Tatum returns, and talks about it

When last seen in the Orioles clubhouse Craig Tatum had a sore hand and overall, he was, well, sore about an O's roster decision. The decision made that day, July 25th, was to option Tatum to Triple-A when Matt Wieters came off the DL so the club could keep 13 pitchers. Tatum didn't hide his disappointment as he headed out to join Norfolk. The night before he had left the game with the Twins in the seventh inning after taking a foul ball off his right hand. He suffered a bruise and didn't head for the DL, but instead for Triple-A. "I'm just glad to be back. The team, seems like they are playing well. I'm just glad to be back up here. It's always bad when you get sent down. It stinks, but I'm back and hopefully I can keep playing like I was when I was up here and not down there," Tatum said. After batting .271 with the Orioles, including a mark of .300 in July, Tatum was just 2 for 21 (.095) in six games with the Tides. "It wasn't bad, but I struggled hitting at first and dug myself in a hole real quick. I don't know what it was. We faced some good pitching, but, I just wanted to be back up here, so it's good to be back." And, about that hand injury. No issues there for Tatum, either. "It's fine. It hurt for a few days. But that wasn't the reason I didn't hit the ball down there. I was chasing pitches I wasn't up here. Catching-wise, I felt really good. There's some young pitching down there that is going to be pretty good. "I got down there and worked on some stuff I needed to work on. I worked on a lot of stuff catching so hopefully it shows back up here." By the way, Tatum had praise for Zach Britton, Jim Hoey, Kam Mickolio and Cla Meredith in terms of pitchers that looked good while he was there.