Henry Urrutia on rejoining the Orioles and another shot in the majors

For the first time since Sept. 10, 2013, Cuban outfielder Henry Urrutia will play in a major league game tonight. Urrutia underwent sports hernia surgery that limited him to 65 minor league games in 2014.

After a slow start this year at Triple-A - he was batting just .236 at the end of April - Urrutia has worked his way back to the Orioles. He was officially added to the roster today as Junior Lake was optioned back to Norfolk. Urrutia will start and bat eighth tonight as the DH against Oakland.

"Really happy and excited to be here," he said this afternoon in the Orioles clubhouse. "I did not expect it. When you've been waiting for something a long time, at some point of the season you stop thinking about it. I was trying to do the best I could at Triple-A. When R.J. (Tides manager Ron Johnson) told me I was going to the big leagues, I was feeling like I did my first time in 2013."

Urrutia said he found out he was starting today - but not in the usual way, where players see their name posted on the lineup board outside manager Buck Showalter's office.

"My wife texted me, 'You're playing today,' " he said.

You have to love social media. Word travels fast.

In 107 Tides games this season, Urrutia is batting .292 with 21 doubles, a triple, 10 homers and 50 RBIs. In 104 at-bats since the All-Star break, Urrutia has hit .317 with five homers, a .510 slugging percentage and 13 RBIs.

"This (call-up) is different in that I have a little more experience this time. The first time I didn't know anything about the big leagues. Now I can do different stuff here like a big league player," Urrutia said.

When he was struggling earlier, Norfolk manager Ron Johnson made a change to help Urrutia get his bat going. He moved him into the leadoff spot in the order to take some pressure off of him. Urrutia responded by batting .308/.349/.459 in 71 games atop the Tides order.

"Oh, yeah, it was pretty good," he said of batting first. "When he told me you are hitting leadoff for the first time, I was like, 'Wow we'll see (how that goes).' But after that, I don't feel any pressure. Just hit, hit, hit. Got a lot of at-bats, like 400 in Triple-A. So I feel happy he did that. Thanks to R.J."

In 24 games and 58 at-bats with the Orioles in 2013, Urrutia hit .276 with no homers and two RBIs. Now after the added experience of more than 600 more minor league at-bats, Urrutia is getting another chance in the majors.