Updating Bleier, Hays, Rickard and the defense (O's down 7-0)

Left-hander Richard Bleier is making significant progress down at extended spring training, with Orioles manager Brandon Hyde passing along an update before tonight's series opener against the Rays.

Bleier is on the injured list retroactive to April 10 with left shoulder tendinitis, but he's been pitching in extended spring training games.

"Bleier's throwing the ball good," Hyde said. "He's had a few appearances and he's come out healthy in all of them. He's on the rehab track right now and will probably get moved along up the ladder from that standpoint.

"We haven't really put a timetable on it, but he's thrown the ball well and he's coming out of games healthy. His velo seems like it's up. It's all a good sign."

Outfielder Austin Hays played in his first extended spring training game today, recovered from the sprained left thumb suffered in late March in minor league camp, and he tweeted the following:

"The kid is BACK first rehab game went great today I'm on the come up"

Hays played six innings in center field.

"The (thumb) was good and I guess he was really happy with how he felt," Hyde said. "Good news there, too."

Joey Rickard is out of the lineup tonight while mired in a 1-for-22 slump since his triple in the second inning of an April 24 game against the White Sox at Camden Yards. Stevie Wilkerson is in center field and given the task of batting against Tyler Glasnow.

"I just want to give Joey a blow, give him a couple days after the off-day yesterday and a day today," Hyde said. "Glasnow is tough and he's one of the best pitchers in the American League. He's got elite, elite stuff and tough on right-handers and left-handers, so I just wanted to give Joey a breather. That's pretty much it."

The Orioles are trying to clean up their defense after committing five more errors in Wednesday's doubleheader in Chicago. The mental mistakes stood out more than the physical ones, including unnecessary throws, the failure to take the easy out and allowing batters to beat out ground balls to the right side by misjudging their speed up the line.

The teaching moments were plentiful and Hyde intended to roam the field today during batting practice and talk to some of his players. In the meantime, he isn't reaching for the most convenient excuses.

"I wouldn't put it on fatigue or the doubleheader," he said. "I'd put it on, I think we're still learning the game and a lot of guys are still understanding the speed of the major league game, understanding the preparation that has to come on a day like that.

"A lot of our guys are learning to be a pro at the big league level. I feel really good about the defense that we've played up to that day, and those days happen. Sometimes you just have seven hours of (bad) defense. But I think up until that point, I feel like our guys have been real engaged, in tune, focused on making the routine play. We just didn't do a very good job that day, for whatever reason.

"I don't want to blame it on cold, wet, no BP stuff. For me, that was just one of those (days) where we just didn't play very well defensively."

The outfield depth has come into question. Where players are positioned, not the amount of them on the roster, though they could be tied together.

"We are playing deep and a lot of it is personnel driven. But if you also look at any kind of defensive metric and stat, we are at the top in the outfield. It's a pick your poison a little bit," Hyde said.

"I like our guys, but when you don't have a ton of team speed and you're playing guys maybe out of position at times, you're going to play more conservatively in the outfield. Couple that with starters that are fly ball guys ... We put a lot of balls on the barrel so far this year, so we play a little deeper than league average. I think there are a lot of factors that go into it."

Hyde moved seamlessly into the José Abreu single into center field in Game 2 that plated three runs.

"The base hit that scored three the other day, that wasn't a playing deep problem," Hyde said. "That was a situation with a fast runner (Nicky Delmonico) at first base from the other side of the bag, a right-hander up, they're running, so you do play a couple steps deeper in that situation because you're not going to throw the guy out at the plate on a base hit anyway, so you're trying to take away the double.

"That was more of an awareness and a communication issue of, on that kind of play you've got to get to the ball fast, which we did. You've got to get the ball in as fast as you can, which we did. You've got to hit the first (cutoff) guy, which we did. At the same time, your head's got to be on a swivel in the infield and you've got to have awareness and you've got to understand the speed of the game and you've got to communicate. You've got to talk.

"Infielders have to talk just like outfielders have to talk and those are the kinds of plays we learn from and we grow from and I think you get better as an individual player by those things happening to you. All of a sudden you know the next time that happens that I've got to understand the speed a little bit more and I've got to understand we've got to communicate a little bit more. I think a lot of our guys are still learning how to play team defense and up to this point, until the other day, I thought we've done a really good job."

Catcher Austin Wynns drew unwanted attention in Game 2 for throwing the ball into center field after an Andrew Cashner strikeout on a pitch in the dirt. Hyde didn't feel the need to discuss it with Wynns in the dugout, choosing carefully when to broach the subject just as former manager Buck Showalter used to do.

"I think coaching is understanding when to ... every player's different. I think you treat a lot of players differently," Hyde said.

"If that was a veteran guy that did that, you'd know that was just something that was very uncharacteristic. And in Austin's case, that was just a speed of the game ... I don't know. I didn't talk to him. Everybody in the ballpark knew that that was a mistake and I didn't want to embarrass him any further and he knew what he did. So I think that you approach things sometimes and other times you leave it alone, maybe get them the next day.

"The moment during the heat of the game isn't always the best time and so I think the best coaches pick their spots."

Update: Back-to-back doubles by Brandon Lowe and Tommy Pham to open the first inning gave the Rays a 1-0 lead.

Update II: Mike Zunino hit a three-run homer off Dan Straily in the fourth inning and Ji-Man Choi's sacrifice fly with the bases loaded increased the lead to 5-0.

Update III: Yefry Ramirez allowed two runs in the sixth, walking three batters in the process, and the Rays lead 7-0.