Britton and Miley discuss their outings (O's lose 9-6)

ORIOLES QUICK WRAP

Score: Rays 9, Orioles 6

Recap: Wade Miley allowed three runs and seven hits in three innings. ... Zach Britton allowed two runs and four hits in his first spring inning, but he felt good physically. ... Joey Rickard hit his third spring home run leading off the fifth. ... Craig Gentry walked and stole a base in the first and had an RBI single in the second. ... Paul Janish and Anthony Santander had RBI singles in the sixth and Janish homered in the eighth. ...Tyler Wilson surrendered four runs in two innings. ... Chris Dickerson homered leading off the ninth.

Need to know: The Rays strung together four straight two-out singles in the first inning and had three singles in the second while taking a 3-0 lead. ... Wilson has surrendered eight runs and 11 hits over 4 2/3 innings in his last two outings. ... Trey Mancini let Corey Dickerson's single scoot past him for an error in the first. ... Rays starter Blake Snell walked five of the first nine batters. ... Aneury Tavárez showed off his blazing speed again by beating out a ground ball to first. ... Logan Schafer was 1-for-22 before collecting two hits today. ... Garabez Rosa is recovered from a hand injury and came over from minor league camp, playing third base in the seventh inning.

On deck: Wednesday at Pirates in Bradenton, 1:05 p.m.

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SARASOTA, Fla. - Joey Rickard hit another home run, his third this spring and second in two days, to trim the Rays' lead to 5-2 in the fifth inning.

Darren O'Day struck out two batters and stranded two in the fifth, but the Rays increased their hit total to 16 and their lead to 7-2 in the sixth on an RBI double by Steven Souza Jr. and RBI single by former Orioles minor league catcher Jonah Heim off right-hander Tyler Wilson.

Paul Janish countered with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth after replacing J.J. Hardy at shortstop, and Anthony Santander came off the bench and produced an RBI single to reduce Tampa Bay's lead to 7-4. Hardy singled, walked and flied out in his second spring game.

Closer Zach Britton made his spring debt in the fourth and allowed two runs and four hits. He had the Rays beating the ball into the ground, but couldn't get the outs.

"Physically, it felt good," said Britton, who no longer is bothered by soreness on his left side. "It was good to get back out there, so I felt strong."

Britton said he was focused on throwing strikes and seeing the ball on the ground.

"Overall, I feel OK," he said. "Physically, I felt good. I know it's spring and people don't care about results, but I do. I wasn't too happy with it."

The oblique didn't cross Britton's mind after the first few pitches. He was more occupied by the two runners who crossed the plate.

"It was more just trying to find a rhythm," he said. "I didn't really feel like I found one out there, so that's something I'm going to focus on the next time I get on the mound."

Asked whether it felt like a typical first spring training game, Britton replied, "It's so hard to remember what it feels like every spring. Physically, I felt good, I felt strong. I didn't feel like I needed to build up arm strength or anything like that. I just felt like the pitch quality wasn't really there, so I want to improve that the next time I get on the mound."

Britton gave up one run and three hits in eight innings last spring. Though the Rays weren't crushing him today, he still was tagged for two runs and four hits.

"I still feel like the pitches they were hitting, even though they were on the ground they still weren't quality pitches like location-wise and the way it was moving," Britton said. "So it's just something that kind of get over, but the next outing I'm just focused on getting behind the ball or whatever, make sure it's sinking the way I want it to sink, not just kind of run all over the place."

Starter Wade Miley allowed seven hits, all singles, and was down 3-0 after two innings. He retired the side in order in the third and was done after 63 pitches, 40 for strikes.

"My command wasn't there for the most part," he said. "These guys did a good job hitting some good pitches, but at the same time I wasn't locating where I wanted to. I left a few pitches over the plate. But I got my pitch count up and the ball was coming out good. No big damage.

"Just trying to get the work load where it needs to be at. I would have liked to get up one more time in the fourth inning, but it didn't work out. I threw a lot of pitches in the first two innings.

"I put myself in some bad counts. It wasn't terrible, it wasn't great. It was just somewhere in the middle."

The wind is intense today, but Miley said he didn't try to pitch to the elements.

"No, you can't control the wind," he said. "I'm just trying to go out there and make pitches. If you try to control all that stuff, you're stuck in a bind. So just try to make pitches and get outs."

Miley said the staff isn't feeling any pressure with Chris Tillman set to begin the season on the disabled list.

"I think we're just going to try to go out and get started on the right note," he said. "That's huge getting out of the gate feeling good. Obviously, we'd like to have Tilly, but at the same time, he's working hard to get back. So we've just got to try to fill his shoes until he gets here."

Update: Paul Janish hit a solo home run in the eighth to reduce the Rays' lead to 9-5. He also has an RBI single today.

Tyler Wilson allowed four runs in two innings.