A numbers game for Dylan Bundy and Brian Matusz

SARASOTA, Fla. - Time to lighten the mood around here at Orioles camp.

Dylan Bundy surrendered his No. 49 to new pitcher Yovani Gallardo, a nine-year major league veteran who's grown attached to it. Bundy is wearing No. 37, which has been passed around like a bottle of Jack Daniel's at a tailgate.

No. 49 came at a cost. Bundy will be compensated, a baseball tradition dating back many years. The trade nets him a gift to be named later.

"I don't know yet," he said this morning, amused that the media considered it a newsworthy event. "We haven't decided that. I'm guessing it will come later in camp, but me and Yovani have talked a little bit and we'll figure something out."

What's he want?

"Don't really need to say it yet," Bundy replied with a grin.

Bundy did his research and knew he'd be searching for new digits.

"I heard that he wore 49 and of course I looked him up and I saw he was 49 all of his career. Yeah, I already knew about that," Bundy said.

"Obviously, if you've got time with it, it probably means a lot to you, but I don't have much time for 49, so it's not that special to me right now. I just need to get to the big leagues and get a number I'm proud of."

Reliever Brian Matusz is proud to say he belongs to an exclusive golf club. According to a friend's research, he's one of only six golfers to register a hole-in-one playing right-handed and left-handed.

The first one happened in Palm Springs in 2012. A bachelor party for a college buddy spilled onto the J.W. Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa. They reached the par 3 17th hole and Matusz grabbed his 8-iron.

"I was playing left-handed at the time," Matusz said earlier this week. "Hit it, squared it right at the flag. We couldn't see because there were shadows on the green. We were like, 'Oh, man, it's close.' We started pulling up and we don't see the ball on the green. 'It might be in the hole!' We all run up there and it's in the hole. Sure enough. We all go nuts celebrating, having a good time.

"We skip 18 and go straight to the clubhouse. Buy a round of drinks for everybody. You know, standard."

A few years later, Matusz switched to playing left-handed, the same way he pitches.

"I'm naturally left-handed, but I started playing golf right-handed just because my dad said, 'If you want to play golf, you've got to use your brother's clubs,' " he said. "Eventually as I got older, I was getting frustrated because everybody was hitting the ball so much further. I played golf with a buddy of mine who's left-handed. I tried his clubs and was swinging around and thought, 'Man, this feels natural.' So I made the switch to left-handed and been playing about three years now left-handed."

This is how Matusz ended up in the exclusive club, a second hole-in-one occurring a few weeks ago at the Talking Stick Golf Club in Scottsdale. Another par 3 17th hole, 145 yards away. The pitcher reached for his pitching wedge. The rest is history.

"I was actually having a pretty good round," he said. "I squared it and the ball goes right at the flag, one hop and right in. I just stood there and went like this (raised arms). My buddy Taylor just looked at me and asked, 'Did that go in?' I was like, 'You bet your (butt) it went in.' So that's one right-handed and one left-handed.

"I did some research online, trying to see how common it was. It's actually a really rare thing. We only found I think five cases just through articles and people who registered their par 3s. There were only five other instances.

"It was awesome, man. People go their whole lives without a hole-in-one. To get one from each side is ... There's so much luck involved. So much luck."

Matusz and his friend played the 18th this time. Celebratory drinks could wait another hole.

"I had a good score going," he said. "I actually parred 18 and finished with an 82. That was the best score I've ever had left-handed. I think the best score I had right-handed was 79, with Caleb (Joseph)."

The capper to the story, in case it slipped past you, is Matusz wears No. 17. The holes-in-one came on the 17th hole.

And this numerical blog entry has come full circle.

The sun came up today at the Ed Smith Stadium complex despite yesterday's Dexter Fowler news.

Yovani Gallardo waits to start his second workout with the Orioles.

Nolan Reimold warms up on the third day of full-squad workouts.

Hyun Soo Kim and his interpreter Danny Lee chat on the Ed Smith Stadium complex grounds.

Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard makes his way across the complex to workouts.

Mike Wright throws off the mound at spring training.