Matt Wieters makes his return to Camden Yards

As some Orioles fans stood to applaud Matt Wieters tonight before his first at-bat, it became more evident that he hadn't played a game at Camden Yards in a very long time.

Wieters' last appearance came on May 10, 2014. He went 0-for-5 with a strikeout against the Astros.

Wieters hadn't caught a game at Camden Yards since the second game of a May 1 doubleheader against the Pirates. He worked behind the plate for 10 innings in a 6-5 win.

Before tonight, Wieters was batting .417 (5-for-12) with a double, triple, home run and three RBIs since coming off the disabled list on Friday.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Wieters is the third catcher this season to hit a triple and home run in the same game. The others are Colorado's Nick Hundley (April 21) and San Diego's Derek Norris (May 1).

Wieters struck out tonight in his first at-bat against former Orioles farmhand Eduardo Rodriguez, once the No. 3 prospect in the organization who was traded to the Red Sox last summer for left-hander Andrew Miller.

Rodriguez is 2-0 with a 0.61 ERA in two major league starts.

One media member began a question to manager Buck Showalter by saying, "When you look at Eduardo Rodriguez..."

"I'd rather not," Showalter said, cutting him off.

Showalter said Rodriguez's mechanics are "almost exactly the same."

"I'm sure there's some tweaks over there. There are tweaks all the time," he said. "But it's one of those things, we knew exactly what we were giving up for Andrew, and we knew it was going to be really hard to sign Andrew, but we felt it was very fair to the fans, the players, the organization, everybody to take a shot at it. We knew what we were giving up, but it's a good ...

"I know when I was in the minor leagues, I felt like if I could help develop a player to the point where another club covets him enough to give a major league team what it needed, I'd also done my job. It's not just developing players for your organization, it's developing assets for the organization, and that's what happened with Eduardo. So everybody who had a hand in his development, every time Andrew got us closer to the World Series should have been very proud.

"He's real good. We knew it. Unfortunately, we'll get to see it tonight."

Rodriguez was called up on May 28 to make a spot start and hasn't left, allowing one run and striking out 14 in 14 2/3 innings.

"I thought it would happen a little quicker, quite frankly," Showalter said. "It would have with us, but they had so many commitments and different things. They know what they've got."

Right-handers are batting .081 against Rodriguez and left-handers are hitting .167.

"He's actually a neutral split guy now, which is great news for a starting pitcher," Showalter said. "There was one little piece he had yet to finish off and it looks like he has. It was more than just pitching. He's in great shape."

Manny Machado had a leadoff single in the first inning tonight, his fifth hit in his last 10 at-bats. Adam Jones walked with one out, but Wieters struck out and Chris Davis flied out on Rodriguez's 27th pitch.

At least the Orioles made him work for that scoreless inning.

Miguel Gonzalez needed only 10 pitches to retire the Red Sox in order in the top of the first. Leadoff hitter Dustin Pedroia flied out to left fielder Nolan Reimold.