Pregame notes on Tillman, Britton and more

TORONTO - Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman threw a bullpen session here earlier today and is now headed back to Baltimore, where his wife is expecting a baby at any time.

For now, Tillman is still scheduled to start Friday's opener of the series with the Tampa Bay Rays at Oriole Park. If he has to leave the team before that, right-hander Dylan Bundy, currently slated to pitch Saturday, would be moved up to Friday's start.

Meanwhile, O's closer Zach Britton will have his fifth of seven scheduled minor league rehab outings tomorrow. He will pitch in a game that begins at 11:05 a.m. at Double-A Bowie. Britton has already pitched once for short-season Single-A Aberdeen, twice for Single-A Delmarva and once for Bowie.

He will pitch tomorrow after starter Jesus Liranzo works a scheduled three-inning outing. Britton gets the first clean inning after Liranzo is taken out. When he pitches Friday at Single-A Frederick and Monday at Triple-A Norfolk, Britton is scheduled to pitch late in the game, as he normally would for the Orioles to simulate his usual role.

What does skipper Buck Showalter want to see out of Britton, who is aiming for a July 5 return from the disabled list, in the upcoming back-to-back outings?

"Obviously staying healthy, but with the back-to-back it's seeing how he feels the next day," Showalter said. "It is not like over the last year or two he's felt perfect after every outing anyway. He's doing well. Everyone is upbeat about it. He's got three more outings. He might get to Milwaukee in time to get an at-bat."

Lefty Wade Miley (3-5, 4.48 ERA) is on the mound for the Orioles tonight, looking to reverse a four-start slide in which his ERA is 10.91. One area where he needs to get better is throwing first-pitch strikes. Miley's current of rate of throwing 54 percent first-pitch strikes is a career-worst and well behind his 60 percent rate of last season.

"It's big for every pitcher," Showalter said. "I know Roger (McDowell, pitching coach) has a standing thing with the pitchers about first-pitch strikes that they've been keeping up since spring training started. I think sometimes we pitch too much to a scouting report and not to our strengths and we have to be careful about that. When you hear a guy is a first-pitch fastball hitter it doesn't mean you don't throw him a fastball. You throw one just off the plate and he'll get himself out. You have to say here is what they do and here is my strength. He has done that for three or four innings and all the sudden he has that one inning where he throws 30 or 35 pitches."

Showalter made a brief comment today about the sentencing of Ken Pagan, the fan convicted of throwing a beer can at the Orioles Hyun Soo Kim during the American League wild card game here last October. Pagan was sentenced to a conditional discharge of 12 months of probation and will be banned from all Major League Baseball games for a year. He has also not allowed within 500 meters of the Rogers Centre during that time.

"We got a letter of apology to Hyun Soo and to the organization. It's behind us," Showalter said. "We've moved on. All the proper things have taken place. They did what they thought was right. We'll leave it right there."