O's pregame notes and quotes with Ryan Lavarnway, Chris Davis and Eddie Gamboa

When Chris Tillman takes the mound today, he'll be throwing to catcher Ryan Lavarnway for the first time in a regular season game.

I asked Lavarnway if he and Tillman can gain anything from last night as they attack the Blue Jays hitters today? They saw Ubaldo Jimenez hold Toronto to one hit and no runs over seven innings last night. Can they just take that game plan that Jimenez used into today's game or does Tillman have a different style of pitching?

"I think there is a little bit of both," Lavarnway said. "You can see how we went about pitching them and how they reacted, but also recognize that Chris Tillman has a different repertoire and they are going to react and see his pitches differently."

Tillman is looking for a 2-0 start today. Making his second straight opening day start Monday, he pitched the Orioles past Tampa Bay, allowing just one run over 6 2/3 innings.

The Orioles are 12-1 in Tillman's last 13 regular season starts.

Lavarnway did catch Tillman in his last two spring training starts. Lavarnway knows that if Tillman has his usual solid command, the right-hander will have several pitches to work with as he calls the game today.

"It is important to keep him in the strike zone. He has four pitches that all play, a good mix," Lavarnway said. "Good heater, real good curveball and changeup and then the cutter/slider he throws to go with it. A real good mix."

Meanwhile, there was plenty of praise floating around the Orioles clubhouse last night and today for Jimenez's outstanding outing that came a day after Toronto put up 12 runs on 16 hits.

Chris Davis said a strong desire to win has always been there for Jimenez and the players in the clubhouse see that "want to" that Buck Showalter has referred to often.

"There is no doubt. Any time a guy has worked as hard as he has in the spring and you know how much it means to them, you want him to go out and succeed," Davis said. "Nice to see him get rewarded (last night). I'm proud of the way he battled in spring and he showed how much it meant to him."

Eddie Gamboa was still smiling this morning in the O's clubhouse. After pitching in the minors for the Orioles since 2008, he made his way to a big league roster for the first time last night when Wesley Wright went on the disabled list.

If he makes his major league debut, he would be throwing his first big league inning after pitching 693 innings in the minors.

Gamboa continues to work to improve his knuckleball, which he is throwing in games more now than at any time. He recently spent time in minor league camp working with Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro.

"When I got sent down (to the minors from major league camp in the spring), things got better," Gamboa said. "It is just little things here and there to get it around the zone as much as I can. In big league camp, it was terrible, but when I got sent down, I got to really, really work on it every day.

"Phil Niekro was there with me for four or five days. We just talked about little things and I was able to take advantage of that situation and improve the pitch."