Orioles return to Toronto, Showalter on Wieters' catching schedule

Now that the Orioles are done with the Phillies, it's time to get back to baseball.

(Yes, I know the Phillies won yesterday, but they tried to throw away the game on Chase Utley's error. There's also the blind squirrel analogy. That's a bad team and children shouldn't be exposed to it.)

The Orioles flew into Toronto last night to begin a three-game series on the spongy turf at Rogers Centre. They were swept on April 21-23 and lost infielder Ryan Flaherty to a groin injury.

The Blue Jays scored 24 runs in those three games and Jose Bautista renewed his friendship with Adam Jones, who's expected back in the lineup tonight.

Jones' 13 home runs at Rogers Centre are the most he's hit in any opposing ballpark.

The Orioles are 3-3 against the Blue Jays at Camden Yards this season. Mark Buehrle, who starts Saturday, has beaten them three times.

Third baseman Manny Machado tied his career high yesterday with his 14th home run, and his third in the last three games. His 10 stolen bases match his major league total coming into the season.

Machado is a career .301/.322/.542 hitter in 19 games at Rogers Centre, with nine doubles, a triple, three home runs and 11 RBIs.

Chris Davis is a career .331/.427/.686 hitter at Rogers Centre, with 13 doubles, 10 home runs and 26 RBIs in 34 games.

Second baseman Jonathan Schoop begins his injury rehab assignment tonight at Double-A Bowie. Miguel Gonzalez will start for the Baysox on Saturday while left-hander Wei-Yin Chen pitches at Single-A Frederick.

Chen has no interest in being named to the Carolina League All-Star team.

I wrote yesterday that manager Buck Showalter has no immediate plans to start Matt Wieters behind the plate on back-to-back days. Wieters will be in tonight's lineup and Caleb Joseph will catch on Saturday.

"We're excited about having him back every other day," Showalter said. "He's still a tad ahead of schedule from what that normally is and we're not going to push that.

"I'm not going to put a firm date on it. I don't know if I'll ever ask him about him. John (Russell) and him talk all the time. He'll let us know. He's made real good decisions concerning this every time. He knows how much he means to us. He also knows what it would mean if he wasn't and he pushed too quickly with it.

"Will there come a time? Yeah, I think there will. When? I've got in the back of my head when I think it'll be, but nothing imminent."

Showalter said having a capable backup like Joseph on the roster isn't part of the Wieters equation.

"It wouldn't change anything," Showalter said. "Regardless of whoever the other guy is, he would be catching every other day. We've got a couple other guys we like down there, too. It doesn't matter who it would be, Matt would only catch every other day."

The Orioles are off Monday, so Wieters will catch consecutive games - just not days.