Davis on his offense, Jones on AL East, Joseph on Jimenez

After starting the season 0-for-6 with three strikeouts against Tampa Bay, Orioles first baseman Chris Davis picked up his first hit of the year against Toronto Friday. Then he got his second and was robbed of a third.

It was a good day at the plate for Davis, who went 2-for-4 with a single and double, and hit another ball to the wall in left only to see Blue Jays left fielder Kevin Pillar crash into the wall and rob him of at least an extra-base hit.

Did some things come together for Davis and the O's offense during that 12-5 loss to Toronto?

"Yeah, I think so," Davis said. "For me, it is always timing. We work so much on our mechanics, for most of us, we just want to feel our rhythm and timing. Good to see Schoopy (Jonathan Schoop) get a knock there at the end. We swung the bat well, we just didn't have enough."

The O's offense was put in a hole early yesterday when Toronto scored four in the first off Bud Norris. After a spring where he had an ERA of 9.26 in Grapefruit League games, Norris allowed eight runs in three-plus innings yesterday.

Any reason to be concerned about the right-hander?

"I don't think so," Davis said. "It's still early. You have to credit them. They weren't missing too many pitches and it seemed like after everyone in their lineup had about three hits, that anytime they swung the bat they were getting hits. It was just one of those games. Chalk it up as a loss and move on."

With a potent offense, the additions of Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin, and some talented young arms like Daniel Norris and tonight's starter, Aaron Sanchez, Toronto might be the O's toughest challenger in the American League East this year.

"It's going to be a fun year in the East," center fielder Adam Jones said. "Their offense is revamped. They are a really good offense. We are going to get (Matt) Wieters back here soon and J.J. (Hardy), so it's going to be fun in the East."

The Orioles won 11 of 19 meetings against Toronto last season, but Friday's win improves Toronto's edge in the all-time series to 300-263.

Tonight, right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez makes his 2015 season debut after going 6-9 with a 4.81 ERA last year. But he pitched to an ERA of 2.88 in his last six spring training starts.

I asked Caleb Joseph, who will catch him tonight, what keyed the big spring for Jimenez and what will be important for him tonight.

"Ubaldo, he really commanded the fastball," Joseph said. "He forced early contact, he wasn't afraid of contact. He threw a lot of good sinkers, letting the sink work for itself. Just keeping it simple, maybe taking a chance with two strikes and going for that putaway pitch. But then getting right back into the zone. Not really messing around as much. If he can continue that, he had success against them twice in spring. He's got really good stuff. If he trusts it and throws strikes, he'll be all right."

With O's starters having covered just 13 innings the last three games and Wesley Wright heading to the disabled list, right-hander Eddie Gamboa is on his way to Camden Yards. If he gets activated by the Orioles, it would be the first time on the big league roster for the 30-year-old Gamboa.

Even if he is here just a short time, it would be the culmination of a long minor league road for Gamboa, one that has seen him pitch in 183 games and throw 693 innings as an O's minor leaguer since being drafted by the club in the 21st round of the 2008 draft.