Wrapping up a 10-4 loss

SARASOTA, Fla. - The level of concern emanating from manager Brandon Hyde today following reliever Mychal Givens' second spring appearance didn't register. Nothing above a zero. The needle didn't move.

Givens again lasted only two-thirds of an inning and was charged with five runs and four hits. He surrendered a leadoff home run to J.B. Shuck in the fourth and a three-run shot to Josh Bell with two outs in the Orioles' 10-4 loss to the Pirates at Ed Smith Stadium.

A spring ERA of 40.50 was met with a shrug from Hyde as he stood outside the baseball operations facility.

"I thought he threw more off-speed today, which was a good thing," Hyde said after the Orioles fell to 6-4-2. "I still think he's getting a feel. It's early spring training, still getting a feel for his pitches. Just mislocated a few times and they hurt him.

"He's trying to go in to Bell there and just left it in the middle, and he hit a home run to center field. I think he's working on his secondary stuff and his fastball command's not there yet."

Givens has appeared in only two Grapefruit League games, but Hyde defended the light workload by pointing out that the right-hander also has thrown outside of the stadium.

"He hasn't been slow-played in the fact that he's been pitching on the back fields," Hyde said. "I feel like his usage is going to ramp up as we go along. We sat down with him and kind of told him what our thoughts are, collaborated with him on when he's going to throw.

"I just think it's still really early. He doesn't have the feel that he wants to yet, so he's in early spring training form right now."

Josh Lucas was charged with three runs in the ninth - Jay Flaa let an inherited runner score - to push the Pirates' total to 10 and put the game out of reach. Carlos Pérez and Jack Reinheimer hit solo home runs in the seventh to make it interesting - as far as spring training games are concerned.

Alex Cobb allowed one run and two hits in three innings and increased his pitch count from 23 to 43 in his second outing. His breaking ball was sharper and he appeared more comfortable than in his debut, which lasted only two-thirds of an inning.

"I thought Cobb, really good curveballs today," Hyde said. "I felt like he had more life on his fastball than his last time out. Threw a bunch of really good curveballs. That was his go-to pitch today and it was effective. That was really positive.

"Threw the change-split that he has, threw a couple good ones, also. I thought it was a better outing than last time, for sure. He had better stuff."

Karns retired the side in order in the fourth and registered a strikeout in his return from a brief shutdown period.

"Got through the inning. Thought his stuff was OK, but we're going to ramp him up, probably, see how he comes off tomorrow, see how he feels tomorrow," Hyde said.

"I don't think he had his best fastball. I think he'd admit to that. So we'll see how he comes back tomorrow."

Evan Phillips allowed a hit and struck out a batter in a scoreless sixth. Josh Rogers covered the next two innings and served up Kevin Kramer's leadoff homer in the seventh.