O's win, but get disappointing injury news on two fronts

JUPITER, Fla. - On a day when five Orioles pitchers combined for a 1-0 shutout of the St. Louis Cardinals, the news was not all good. After the game, we found out that Mark Trumbo will begin the year on the disabled list and that O's third base prospect Ryan Mountcastle will begin the year on the DL in the minors.

An MRI earlier today showed that Trumbo's troublesome right quad has a Grade 2 strain and he will miss the next few weeks.

"He'll be out a minimum of three to four weeks," manager Buck Showalter said. "Probably going to be three to four weeks there minimum.

"Trumbo had been doing everything on the field full speed. That just tells how different actual game speed is. He was fine during the game (yesterday) and said he started getting stiff and sore when driving home after the game."

Trumbo yesterday returned to the Orioles lineup for the first time since March 6. He went 0-for-3 as the designated hitter against the New York Yankees and is batting .130 in eight games.

The injury to Trumbo is going to open up a roster spot for somebody. Now we just wait to find out who that person will be. When a reporter wondered if that would directly benefit Pedro Álvarez, Showalter didn't agree.

"No. Depends on what angle you look at it from. We all do. We start handicapping when we heard the news today. There are a lot of different variables," he said.

Mountcastle was injured when hit by a pitch Wednesday on the first day of the minor league spring training games. He was scheduled to bat fifth as a DH for Triple-A Norfolk.

He suffered a hairline fracture in his right hand. He'll be out four to six weeks.

"He's got good young bones and he'll be OK," Showalter said. "He won't miss that much. This will not need surgery. There are a lot of little bones in there. Very similar to what J.J. (Hardy) did."

Rated as the No. 71 prospect by Baseball America and No. 98 by MLBPipeline.com, Mountcastle was slated to begin the season with Double-A Bowie. Now that will have to wait. He went 7-for-24 (.292) with two homers and five RBIs in 13 spring training games for the Orioles before being reassigned to minor league camp on Monday.

On the mound today, O's pitchers combined to allow only three singles in the shutout and Jonathan Schoop's fifth homer of the spring provided the only scoring. Schoop has hit four homers over his past five games.

Kevin Gausman made his fourth start counting one simulated game. Today he gave up two singles over five scoreless innings with one walk and one strikeout. That is eight scoreless innings in his past two Grapefruit League games.

"He's got a good, crisp breaking ball going on and is attacking the strike zone," Showalter said. "Kind of picked up where he left off last year. Kevin is having a good spring. He is right where he needs to be with a couple of more starts left."

In an effort to get himself off to a much better start than last year, Gausman began throwing earlier this winter and it seems to be paying off under the Florida sun.

"Yeah, absolutely," he said. "I started throwing 10 days before I normally do and it doesn't seem like much. But that is two or three more bullpens if you really think about it. So I've felt really locked in coming into camp. More importantly my body feels really good."

One surprise emerging from this camp is how close to helping the Orioles lefty reliever Luis Gonzalez may be. Last year, he went 6-2 with a 2.47 ERA and fanned 75 in 62 innings for Single-A Frederick. Today, he pitched a 1-2-3 sixth versus the top of the St. Louis batting order.

"We are going to continue to get looks at him," Showalter said. "He's a good looking pitcher. I saw him out in the (Arizona) Fall League. That's impressive."

Impressive enough for him to push for an opening day bullpen job?

"I think he is going to push for a spot this season," Showalter said. "When it is, (we'll see). He's a guy that's been on the radar, probably since the mid-point of last year. I was really concerned (he'd be lost) with the Rule 5 draft. Especially as well as he pitched in the fall league."

The skipper also had props for lefty Tanner Scott, who blanked the Cardinals in the eighth after Jimmy Yacabonis did so an inning earlier. Right-hander Lucas Long got the last three outs.

"Tanner very quietly is having a really good spring," Showalter said. "He really has. It's been fun to watch. You can see he's not trying to overthrow. The velocities are still good and the breaking ball has come leaps and bounds."

The Orioles have won seven in a row to improve to 13-8-1. This was the club's second spring shutout after the 4-0 win over Philadelphia on Sunday night. Andrew Cashner started that game and the new Oriole starts tomorrow in Port St. Lucie when the Orioles play the Mets to conclude their two-day run on the East Coast of Florida.