Updating Gonzalez and wrapping up a 2-1 loss

PHILADELPHIA - Miguel Gonzalez threw a bullpen session today and remains scheduled to pitch Saturday at Double-A Bowie before coming off the disabled list for a June 25 start with the Orioles.

Gonzalez will perform some fielding drills to make sure there's no lingering discomfort in his groin. It rained this morning and limited his work on the field.

"Went great, went really good," said manager Buck Showalter following a 2-1 loss to the Phillies. "He and Brady (Anderson) and Jonathan (Schoop) are driving back. He's going to pitch Saturday for Bowie. Wei-Yin will pitch in Frederick that day. Brady will be with Gonzalez and Schoop and Ramon (Martinez) will be with Chen.

"He felt good throwing, and if that goes well Saturday we'll activate him on his day."

Gonzalez is ready face hitters again.

"I need to get back on the mound, get back to pitching," he said. "Hopefully, I can go five (innings) or 75 pitches. I'm feeling good about myself right now. The bullpen went really well.

"I think sometimes you need some time off to get back to what you need to do in the future. Maybe in the long run this is going to help.

"You've just got to get in there and get your work in, and I'll throw all my pitches and see how it feels."

The Orioles took three of four games against the Phillies this week, losing today for the first time in Philadelphia since July 4, 2004.

"It's been a tough four games, four days," Showalter said. "Any time you play a team four times in a row, you never like to see that on a schedule. We all know they're capable of a lot better baseball and today was a good example of that.

"Somebody asked me before we got started if we could take three out of four and sign up for it. No. It's not because of Philadelphia. It's anybody. When you're playing good baseball like we are, we like to take our chances. There's a real fine margin of error there.

"I really like how we're playing defense. The last two weeks, that's really been a difference maker for us."

Bud Norris carried a shutout into the sixth inning before Ryan Howard hit a two-out, two-run homer.

"He was good," Showalter said. "He was the difference in us being in that game. He was really good. It's one of those games where if it was the American League he would keep pitching. He didn't make many mistakes at all. Of course, their guys didn't either."

The Orioles had runners on first and third with one out in the seventh after second baseman Chase Utley's throwing error, but Manny Machado and Travis Snider struck out. Snider fanned four times today.

"Travis has been swinging the bat real well," Showalter said. "He had a rough day today, but he'll turn the page."

Chris Parmelee was 0-for-3 with a walk today, but he hit a couple of deep fly balls.

"We were hitting it to the wrong part of the park," Showalter said. "Chris is seeing the ball real well, Parmelee, and he just missed a few balls. You can tell when you're seeing the ball that well. He's not cheating on the fastball, which allows him to recognize the breaking ball and he's spitting on some pitches that normally, if you're not seeing the fastball good, you're having to rush to it."

Here's an assortment of quotes from a quiet visiting clubhouse:

J.J. Hardy, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games: "It's good. You've got to start somewhere. Yeah, I'm happy with it. Still making some adjustments."

Hardy on today's loss: "Honestly, I don't think anybody is thinking about this loss. I think we're all kind of focusing on, now, the positive stuff and we're going to continue moving forward with that."

Hardy on importance of Blue Jays series: "It's a big series. All series are big at this point. We've just got to continue doing what we're doing and I think we'll be all right."

Norris on his outing: "It's hard to take right now because obviously I want to win games and we've been playing good ball, so this one we'll kind of let it be. We played really well against these guys. It was a big series win against them, took two there and one here. We'll take it as it is. We know we have a tough task here. We're playing good baseball. We just have to pick our heads up and get going tomorrow."

Norris on one bad pitch to Howard: "Like I said, in the past couple of games I made one mistake with the fastball and deeper in the game. Like I said, it's hard to get in that situation, but I know I can make those pitches to execute and get out of it, so I need to build off it and execute a little better in that situation."

Norris on whether he's feeling stronger: "I'm getting there. Definitely still trying to figure out all my pitches a little bit, sliders kind of been hit or miss a little bit, but changeup was good today. I thought the fastball velo was good, especially with the sinker. Still building on it. It's the middle of June, so I've still got a lot left in the tank."

Norris on whether he thought he hit a home run in the fifth: "No. I squared it up. I don't hit a lot. Just the fact that I hit was pretty good."

Norris on challenge of beating a team four games in a row: "Any team, for that matter. Big league wins are hard to come by. You play six months for a reason, and some close ballgames here and there can really (change) your season. We're really trying to catch our stride right now. We feel we're in the thick of this thing in the AL East. We've got a tough series in Toronto. We have to get after it."

Norris on state of the team: "That's what we know we have in this clubhouse. We've got a lot of good ballplayers. We've got a lot of guys who've been around for a little bit and we have a good group in here, so we're excited and we want to get building on it. We want to play really good baseball. We're capable of that, so we've got a good group and a loose group, and if we win we're a happy group."

The Orioles signed six more of their picks from the 2015 First-Year Player Draft, raising their total to 23: center fielder Jaylen Ferguson (ninth round), second baseman Drew Turbin (14th), right fieler Mike Odenwaelder (16th), right-hander Juan Echevarria (21st), first baseman Steve Laurino (25th) and catcher Stuart Levy (27th.)