Castillo's education, Jiménez's strikes and more

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles will find out later today whether their regulars can maintain the high standard set yesterday by their backups, Rule 5 picks and non-roster invitees.

The mismatch on paper didn't play out in Lakeland, as the Orioles shut out the Tigers 2-0 in their exhibition opener. Hyun Soo Kim was the only projected starter in the lineup - at least against right-handers - but seven pitchers combined to blank the hosts and Johnny Giavotella collected three hits.

Ryan Flaherty drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly. He's the likely super-utility player on the 25-man roster.

The Orioles are expected to send center fielder Adam Jones, third baseman Manny Machado, second baseman Jonathan Schoop and catcher Welington Castillo to Bradenton this afternoon. Four players who will be leaving camp for the World Baseball Classic, with Schoop the first one out the door on Tuesday.

Castillo caught Mike Wright in Tuesday's intrasquad game and Ubaldo Jiménez on Thursday. Wright retired the side in order in his inning, and Jiménez retired all four batters he faced in his inning.

"He's pretty good," Jiménez said. "He put a lot of work and a lot of pride in getting better every day and it showed. Especially (Thursday). He had a good target, he threw good to the bases. He was good."

Part of Castillo's crash course in learning the pitching staff involved catching Zach Britton's bullpen sessions.

"I think the biggest thing for me wasn't necessarily throwing to him, just kind of getting to know him as a teammate," Britton said. "He's a great guy. We get along really well. He's getting along really well with everybody.

"I've thrown to him a few times. It's hard to really judge a guy in the bullpen. It really is. He's got a lot on his plate right now, but as we get into games, I think he'll get a better feel for game situations, calling a game and things like that.

"It's actually been a smoother transition than I thought it would be. A lot of that I think is because he's a good guy, a good teammate, easy to talk to. He's trying to get to know everybody."

And everybody is trying to get to know Castillo.

"You need to be able to catch. You know he was going to be able to do that," Britton said.

"A lot of it is just getting comfortable with the guy, to be able to feel comfortable talking to him about anything, him feeling comfortable coming up to you, saying, 'Hey, maybe that's not as good as I think you can throw.' And that's something we had with (Matt Wieters), something we have with Caleb (Joseph) and even with (Francisco) Peña. Guys who have been here.

"I don't think Castillo is at that point yet where I feel he can give constructive criticism, but that's just part of the process."

It's only two intrasquad games and one exhibition game, but the Orioles starters have impressed. Kevin Gausman tossed a scoreless inning on Thursday, throwing 10 of his 13 pitches for strikes. Tyler Wilson retired all six batters he faced yesterday.

Jiménez picked up where he left off in September.

"I felt pretty good," he said. "I had good command of the fastball, especially it being the first game that I threw. I thought it was good."

Manager Buck Showalter said Jiménez's velocity was higher than usual for this early in camp.

"I don't even know, but I felt good," Jiménez said, smiling. "It was coming out of my hand really good."

He's just trying to stay in the same delivery.

"That's what I kept working on in the offseason and it paid off," he said. "I'm doing pretty much the same thing that I did the last two months of the season."

It's not everyone who can brag about a 1-2-3-4 inning.

"It's been a while since I've done that," he said. "I just kept throwing strikes, attacking the strike zone. That's what you want, especially in the first game in spring training. You want to keep pounding the strike zone and then if you get four outs, you did it."

A few leftovers from yesterday's game:

* Outfielder DJ Stewart, the 2015 first-round pick out of Florida State, struck out looking in his only at-bat. He's no longer in a pronounced crouch at the plate. He's standing more upright.

* Garabez Rosa also came over from minor league camp and naturally had a hit in his only at-bat. He's a spring beast, going 16-for-28 for a .571 average.

* Robert Andino played shortstop, second base, went back to shortstop and returned to second base. Erick Salcedo kept swapping with Andino.

The official scorer and guys handling the GameDay tracker were ready to jump out of the press box.