Wieters on facing Gonzalez and starting seven straight games

CHICAGO - Over the years, the Orioles' Matt Wieters has caught many of Miguel Gonzalez's starts. Tonight, he'll be in the batter's box trying to get a hit off his former teammate when the Orioles begin this three-game series with the Chicago White Sox.

In the visiting clubhouse today, Wieters talked about his affection for the right-hander, and it sounded like he meant more as a person and teammate than a pitcher.

"He was fun to work with as a pitcher, but he was a great teammate," Wieters said. "He really cared for everybody in this clubhouse. You know that is one thing we've built this clubhouse on - being able to care for the guy next to you. But Miggy was probably at the top of the class as caring that his teammate did well more than he even cared how he did himself. Which speaks a lot to him as a person. We are going to try and get a win tonight, but that is not to change my opinion on that guy on the mound over there."

After he had pitched to an ERA of 9.78 in six games in spring training, the Orioles released Gonzalez. He went 39-33 with an ERA of 3.82 for the Orioles from 2012-2015. It was hard to see him go.

"He was a team favorite," Wieters said. "A guy that was a quiet leader. He was a fun teammate to have and the hard part of this game is saying goodbye to good friends. But you never know where the road might lead, but I wish him all the best. Just hope we can give up one less than he does tonight."

Tonight, Wieters will start behind the plate for the seventh game in a row. It is his longest stretch of consecutive starts since September of 2013.

"We had the off-day in between," Wieters said. "Before I got hit in New York, I really felt like we (were) trending back toward getting back to kind of taking the handcuffs off. That slowed me down a bit, but I feel good now."

We have not heard of any physical issue with Caleb Joseph and a few days ago manager Buck Showalter said there was not any. But Wieters sees benefits in starting so many consecutive games.

"You get a little bit of rhythm," he said. "And, more importantly, you get to come to the park knowing you are in the lineup every day. Just from going back to before the surgery, I like the preparation part of knowing you are starting the game. It is more to my mentality than to start getting loose in the fifth and figure out when you are going in."