Wrapping up a 7-5 win

FORT MYERS, Fla. - James Teague notched his fifth save today, earning his role as Grapefruit League ninth-inning specialist, and the Orioles defeated the Twins 7-5.

Teague, a 37th-round pick in 2016 out of the University of Arkansas, hasn't allowed a run in 5 1/3 innings. He gave up a one-out double today and struck out the next batter on a 96 mph fastball.

Chris Tillman's first Grapefruit League start produced six walks in two-plus innings and he was charged with four runs - three scoring after Donnie Hart replaced him with the bases loaded and no outs.

"Command obviously was an issue," said manager Buck Showalter. "I don't really take a whole lot out of it right now. He got his pitch count where he needed to get it and there's plenty of time to make the adjustments. I don't find it encouraging or discouraging. I don't really find it anything at this point.

chris-tillman-white-follow-through-Sidebar.jpg"It's part of the process. I'd like to have seen him have better results. We've got a lot of confidence in Chris. I think he's going to be there for us."

Showalter is confident that there's enough time left for Tillman to get on a roll heading into the regular season.

"It's not a week, it's not 10 days, it's two weeks," he said. "It won't be perfect for any of our guys every time out. Today, it wasn't a starting point. He's been throwing for a long time. Just the results weren't as good as you'd like to see, so there's some scrutiny paid to it."

Manny Machado went 2-for-3 with a double and his 15th RBI. He's 14-for-31 (.452) this spring.

He hasn't experienced any sort of lull that can strike position players and pitchers in camp.

"Manny's been engaged," Showalter said. "A lot of times that's easy the first week. I love the way he's playing shortstop. He and Beck (Tim Beckham) are really playing well defensively. It's been encouraging. But anything Manny does doesn't surprise me anymore."

The move to short was supposed to energize Machado, to keep him engaged. It's been a popular storyline since Showalter confirmed that Machado would go back to his original position.

"I think when we're talking about excited or driven or whatever, it gives the connotation that he wasn't before and that's not the case," Showalter said. "It's just, it's hard to do it for 162 games, OK? But it's hard to do it for 30 games in the spring. But it's been fun to watch. You can tell he's excited about the upcoming season. It's going to be fun to watch him."

Anthony Santander is removing all doubts about his status for opening day. He hit his third home run this afternoon, a two-run shot to left field in the seventh inning off Twins left-hander Taylor Rogers that erased a 5-4 deficit.

Santander had just replaced Austin Hays in right field and was batting for the first time.

Ruben Tejada added an RBI single in the eighth after Alex Presley walked and Luis Sardiñas singled.

Rule 5 pick Jose Mesa Jr. tossed two scoreless innings, though he walked two batters and hit one. Jimmy Yacabonis walked a batter and struck out one in a scoreless eighth.




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