Game update and more notes and quotes (O's lead 7-1)

TAMPA, Fla. - The Orioles found out that Tyler Wilson reacts favorably after sitting in the dugout during a long inning.

Wilson watched as the Orioles scored five runs off Yankees starter Scott Baker in the top of the second inning to lead 5-0. Alejandro De Aza capped the uprising with a three-run shot to right field, his second of the spring.

De Aza was batting .161 with two RBIs before today.

Wilson came back out and retired the Yankees in order on seven pitches. I've got him at 25 pitches, 19 strikes in two innings.

Instant update: Wilson has retired seven in a row and nine of 10, allowing one hit and striking out two. I've got him at 35 pitches, 26 strikes in three innings.

The Orioles sent eight batters to the plate in the top of the second. Ryan Flaherty had a sacrifice fly after singles by Chris Davis, Everth Cabrera and Steve Clevenger. Jonathan Schoop lined an RBI single into center field.

Wilson threw 18 pitches in the first inning, 14 for strikes. He struck out Mark Teixeira after Carlos Beltran singled with two outs.

The Orioles increased their lead to 6-0 in the third on one-out singles by Davis and Travis Snider, a walk to Cabrera and a sacrifice fly by Steve Clevenger.

Darren O'Day notched a scoreless inning today against a Twins minor league team, throwing 11 of 16 pitches for strikes. Zach Britton struck out two batters in one inning and threw 10 of 17 pitches for strikes.

Earlier today, manager Buck Showalter told us that shortstop J.J. Hardy will have an MRA on his left shoulder Monday in Sarasota.

Hardy said the shoulder was more sore today after he slammed it into the ground yesterday while diving for a ball hit up the middle.

"That was expected. We're always more sore the next day," Showalter said.

"He's going to get an MRA on Monday. Couldn't get it today. Short notice, weekend. He won't play before Tuesday."

Showalter was asked whether Cabrera, who's singled and walked today, would be the replacement if Hardy's lost for an extended period.

"Not necessarily, no," Showalter replied. "He would be kind of the same way we viewed him coming in. He would be a candidate."

I wrote earlier that the Orioles presently are content with their backup catcher candidates, though the trade market could expand later.

"That's kind of Dan (Duquette), but where I'm concerned I'm perfectly comfortable with the guys we have to pick from here," Showalter said. "I feel good about it. Catchers aren't available until right toward the end of spring, but we haven't had name come up that we like better than the people we have.

"There's different tiers of availability. Have you ever noticed that? About this time, 'Oh no, we'd never do that.' Then three days later they might do it. Then at the end of the day they start looking around and go, 'We're going to get stuck with this,' and they do it."

Showalter also was asked whether the Orioles would need to make a trade in order to keep Rule 5 pitchers Logan Verrett and Jason Garcia.

"Oh yeah," he said. "You've done the math. The numbers would require something. The math doesn't add up to 12 at all right now.

"That's good depth, but unfortunately some of it will go away as opposed to being able to keep some of it. We like them, but so do, I'm sure, the clubs that had them."

Making roster decisions has become harder as we approach opening day.

"Yes, I think so," Showalter said. "You never want bad performances to make decisions for you, you know? It's not self-serving as an organization, but some of the things we thought had a chance to happen happened. I'd hate to have gotten down here and not done some of the things we did and had pitching issues physically that we weren't able to withstand.

"I like where we are. I'd rather be having these decisions. A lot of them we had in the past, we were picking between people we weren't sure could do the job."

Showalter still plans on making the next round of cuts after Sunday's split-squad games.

"I may go to Dunedin tomorrow. I haven't decided," he said. "Part of me needs to go over there. I'm just thinking about watching (Ubaldo) Jimenez."

Miguel Gonzalez faces the Twins' Ricky Nolasco in Sarasota while Jimenez opposes the Blue Jays' Mark Buerhle in Dunedin.

Update II: Wilson retired 10 of 11 batters he faced, striking out two. I've got him at 43 pitches, 33 for strikes.

Update III: Stephen Drew homered off Rule 5 pick Jason Garcia in the fifth, but the Orioles got the run back in the sixth on De Aza's sacrifice fly and continue to lead 7-1.

Garcia tossed a scoreless sixth, walking one batter and striking out one.