Hunter Harvey coming out of the bullpen again today

SARASOTA, Fla. - Alex Cobb makes his first spring training start this afternoon in a split-squad game against the Rays, his former team, at Ed Smith Stadium. Meanwhile, Hunter Harvey will come out of the bullpen again and work one inning, just as he did Monday versus the Twins in Fort Myers.

A full schedule hasn't been laid out for Harvey. He's told the date he's pitching and the number of innings. What happens beyond it is unveiled later by manager Brandon Hyde.

"He just lets me know the one game at a time and not think about it too much," Harvey said. "I know they're going to build me up slow. Maybe the next one will be two after this one, but it's been good so far."

The Orioles could give Harvey some starts later in camp, but the bullpen makes more sense for now while he's limited to one inning.

"I have no idea. Whatever they need me to do," he said.

"The other day I was talking to Hyde because he asked me how I liked coming out of the bullpen and I was like, that's my first real time coming out of the bullpen. I know when Buck (Showalter) was here he'd be like, 'Hey, you've got the seventh.' It was easy to be prepared for the seventh. So the other day they called down there and were like, 'OK, you're in the next inning,' and I ended up getting looser than I thought I could because I had never tried it before, so it was pretty cool."

Could Hyde be toying with the idea of making Harvey a reliever until a spot opens in the rotation and the right-hander is built up to where he's able to move into it? The Orioles used to prep their starters this way under Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver.

"I hope so," Harvey said. "That would be nice. Like I said before, wherever they put me I'm going to be happy. As long as I'm healthy and I'm pitching, so I'm ready for anything."

Though the arm always raises temptations in spring training, the Orioles are more likely to start Harvey in the minors and let him accumulate needed innings after another injury-shortened season. But don't completely dismiss the bullpen idea.

"I think that's still yet to be determined," Hyde said. "The last few years have been so difficult for him that breaking spring training healthy is our No. 1 goal and whether that's where we've stretched him out or we haven't stretched him out fully, we haven't even had a conversation about that yet.

"This is mainly about what's the best for Hunter Harvey right now. Getting him on the mound, coming off the mound healthy, feeling good. That's what happened his last outing. He felt great after, which was awesome, so he's got another outing coming up.

"I think we're just going to continue on that path and then we'll make that determination about a rotation spot or do we stick him in the bullpen and what our plans are with him as we go along in camp."

Harvey's one inning in Fort Myers included Byron Buxton's two-run homer, but his fastball topped out at 98 mph while striking out Jake Cave to end the fifth.

Most important was how Harvey's arm reacted after the game and in the ensuing days. It all goes back to his health.

"Everything felt good," he said. "I didn't get too sore. It was nice to just get back out there and see hitters and get that adrenaline again."

The Orioles and Phillies played to a 5-5 tie yesterday in Clearwater that featured two more scoreless innings from Jimmy Yacabonis, who struck out two batters, big days at the plate from Joey Rickard and Yusniel Diaz and a triple from Austin Hays that again demonstrated how his surgically repaired ankle is healed and no longer restricting him.

He flew around the bases. It was impressive.

Chris Davis struck out twice and walked. He brought along a LUNGevity T-shirt to honor former public relations director Monica Pence Barlow, who passed away five years ago after fighting Stage 4 lung cancer for four and a half years. He wasn't going to let the date pass quietly.

"If you had the pleasure of knowing her, she was just such an incredible person and was really somebody who in my line of work made my job a lot easier than it really had to be on a daily basis," he said. "But more than just that, I just felt like she was a good person and she was somebody I enjoyed being around, somebody I enjoyed talking to. I felt like she was extremely down to earth and she understood just how grueling and how tough this business can be. That was never an issue with her.

"I just remember I was reading a few things a few days ago about her diagnosis and then her battle and eventually her passing and it just brought up old emotions, a lot of feelings that had been really buried and kind of ignored for several years and it just felt like this was the right thing to do.

"We have a lot of statues in Baltimore, we're going to hang Frank (Robinson's) number from the warehouse and wear his number on the jersey, and we never really had a patch for Monica. I have that (memorial service) paper next to my locker and it will stay there for as long as I'm with the Orioles, and I just felt like it was the right thing to do. She was just as much a part of this organization and team as anybody and I don't want people to forget that.

"I think it's important not only to recognize what kind of person she was, but how she handled her disease and she attacked it and was relentless and she continued to work and didn't feel sorry for herself or expect anybody to feel sorry for her. She continued to battle and grind and that's something I think we can all take away from the situation and really apply to our own lives, and I want guys to know that. I think it's important."