Early notes on Wieters, Hardy, Harvey and more

Caleb Joseph is behind the plate again tonight for Ubaldo Jimenez's start, which attracts attention only because Matt Wieters is out of the lineup in back-to-back games.

Wieters' elbow is fine. Joseph has caught all six of Jimenez's starts this season and the streak stays alive tonight.

Meanwhile, Wieters will catch the next two nights and benefit from rest on Sunday with Joseph making the start and Monday when the Orioles are off.

Shortstop J.J. Hardy, on the disabled list retroactive to May 2 with a fractured left foot, will head to Sarasota to continue rehabbing while the Orioles fly to Anaheim on May 20 to begin a three-city road trip.

Hardy continues to wear a walking boot and the early projected date for removal was May 29.

"I know the four-week mark is the last Sunday of this month," said manager Buck Showalter. "I did have some conversation with Richie (Bancells) about what he's thinking with the progression. There's a two-week period where it starts molding or some medical term he used at the two-week point."

Yovani Gallardo remains scheduled to play catch on Saturday and will accompany the team on its trip.

Showalter said Hunter Harvey actually had two tears repaired while undergoing sports hernia surgery earlier this month in Philadelphia.

Showalter also said the doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Williams Meyers, did the same procedure many years ago on Harvey's father, former closer Bryan Harvey.

It's a small surgical world.

I did a quick check and found a story about Bryan Harvey undergoing surgery to repair a torn groin in July 1994 while he was the Marlins' closer.

The Tigers struck out 20 times last night against Nationals starter Max Scherzer. Now, they're in Baltimore to start a four-game series.

"Which means they won't strike out once tonight," Showalter said.

"What you look at is you try to emulate Scherzer. Can anybody do that here? That was Scherzer. I watched a little bit of that. He would have struck out 20 of our guys, probably. He's really good. Catch him on a given night when he's got everything working, it's not much fun."

Triple-A Norfolk outfielder LJ Hoes was forced into pitching duty today and tossed a scoreless eighth inning. He allowed one hit in a 12-3 loss to Charlotte, and The Virginian-Pilot reports that his fastball topped out at 88 mph.

Hoes threw six of 11 pitches for strikes. He also collected two hits from atop the order.

Starter Joe Gunkel allowed nine runs and 11 hits in three innings.