Showalter speaks after 5-4 loss in exhibition home opener (O's sign Beato)

SARASOTA, Fla. - Bud Norris will make his first exhibition start for the Orioles on Saturday against the Red Sox in Sarasota. Ubaldo Jimenez returns to the mound on Sunday against the Twins in Fort Myers, and Chris Tillman makes his first start Monday against the Phillies in Sarasota.

Wei-Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzalez will pitch Tuesday against the Yankees in Sarasota.

I wrote earlier that Mike Wright is pitching Friday against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, but here's a reminder.

Playing in his first game since Aug. 11, Orioles third baseman Manny Machado went 0-for-3 with an error and a nice play in the field.

Machado will return to the lineup for Thursday night's split-squad game against the Blue Jays. Don't look for him on the bus headed to Port Charlotte for the early game against the Rays.

"Wally (Dave Wallace) made a comment, 'Oh OK, I remember that,' " said manager Buck Showalter. "Manny needs to play in some games. He's tired of all the work. You think of all the work he's done since he was able to start going on the field after the surgery and you think about the last time he got to play a lot.

"We'll try to get as many reps for him as we can, because physically it's not a challenge for him. He's in good shape."

Kevin Gausman allowed a hit and struck out a batter in his 16-pitch scoreless inning.

"He threw well. He was good," Showalter said.

The Orioles are being careful with Gausman, instructing him not to throw any bullpens before reporting to camp.

"First time a guy pitches into October in his life," Showalter said. "Just taking a lot precautions with a lot of guys, not just Gausman, to kind of save our bullets as much as possible. But obviously we'll start stretching him out as we go forward, see where the pitching staff takes us and where we end up."

Gausman is a veteran of spring training, attending his third camp, but he's never seemed uneasy in a big league environment.

"This guy came from a big-time college program (LSU), pitched on some big stages," Showalter said. "I think just getting to know the way things work and know what's expected and know what works and doesn't work.

"He looks different. He never looked uncomfortable. He was just a pleaser, like, 'OK, what do they want me to do to be happy?' Now he takes a lot of initiative because he knows what's expected and how you're supposed to go about your business.

"He gets the process and the stages. I think he really respects and appreciates some of the caution we take with him. There will come a day when we can take the governors off, which we're getting pretty close. But all of our pitchers are precious commodities.

"There's nobody here who asks better questions. Sincere, too. They're not trying to show how smart they are. He's a watcher, he watches the game. He soaks in what's going on and you won't see him make the same mistake twice very often."

Showalter noted how the Orioles finally were able to turn Tillman loose and eventually will do the same with Gausman. It just takes patience on both sides.

"You get a return for that, but you've got to stay the course and it's tough," Showalter said.

Gausman allowed a leadoff single to Anthony Gose on a 1-2 pitch, but he probably would have taken a different approach in a regular season game. Spring training is the time to work on secondary stuff.

"He blew up Gose twice and then threw him a breaking ball, but that's spring training. He needs to work on that pitch," Showalter said. "During the season, he would have tried to blow him up again."

Catcher Matt Wieters went 0-for-3 as the designated hitter after throwing earlier in the day.

"That went well," Showalter said of the throwing session. "I went out there for that. I've been purposely staying away from it. I kind of snuck in.

"I asked him, 'March 17?' It's hard to tell that he's been going through a rehab program."

Machado and Wieters clearly missed the competition and day-to-day interaction with their teammates, Showalter said.

"I can't say (Matt) was especially excited in the dugout today because he's been that way since he got here," Showalter said. "Who knows, he may have a day or two when we have to back off, but as Richie (Bancells) said, he's never had a more model rehab patient. You tell Matt to go climb the screen, he's going to go climb the screen. He's going to be right on time. He's going to do every little thing possible to try to get back.

"Some guys, you've got to stay on them all the time about it. They think they're bulletproof and everything is just going to heal by itself."

Showalter said Dylan Bundy had a good changeup today, and he continues to be impressed by Cuban outfielder Dariel Alvarez, who contributed an RBI single today and scored a run.

"He likes to play," Showalter said. "I mean this as a compliment - he thinks he's pretty good, and in a good way. He's not going to back off anybody."

Showalter also noted that Jayson Nix is "a pro." Nix hit the Orioles' first spring home run, a solo shot with two outs in the ninth inning that reduced the Tigers' lead to 5-4.

As for the botched rundown play that allowed the Tigers to score their first run, Showalter said, "We'll probably come back to that. What do you think?

"We have a nice overhead camera that we can duplicate that play again."

Showalter said he might summon about six of the average to above-average runners from minor league camp to help with rundown plays.

"The problem is we're doing it over here with coaches and we want to get a little better clock on it," Showalter said. "I'll bet before too long we come back to that again."

Update: The Orioles officially announced that they have signed right-hander Pedro Beato to a minor league deal. My colleague, Steve Melewski, first reported the acquisition on Tuesday.

The Orioles originally drafted Beato between the first and second rounds of the 2006 draft, but lost him to the Mets in the 2011 Rule 5 draft.

The 28-year-old has gone 4-2 with a 4.34 ERA in 84 relief appearances over four big league seasons with the Mets, Red Sox and Braves. He appeared in three games with Atlanta last season, tossing 4 1/3 scoreless innings.