Gausman works his way back, Snider on the Phillies (draft update)

Kevin Gausman's next step, as he continues to work his way back possibly to the Orioles rotation, comes tonight when the right-hander is scheduled to make a rehab start at Single-A Frederick for the Keys.

Gausman is slated to pitch just two innings leading to speculation that his next start after this one could come on short rest for the Orioles. That would possibly be on Friday night. He could also potentially return to the team in a bullpen role or be activated and optioned to the minors, but that last option seems unlikely.

Gausman pitched for Frederick June 6 at Wilmington and went three scoreless innings on one hit with no walks and four strikeouts, throwing 32 of 40 pitches for strikes.ga

Then last Thursday at Double-A Bowie, he gave up four runs and four hits, including two homers over 3 1/3 innings. As he works his way back from right shoulder tendinitis, he said he came out of that start in fine shape.

"Physically I felt good. Woke up (the next day), normal soreness. Not anything worse than I was expecting. Just got a good workout in and now look forward to the next one," he said. "Obviously I want to pitch well anywhere I go. But (Bowie pitching coach) Alan Mills told me the biggest thing is how you feel."

Gausman worked on all his pitches in that last outing at Bowie.

"Felt good about all of them. I threw a lot of good changeups that they laid off of. Maybe they just were only going to swing at fastballs unless there were two strikes. But I threw everything and mixed in all my pitches and that is what my goal was."

Before that start at Wilmington, the last time Gausman had pitched for Frederick was in August of 2012 when he made three starts of three innings each for the Keys. Over those nine innings he gave up 10 hits and six runs and three home runs.

With the seemingly ever-changing Orioles roster, soon we'll know if Gausman will make his way back onto it and back into the O's rotation. His last start for the Orioles was on Sept. 25, 2014 against the Yankees in New York when he gave up two runs over five innings.

Snider on playing Philly: The Philadelphia Phillies are certainly a struggling baseball team. At 22-43, they have the worst record in the major leagues. They have lost seven straight games and have lost 11 straight on the road after Monday's 4-0 loss at Camden Yards. Philadelphia is 7-27 in road games.

They have been shutout three times in the last four games, scoring three runs in that stretch while going 1-for-30 with runners in scoring position.

After last night's game, I asked outfielder Travis Snider about the Orioles' outlook when playing a team going as badly as the Phillies are right now?

"It's the same, every game, every opponent," Snider said. "We have to prepare to win, regardless of who we are playing, how they are playing or what's happened. Each game is different and we have to control what we can control."

Snider is trying to get his bat going. He did double and score the game's first run last night and has knocked in four runs over his last five games.

"(I'm) just focusing on winning ballgames. You put too much pressure on yourself to try and do things personally and it takes away from what we are trying to do as a team," he said.

Pitching in with good stats: Six times in the last 11 games, O's pitchers have allowed two runs or less and they have two shutouts in the last seven games. The team ERA is 2.63 over the past 12 games.

Zach Britton pitched a scoreless ninth last night, and the Orioles bullpen has allowed just one run over 25 1/3 innings in the seven games of this current homestand for an ERA of 0.36. Over the last 12 games the O's bullpen has an ERA of 0.92.

Draft update: According to Jim Callis of MLBPipeline.com, the Orioles have agreed to sign their second draft pick, high school shortstop Ryan Mountcastle, for $1.3 million. That's about $400,000 under slot and that savings can then be used to sign other picks. As reported here previously, the Orioles seventh-round pick, high school pitcher Gray Fenter, is expected to be an overslot signing. Mountcastle, out of Hagerty (Fla.) High School, was the 36th pick in the draft.

The Orioles could officially announce some draft pick signings as early as today. Yesterday, manager Buck Showalter told reporters that ninth-round pick, high school outfielder Jaylen Ferguson, was in town to take his physical.

The Orioles continue to make progress in talks with their top pick, Florida State outfielder DJ Stewart, but no agreement is immiment and it could take several more days or longer on Stewart.