Showalter on Wright's struggles and more after tie with Twins

FORT MYERS, Fla. - The candidates for the Orioles' fifth starter's job are not exactly setting the world on fire lately. Lefty Chris Lee allowed two runs and five hits in two innings on Wednesday. Tonight against the Twins, right-hander Mike Wright allowed seven hits and five runs over two innings, raising his spring ERA to 8.38.

No one is grabbing the ball and running with it.

Is manager Buck Showalter concerned that, at this point, no one has presented himself as the leader for that job?

"No, not at all," he said after tonight's 5-5 tie in nine innings with Minnesota. "It will be Chris Tillman at some point (in that spot). We've got some more looks. Can be a fooler, too (if someone was pitching well), so you have to be careful about it. We'll take a couple more looks at some people, one more at some others. We'll see. We'll keep running guys out there and see where we are. Hope things go well with Chris on Sunday (when he resumes throwing)."

Showalter said you not should grade any pitcher on one outing, but rather a body of work. So where does that leave Wright?

"Some good, some capable of better," he said. "I'd have let him go back out there, but he threw 35 pitches that one inning. That was too much. If he'd had stayed in the 20s, I would have run him back out there."

Wright pitched out of a two-on jam in the first, but got hit hard during Minnesota's five-run second inning, when he allowed six hits, including four straight that scored runs with two outs.

"Really wasn't able to get anything over soft that could slow them down," said Showalter. "There wasn't much (velocity) differential. He elevated some sinkers and that was their A lineup. That time of year and that is why we are running guys out there, to see a good look at them. Mike wasn't very effective tonight."

But some pitchers that followed him were.

"(Stefan) Crichton threw the ball well again. (Vidal) Nuño threw the ball well and Logan (Verrett) threw the ball well. Nuño was scheduled to pitch one (inning), but had a low pitch count and we let him go two. Was good to see. (Brian) Moran is kind of interesting. Got to see him two or three times."

After the Twins took a 5-1 lead on Wright, five O's pitchers combined for seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. Moran went one, Nuño and Verrett two each, Crichton came on for an inning and Richard Rodriguez pitched the last of the ninth.

The Orioles used the longball to produce the tie. Chris Johnson's solo homer in the sixth made it 5-2 and Trey Mancini hit an opposite-field three-run shot to tie it at 5-5 in the seventh.

"That was a big old boy home run he hit tonight," Showalter said of Mancini, who is now batting .333 with three homers and 11 RBIs. "That was against the wind. That wasn't a fence scraper."

The Orioles are 13-11-3 and host the Twins on Saturday night at 6:05 p.m. at Ed Smith Stadium. Right-hander Gabriel Ynoa will become the latest fifth starter candidate to take the mound in that game.

Goodbye, home run! @TreyMancini knocks an opposite field, 3-run shot to tie it in the 7th. #OrangeSpring ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/363arlEcOO

-- Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) March 25, 2017