More camp cuts and wrapping up a 10-8 win

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles have cut their camp roster to 60 players by reassigning pitchers Jason Gurka and Eddie Gamboa and catcher Audry Perez to the minor league complex. None of them were projected to head north with the team.

Gabriel Ynoa struck out the first two Red Sox batters today before his start went downhill. He threw 26 pitches in the first inning, gave up back-to-back home runs in the second and was charged with six runs in the Orioles' 10-8 win - their fourth victory in a row.

"I'd like to see him pitch better," Showalter said. "Two outs, nobody on, nine pitches, and then, what, 20-some pitches later? It's tough. That's the big leagues, though. You can't ever let up. They had a lot of their guys in the lineup today and he didn't pitch very well.

"I'm sure it's frustrating for him. He's going to have to figure out a way to get left-handed hitters off him. He's been able to defend himself against right-handers, though he had trouble with both of them. He was supposed to go three (innings) today, but he had well over 40 pitches."

Left-hander Tanner Scott earned the save with a scoreless ninth. He struck out two batters and stranded a runner after a leadoff double. His fastball was touching 97 mph, but he didn't stay exclusively with it.

"You can tell the breaking ball has really improved. He got a couple outs with it today," Showalter said. "He's really settling into pitching instead of just throwing and he had another gear. If he wanted to go to it, he could have, but he didn't feel like he had to.

"The other thing you like to see, too, when a guy squares him up, first hitter, before it was like, 'Wait a minute, they hit 97, 98, 99 up here?' Now it's, 'OK, let's get to the next hitter.' You can tell he's kind of growing into that."

Rule 5 pick Pedro Araujo logged his third scoreless inning of the spring and allowed his first baserunner. A double and three fly balls to right field in the third completed his day.

"He was really campaigning to go back out and pitch another inning," Showalter said. "He's been good, he's been impressive almost every time he's taken the ball - on the side. Good face, very alert in the drills and stuff. He's made a good impression."

Darren O'Day surrendered a run after a leadoff triple, but Brad Brach, making his spring debut, tossed a scoreless eighth.

The Orioles scored three runs in the third inning and four in the fourth, passing the baton with well-placed hits. Adam Jones had an RBI double in the third after Jonathan Schoop singled and Manny Machado walked for the second time, and two fielder's choice bouncers produced two more runs. Nine batters came to the plate in the fourth, the rally starting with Caleb Joseph's double and including an RBI single from Tim Beckham, two-run double for Machado and RBI double for Jones.

"You like that, you like to see that," Showalter said. "That's the type of things to string together when you're down 6-0 that you're going to have to do. I'm more concerned about making sure we're not down 6-0 a lot this year like we were last year. That kind of wore on our club I thought last year as we went on in the season. We were able to do a lot of that in April and May and sometimes in June, but it kind of wore on our guys as the season wore on. But it was good to see today."

Danny Valencia faced left-handers in his first two at-bats. He ripped a double to left field and lined out to third.

"Danny Valencia is about as good as you want to find versus left-handed pitching in his career," Showalter said. "It's hard to come up with many with a better track record."

Showalter is letting the regulars choose whether to travel to Fort Myers on Tuesday to play the Twins or to Port Charlotte Wednesday to play the Rays.