'll see. He's got some hurdles to cross."
Gonzalez was a candidate to pitch Thursday night at Bowie, but the Orioles moved his start to tonight in case of a postponement. The forecast continues to present a separate set of challenges.
Also, the Orioles would prefer to have Gonzalez pitch tonight so he's available out of the bullpen if needed on Sunday, when he's eligible to come off the disabled list. He'd be working on three days rest, but he's only scheduled to go five innings or throw 75 pitches at Bowie.
"I hope it's not the 15th necessarily, because that would mean it's three days rest and we have a real need in the bullpen, but it could be. But we're more leaning toward him being an option to start for us Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday," Showalter said.
The possibility exists of going with a six-man rotation once Gonzalez is activated.
"That's an option. Seven's an option, eight's an option if we had them. They're all options," Showalter said. "It's something we could do. But there's some variables there.
"Everybody pitches well and we've got a problem. That would be a good problem."
Update: Adam Jones doubled to score Steve Pearce in the first, and Chris Davis hit his 10th home run to increase the lead to 3-0.
Manny Machado lined to right field in the second and is 0-for-16.
Wei-Yin Chen has retired the first six batters he's faced, throwing 28 pitches.
Update II: Chen retired the first 11 batters before Dustin Pedroia singled to right field with two outs in the fourth inning. Nick Markakis threw out Pedroia trying to stretch it into a double for the Orioles' 12th outfield assist. Markakis leads the team with four.
Pedroia is 13-for-26 against Chen, who already has tied his season high with six strikeouts.
Chen hasn't walked a batter at home in 22 consecutive innings.
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