Britton to continue rehab assignment next week with Norfolk

Orioles closer Zach Britton needed only eight pitches last night to induce three ground balls for outs during his rehab outing at Double-A Bowie. He joked later that it took longer to arrange for the postgame spread.

Britton has thrown twice during his assignment and is scheduled to pitch Tuesday and Thursday for Triple-A Norfolk in Columbus. He'll go back-to-back games on June 11-12.

The Orioles will determine whether he's ready to come off the disabled list or needs another rehab appearance.

"I've been feeling good," he said. "I think we threw so many sim games and bullpens before that I thought I'd be a little bit ahead of where I would traditionally in spring, so I feel really good. Accomplishing all the little things I want to accomplish. Now, it's just about getting some more innings and getting activated at some point."

Britton is hopeful that the Orioles will activate him during their next homestand.

"Yeah, I think that's realistic," he said. "Just looking at, what would that give me, another week or so? Yeah, I think that's definitely a possibility."

The earliest that Britton figures to come off the DL is June 15 against the Marlins because they're off the proceeding day.

"That would be the earliest that we'd think about," said manager Buck Showalter. "I don't think Zach completely agrees with that. He's about ready to go."

The Orioles could arrange for Britton to throw multiple innings on his assignment, having him get back up and face one batter.

"Yesterday would have been like a perfect day, but I only had one day rest, so I wasn't going to go out there and do something stupid," he said. "Hopefully, I'll have an outing like that, so if the next one is a one-inning outing, hopefully it's quick and I can go back out there for another hitter. It's not going to be a full two innings, but it would be something were you sit down and then face a hitter.

"I'm planning on having one of those, but if I don't it's not that big of a deal. As long as I feel good I know that I'll be able to do it."

Britton, who's attracting scouts to his minor league games, is pleased with the quality of his stuff. The infield hit he surrendered with Single-A Frederick broke a bat. He was dominant last night at Bowie.

"After the last sim game in Tampa, I knew that I was ahead of where I wanted to be and I was ready to go start a rehab assignment and these last two outings just kind of confirmed that," he said. "You have an idea how you want to feel and you know, 'Hey, this is going to work when I face better competition.' So, I feel pretty good about where I'm at right now with all the pitches, especially command.

"Last year, when I went on rehab with the forearm, it was weird because I wasn't able to move the ball the way I wanted to, where as this, I feel great, arm feels great. But I also have seven, eight months off since I pitched in game. Everyone should do that with their arm because it feels pretty good.

"I expected that my arm would feel pretty good and the results have been good so far."

For the Yankees
Brett Gardner LF
Aaron Judge RF
Greg Bird 1B
Giancarlo Stanton DH
Greg Sánchez C
Didi Gregorius SS
Aaron Hicks CF
Miguel Andújar 3B
Gleyber Torres 2B

Masahiro Tanaka RHP