More from Showalter, Duquette on draft (updated)

There's no score in tonight's game at Camden Yards as we move to the bottom of the fourth inning, and both teams seem to be getting along splendidly.

Chris Tillman has thrown 49 pitches, 37 for strikes. He's allowed four hits and struck out two.

A breaking ball from Tillman floated near Cheslor Cuthbert's head in the third inning and the Royals third baseman hit the dirt. Everyone remained calm, Cuthbert doubled to left field and was doubled off second base after Ryan Flaherty raced in to field Jarrod Dyson's bunt.

Tillman retired the Royals in order in the first inning on six pitches, all of them strikes.

Edinson Volquez retired the first seven Orioles before Nolan Reimold doubled in the third inning.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter anticipates that first baseman Chris Davis will return to the lineup Thursday night in Toronto after sitting tonight for the first time this season.

Davis is dealing with a couple of physical ailments, the most noticeable to a thumb that's wrapped in ice after games. Diving into the pile during last night's brawl probably didn't speed up the recovery process.

"Just some things that, just trying to pick some time for him to get a day," Showalter said. "We try to do it with a lot of guys. There's a good chance that Manny (Machado) is going to get the day off, so that was another one we wanted to get done sometime here in June. A couple other guys.

"I expect Chris will be back in there tomorrow, without getting into some of the things that we talk about all the time that are on the medical sheet and what have you. Nothing's gotten worse. It's just that time, talking to him today and last night, after the game, it'd be a good day to give him."

So nothing new with Davis following the fight?

"Stuff like that, there's a lot of, I can only speak from my experience, for me, there's a lot of adrenaline and different stuff flowing," Showalter said. "It's like Chris breaks a bat over his leg, doesn't feel it until the next day and might have a bruise there. He hasn't said anything from that. He's just general. There's a couple things I'd like to give him a day for.

"Those are the only two things that I have any concern with. You all have seen him with the ice on his thumb a lot. Nothing that one day is going to take care of. Next time it's taken care of, hopefully, will be starting in November."

Caleb Joseph could be starting at Double-A Bowie as the designated hitter after reporting on June 14.

"He's going to see the doctor around there, and that's two weeks into the four-week period that he can't catch," Showalter said. "He'll start hitting and doing everything else with them except catching. Hopefully, he'll see the doctor and get that cleared."

Showalter said Joseph likely would do more than just work out with the Baysox.

"We'll see if he gets cleared, and if that happens, he'll do everything but catch," Showalter said. "Whether or not he'll be active, we'll see. He could (DH). Probably not first base with the short-hops and what have you. He'll definitely be testing out the new bullet-proof Teflon (protective cup). I can tell you that.

"Maybe DH. I don't know if we'll do first base. We could, but we don't want to get the number of days he can be down there conflicted with when he might be able to play again because he's going to need to catch at some point. That'll be after four weeks, so you've got to do the timing right so it doesn't offset."

Yovani Gallardo said he wasn't certain when the Orioles would activate him, didn't know if he'd need another rehab start, didn't have any update for the media beyond how good he felt after yesterday's start at Triple-A Norfolk.

"Command was a little better, fastball I could really tell," Gallardo said. "Got some weak contact. It was definitely a positive. Came out and finished five innings. Like 85 pitches or something like that, finished off strong. Even in that fifth inning, I felt like the ball was coming out just as well as it was in the first inning. Definitely a good sign.

"Today is a normal soreness, nothing crazy. It actually feels a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to be more sore, but I'm not, so it's a good thing.

"I'm anxious to get out there, but at the same time I think we have to discuss the proper way of going about it. Obviously, being out for four, five weeks, it's always difficult. It's not like it was a week or two weeks. I didn't throw a baseball for more than three weeks. It's going to take time. But like I said before, I feel good.

"I've been feeling really well the start days and the following days. And even on the bullpen days, which is a positive sign. We're going to sit down and see what the next step is and go from there. I'd like the opportunity to talk to the skipper and Wally (Dave Wallace) and Dom (Chiti) and see what options we have and I think we'll have a better idea later on today or tomorrow.

"I haven't done this throughout my career. I haven't dealt with a shoulder issue or coming back from it, so those guys have seen it throughout their career. They have a pretty good idea of what's best and what I need to do to come back from it and for the team. I want to come back feeling strong at whatever point."

Following Showalter's media session, executive vice president Dan Duquette held court in front of the dugout on the eve of the First-Year Player Draft.

"Gary Rajsich and his scouts have been working all week - well, actually, they've been working all year to get their draft boards ready. They're putting the final touches on it," Duquette said.

"If you look at the history of the draft, it takes a little longer for the high school pitchers to get there, and the odds are against you from an injury perspective. So if a team's going to take a high school pitcher, they need to have a pretty clear idea that that pitcher's going to be healthy and be able to give them that service," Duquette said.

"We drafted (Kevin) Gausman out of college. He got here healthy, he's been able to help the team. We've had some injury issues with Hunter Harvey and of course Bundy, but Bundy's up here pitching. So you have to keep an eye on that.

"The other point to make is if you have a top-10 pick in the draft, you got a chance to get a really good player, and with the team having finished pretty well over the last five years, up in the standings, we haven't had the luxury of drafting in the top 10. When we did, we did a pretty good job of it. We picked (Matt) Wieters, we picked Manny Machado. But we haven't had the luxury of drafting high, so we've got to work a little bit harder and get the depth and identify the players that we think will be able to project to be big leaguers in the future."

The Orioles are doing their homework to make sure pitchers on their draft board haven't been abused by their coaches. Check the pitch counts, the innings totals, the days of rest between starts.

"The pitcher's health is a really important item," Duquette said. "You only have one healthy arm whenever you start your career. We take great care in monitoring our pitchers - their workload, their sleep, their nutrition, number of pitches, their physical maturity. And I think it's prudent for the kids to do that. I don't know that all the programs out there take the care and help educate the kids in their health. We try to do a good job of that, but it's tough.

"You need a lot of pitchers. You need a lot of pitchers in your system. They need to work hard to maintain their health so that they're available to the team, and fortunately I think we've done a pretty good job of that."

Is Duquette happy with the Orioles recent draft history?

"There's areas you can always do better in," he said. "I think part of assessing your team and helping your organization is looking at areas where you can do better. I don't think we're ever happy with any of our drafts, although I've got to say that we've gotten some good return pretty quickly from some of our drafts, and there's some more players on the way.

"The big thing to have available is players to trade when you're in a pennant race so that you can add to the team. Or you can bring up players to help you. Recently, we've been trading them because we've been in contention, so we've got to keep restocking our pipeline and keep things going all the time."

Duquette also expects to be busy at the non-waiver trade deadline.

"I hope so," he said. "I hope we're in a position where we can add some position to this team to get it over the top."

Duquette wrapped up by talking about the club's decision to name Pat Di Gregory director of professional scouting and special projects.

"Pat's been our coordinator of baseball operations for the last couple of years," Duquette said. "He has a background in consulting. Before joining the Orioles, he was with the Pirates. And he's going to help us with our professional scouting throughout; international scouting, professionally as well as domestically. He's a really bright kid, he's got a good future. He's got a couple of advanced degrees, but he's a very industrious kid. He's got a chance to be a good executive."

Update: The Orioles broke a scoreless tie with four runs in the fifth, the first two scoring on Ryan Flaherty's bases-loaded double. Adam Jones had a sacrifice fly and Hyun Soo Kim delivered an RBI single and later stole his first major league base.

Volquez was removed after 4 2/3 innings.