Smith garnering more consideration vs. lefties (O's lead 3-0)

The rain has stopped at Camden Yards, the sun is shining and the grounds crew prepared the field for tonight's game. You'd never know that it was pouring rain less than an hour ago.

The Orioles are in a stretch of facing four left-handed starters in the span of five games, with the Rangers' Martin Perez closing out the weekend series in Arlington, the Royals sending Danny Duffy and Jason Vargas to the mound at Camden Yards and the Tigers opening their series Thursday night with Matthew Boyd.

Seth Smith usually would be an automatic omission from the lineup due to his career numbers against southpaws. A .207 average won't buy you many opportunities or instill much trust in the manager.

Smith's reputation upon his arrival in Baltimore included solid on-base capabilities and the need to platoon him. However, he's 6-for-18 against left-handers this season, a relatively small sample size that's still worthy of praise and examination.

The six hits include three doubles and a home run, and he's walked twice and driven in four runs. Smith produced a two-run double last night in the fifth inning off Royals lefty reliever Scott Alexander to extend the lead to 5-1 and he scored on Welington Castillo's single.

Left-handers are batting .293 against Alexander, compared to the .228 average posted by right-handers. Manager Buck Showalter knows the numbers and has been careful when to use Smith in those situation.

"I think it's also who you match him up against, which type of guys," Showalter said.

There were plenty of temptations tonight to start Smith, including Smith's brief history with Vargas and how left-handers are batting .302, but Showalter put Joey Rickard in right field and Craig Gentry in left while again inserting Trey Mancini into the designated hitter role.

Jeremy Hellickson's debut with the Orioles also factored into the decision. In fact, it carried substantial weight.

Hellickson has a 42.6 percent fly ball rate this season and a 39.7 percent rate in his career. Showalter wanted more speed in the outfield corners and he regards Rickard and Gentry as plus defenders.

"It was tough," Showalter said. "I almost had him in the lineup today because he's (3-for-5) with a couple doubles off Vargas, but you also think about having someone on the bench they have to defend later on and I think that's big for us. And we want to play as good a defensive team out there as we can with Jeremy pitching tonight, who gives up a lot of fly balls. We're always going to err on the side of that.

"Seth has not really followed some of the patterns that normally follow this year and that's OK. Sometimes, you get older and you present some things that you're able to do better because of your experience."

Smith currently is batting .269/.350/.467 with 15 doubles, 11 home runs and 26 RBIs in 75 games. He has 14 hits in his last 35 at-bats, including three home runs and eight RBIs.

Note: Hunter Harvey tossed two more scoreless innings today in the Gulf Coast League. He hasn't allowed a run or issued a walk in five innings and he's struck out six batters.

Harvey is moving up to short-season Single-A Aberdeen.

Update: Tim Beckham doubled in the second inning to score Mancini, his first RBI with the Orioles, and Caleb Joseph hit a two-run homer to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead. Joseph has six home runs and 22 RBIs this season.