Matt Wieters talks about his first spring game behind the plate

SARASOTA, Fla. - There were no steal attempts and it was not a very eventful day for Orioles catcher Matt Wieters. But his comeback from Tommy John surgery took a significant step today when he caught six innings in the Orioles' 10-9 loss to Minnesota at Ed Smith Stadium.

This was not a B or intrasquad game and he was in live game action against another big league opponent for the first time since last May, making his Grapefruit League debut.

Before the game, he said the sellout crowd warmly welcomed him back.

"Yeah, walking in from the bullpen, got a great ovation from the fans down here and it meant a lot to me to get that kind of ovation. To get back there behind the plate, it was a special day," he said.

Wieters had to make one throw today. In the top of the second, Josmil Pinto hit a slow roller in front of the plate. Wieters' throw to first pulled Chris Davis off the bag in the opinion of the umpire, even though the Orioles were not as sure about that.

"I almost tried to make it a little bit too hard on myself," he said of the play. "I wanted to try and really test it out. I had a little more time than I actually had, than I actually thought I had, so I've got to get out of the mode where I'm trying to test it out and just go out there and play.

"It wasn't too productive a day, but it's good to get back there and getting behind the plate for the first time is out of the way. Now we can get back to what spring training is meant for, and that's getting ready for the season."

So was he disappointed he didn't get to test his arm against a steal attempt this afternoon?

"No, as I said, you can't make it happen," Wieters said. "The whole thing about baseball is you have to be ready to react, and that's where I've got to get to where it's about playing baseball. It's not a matter of rehab, or we need to do this or this. It's just about reacting."

Wieters was asked again about being ready for opening day. That is his goal, but it's not a sure thing.

"We were hopeful that it was going to be ready for opening day, but it was never it would definitely be - something to where we were going to pray the whole time during the rehab that everything went smoothly and it did," Wieters said. "But you know, we still have to continue to watch and strengthen it so we are ready to play as many games as we can this year."

Wieters was asked if he has a goal of a set number of games he wants to try to play in 2015.

"No, it is something to where I've caught a lot of games in the past," he said. "I think we will probably have to take a little bit lighter than what we've done in the past. But at the same time, we will start with one and see how that goes, see how it comes into the park each day. I know Buck (Showalter) will be smart with it and know ultimately when we are trying to make a run at the end of the year, it is as healthy as can be."

Showalter said he wants to see how Wieters feels tomorrow after playing today.

"Yeah, I think we'll feel fine tomorrow," Wieters said. "I think we will definitely still be smart and not try to push it tomorrow. But based on how it felt today and no real steal attempts, I think we'll feel fine tomorrow.

"It's nice to get back there. It's something we've been working for for the last nine months as soon as we had the surgery, to get back out there and get back playing. It's nice to sort of get the just rehab part behind it and get back to just playing baseball."