Hearing from Showalter, Wieters and Hardy (O's down 8-5)

NEW YORK - Orioles manager Buck Showalter never wants to tip his hand regarding the availability of his players, but it's safe to assume that Matt Wieters will remain on the bench today for the series opener against the Yankees

Wieters took some swings in the cage today and stopped by Showalter's office before the lineup was posted. Wieters' left wrist remains sore in one spot.

"Matt's closer," Showalter said. "I'm not going to talk about his availability today just from a competitive standpoint. He's close. I knew it would be a little challenging with a short turnaround between today and tomorrow."

Wieters said the wrist is improving and he should return to the lineup on Tuesday.

"There's still a little bit of soreness in there, but it's feeling better than it did yesterday, so I think we'll probably take a day off of it again and re-evaluate tomorrow," Wieters said. "Hopefully, it continues to get better and tomorrow I'll be good to go, but just a little bit too sore to go today, so we'll see how it recovers. And we have a long night and a long morning tomorrow for it to get better."

Wieters only experiences discomfort when swinging the bat.

"It's just one spot we've got to kind of get out of where it catches a little bit on me," he said. "Do some more treatment today, strengthen it a little bit and hopefully tomorrow it will be good to go."

Wieters will find out whether the discomfort subsides while swinging from both sides of the plate.

"We'll see," he said. "I'm sure it will be at different points in swings. It'll be just different pressure points. But like I said, it's just a matter of getting it stronger now."

With the Orioles only a game out of last place in their division, Wieters is frustrated that he remains out of the lineup at such a crucial period.

"In the stretch run, you want to be able to play, but I think I'd be doing more harm to the team than good if I were to try and play today," he said. "We've got some good catchers and good hitters, so they've got a better chance in there today than I might have without being able to swing at full strength."

Showalter said shortstop J.J. Hardy could have played today if eligible to come off the disabled list. Hardy will be activated on Tuesday.

"Probably a go about yesterday, but he needed this period, I think," Showalter said. "He's got a lot of physical issues that he's got behind him now, I hope. He's ready to go tomorrow. I'm looking forward to getting him back."

Hardy naturally was hesitant to go on the DL with a strained groin, but it turned out to be the right call.

"Oh, yeah," Showalter said. "If we had waited, each day he's testing it again and again and again. He's doing some things with Brady (Anderson) and the trainers and the strength and conditioning guys that you can't do during the season, but he had some other issues that weren't going to heal until the season's over.

"I think he's going to come back and finish strong. I hope so. You can only do that by taking that time and we felt like he would have really have some challenges physically. He needed to get them taken care of, and hopefully he did."

Hardy headed to the field this morning for more baseball activities. He's full-go and ready to get back in the lineup.

"We're going to go out there and do everything I've been doing the last week or so. I don't anticipate any problems. See if he writes my name in the lineup tomorrow," Hardy said.

"I'm eager. I've been eager for a while now, so for me, this has been a frustrating couple weeks. But I'm excited to get back out there with my teammates.

"I've been running 100 percent, and that's what bothered me before. Swinging, no problem. Pretty much everything I've done has been fine, so I'm really not worried about it."

Hardy concedes that he needed to be shut down.

"I don't want to go down that road," he said. "You never know because say I wait a day or two and went back out there and re-aggravated it, it could have been something I deal with all year. But we did it this way. I guess we know it's worked this way. Other than looking back, I guess.

"It stinks for me because I know my teammates are going through a lot of things and they're still playing, and I get a little tweak in my groin and have to miss two weeks. Its frustrating for me in that way."

Hardy's return impacts Paul Janish, who's been playing shortstop against left-handers

"He can play anywhere," Showalter said. "He can play anywhere in the infield and probably the outfield if we needed him. I was thinking about whether he can catch or not. Haven't gone there with him yet."

Showalter and several of the Orioles took a break from batting practice to meet the family of Lauren Baruch, who was one of the four people killed in a limousine accident in July in New York. She was supposed to attend today's game at Yankee Stadium after presenting the tickets to her father, Steven Baruch, on Father's Day. Steven is a lifelong fan of the Orioles.

Baruch, 24, was among eight women riding in a limo that was T-boned by a pickup truck. The driver of the truck, 55-year-old Steven Romeo, was charged with DWI.

The women were returning from a winery after reportedly celebrating a birthday. They had hired the limousine for their wine-tasting trip to avoid the risks associated with drinking and driving.

Showalter and his players spoke to Steven Baruch, his wife Felicia and their son Michael. The Yankees provided seats behind the home dugout.

Update: The Orioles scored four runs off Michael Pineda in the second inning to take a 4-1 lead.

They sent nine batters to the plate. Jonathan Schoop hit a three-run homer after Chris Davis walked and Jimmy Paredes singled.

The Orioles are 24-3 when Schoop homers in his career. His three home runs at Yankee Stadium are the most at any visiting ballpark, though he was a career .194 hitter here before today.

Manny Machado singled off third baseman Chase Headley's glove to score Nolan Reimold, who was hit by a pitch. Ryan Flaherty was thrown out at the plate by shortstop Didi Gregorius, who retrieved the ball.

Paredes is 5-for-7 lifetime against Pineda. He's collected six hits in his last 14 at-bats.

The Yankees scored with two outs in the first when Schoop and Davis allowed Chris Young's popup to fall in shallow right field.

Update II: The Yankees scored an unearned run in the third on Flaherty's throwing error and Young's two-out RBI double.

That was a tough call on Flaherty, who made a sliding backhanded stop of Headley's scorcher down the line and threw wide of first base.

Update III: Alex Rodriguez led off the fifth with his 29th home run to reduce the Orioles' lead to 4-3.

Rodriguez has 3,054 career hits to pass Rod Carew for sole possession of 23rd place on the all-time list.

The Yankees weren't done. Greg Bird walked with two outs and John Ryan Murphy hit a two-run homer to give New York a 5-4 lead. Chen has thrown 104 pitches in five innings.

Update IV: Chen allowed five runs (four earned) and nine hits in five innings, with one walk, five strikeouts and two home runs. He threw 104 pitches, 64 for strikes.

No Orioles starter has completed six innings over the last nine games. Kevin Gausman did it most recently by going 6 2/3 innings in Texas.

Update V: Manny Machado homered to center field off left-hander Justin Wilson in the seventh inning to tie the game 5-5.

Machado has 27 home runs this season. Chen is spared the loss.

Update VI: Greg Bird hit a three-run homer off Brian Matus in the seventh to give the Yankees an 8-5 lead.

Jorge Rondon issued a leadoff walk to Carlos Beltran and allowed a single to Young. Matusz got ahead 0-2 in the count and served up his fourth home run this season.