J.J. Hardy on today's infield drills (O's lead 6-3)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Outfielder David Lough, on the disabled list with a hamstring injury, participated in baseball activities today and the Orioles hope he can get three or four at-bats Wednesday in an intrasquad game.

Infielder Jimmy Paredes, on the disabled list with a lower back strain, may take some dry swings on Wednesday. He's eligible to be activated on April 16, five days after Lough, who may not be ready.

I reported earlier that J.J. Hardy took ground balls at shortstop before batting practice. He will begin an injury-rehab assigment next week at Single-A Frederick as he nears a return from a strained muscle in his left shoulder.

Hardy worked out for the first time on Sunday, but he increased the intensity today.

"It felt good," he said. "Throws have been good for a little while. I think what I liked best about today was getting some backhands and really not thinking about it. Just kind of reacting to some in-between hops where I've got to kind of go get it, which didn't feel good the first time I took them. But didn't even notice it today, so it was a really good sign.

"The workout here, the first day we came in, I took some ground balls and everything right at me and to my left was fine, but there were a few backhands that didn't feel great. But today I took a lot of backhands and none of them hurt. So it was a big improvement."

Hardy was told that he would be shut down for a minimum of 10 days, but he's ahead of schedule.

"I think that was swinging the bat, shut down from swinging the bat," he said. "If I come in tomorrow and everything feels all right, I think I'm going to be able to take some dry swings and see how that feels.

"We'll have to progress there. It will be dry swings. Come in the day and see how I feel after that. If I feel good, then maybe some balls off the tee. Come in the next day and see how that feels. Flips, see how that feels. Coach's BP and then on the field at game speed.

"Realistically, I don't know, if everything goes well, I don't want to put a time on it. It's still going to be day by day, but if everything goes well, it could be sooner than expected."

Hardy is encouraged by how the shoulder is responding.

"If you told me how many days it's been that I'd be where I'm at, I don't know if I would have believed you, but I feel pretty positive about the way everything's going so far," he said.

Third base coach and infield instructor Bobby Dickerson took throws from Hardy, who fielded grounders from bench coach John Russell.

"He's done a few things and we just want to make sure he doesn't feel anything today. He did all his defensive work and he felt great," Dickerson said.

"We're just kind of easing it back in and strengthening and doing all his stuff. Just as far as my view of what I saw, he looked really good. He made a couple aggressive moves with his glove to the backhand and he does his little signature glove flip and he looked really good.

"He needs to swing the bat to make sure, and after he doesn't feel anything doing controlled work like this, then at some point it's live BP and get into some games. But right now, what I saw today defensively, it's really good.

"Again, J.J. knows J.J. He's the one monitoring it. He's going to tell us what he feels and how he feels, and today he felt great."

Update: The first four Orioles collected hits and scored runs to build a 4-0 lead over the Rays.

Alejandro De Aza and Steve Pearce singled, and Travis Snider followed with an RBI single. Adam Jones had a two-run double, advanced on a wild pitch from Rays starter Nathan Karns and scored on Manny Machado's sacrifice fly.

Snider is 4-for-5 with three RBIs in the first two games.

Update II: Steve Pearce hit a two-run homer in the second to increase the lead to 6-0.

Pearce and Tropicana Field are a match made in heaven.

Pearce has 40 career homers and eight have come in St. Petersburg. He's hit five homers in his last 11 games here.

Update III: The Rays are inching back into tonight's game.

Kevin Kiermaier tripled and scored in the third inning and Logan Forsythe concluded an 11-pitch at-bat in the fourth with a two-run homer to reduce the Orioles' lead to 6-3.

Chen has thrown 81 pitches in four innings.