Christian Walker unloads his fourth homer as O's face Red Sox (Boston leads 6-4)

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Play him at first base or left field, but just play him. That is the message Orioles prospect Christian Walker seems to be sending these days. He hit another long homer this afternoon as the O's took the lead on Boston.

Down 3-1 in the third against Red Sox lefty Henry Owens, Joey Rickard walked and so did Nolan Reimold. Then Walker crushed a 1-0 pitch over the Green Monster at Fenway south. It was his fourth of the spring. He is now batting .310 (9-for-29) with four homers and 14 RBIs. Walker, who also hit a three-run homer yesterday at Ed Smith Stadium, had an .810 slugging percentage to start this game.

The Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Dariel Alvarez, batting just .130 (3-for-23) at first pitch, hit a booming triple to center off Owens. It was Alvarez's first spring extra-base hit. He scored on a Paul Janish sac fly. Janish is batting .320 with four RBIs.

But Boston's Sam Travis unloaded a three-run shot in the second off right-hander Vance Worley, who is making his fourth spring appearance. Worley pitched a scoreless first and got the first two hitters out in the second. Then Ryan Hanigan singled to right and Brennan Boesch doubled to left as Travis batted with two on. He hit his second spring homer to center for the 3-1 lead. Boston is trying to break a seven-game losing the streak.

The Orioles are 0-2 against the Red Sox this spring, but 3-1-1 over their past five games. The O's are playing a pair of split-squad games today. They'll take on the Twins at at Ed Smith Stadium at 7:05 p.m.

The O's have Francisco Pena starting at catcher today and Audry Perez also made this trip. Before today's game, manager Buck Showalter was asked which catcher would rank No. 3 on the depth chart behind Matt Wieters and Caleb Joseph.

"I don't really look at it as competition to put a three or four around them. I put a three around both of them. I would feel comfortable with both coming up and helping. We're in good shape there. It was something I know Dan (Duquette) really wanted to make sure we were OK going into it," Showalter said.

Update: The Red Sox scored three in the fourth to take a 6-4 lead and knock Worley from the game. He allowed four singles and Walker's error at first base made two of the runs unearned.

Worley allowed six runs (four earned) on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings, with no walks and one strikeout.

Worley, who now has a spring ERA of 6.75, threw 66 pitches, 46 for strikes. Worley was trying to join Kevin Gausman as the only starters to pitch four innings. Gausman did that yesterday against Pittsburgh.