Wrapping up an 8-8 tie

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Orioles reassigned left-hander Jeff Beliveau and outfielder Alfredo Marte to minor league camp today, leaving 43 players in major league camp, including eight non-roster invitees.

Beliveau will pitch in his first game on Monday at the minor league complex. Marte was 7-for-25 with a home run and four RBIs.

"Good swing," manager Buck Showalter said of Marte. "You can see he's a professional hitter. A little better defensively than I was led to believe. That's why you make up your mind. Very engaged, professional. Really a nice presentation. Good attitude. I was impressed with him."

Showalter believes that Beliveau will be a contributor this season.

"It's been a long road for him, 11 months since surgery to get back on the mound tomorrow," Showalter said. "We sent him out today, but if that goes well, I'd like to get him over here for an inning if we can.

"He can help us. I think he can help us if he's healthy. Hopefully, by the first of May or maybe earlier he should if everything goes well and he doesn't have any setbacks."

Today's game ended in an 8-8 tie. Brian Matusz retired the side in order in the top of the ninth, his first appearance since March 2, and Joey Rickard singled and stole a base in the bottom of the inning after entering the game as a pinch-hitter.

Christian Walker struck out to strand Rickard and leave the Orioles with their fourth tie. They're 5-2-2 in their last nine games.

Matusz had a long layoff due to a strained muscle in his lower back.

"It's a start," Showalter said. "In his command you can tell he's feeling for it a little, but I think it'll be good to get this one under his belt and get a little better each time out.

"I saw him peeking at the gun a little bit. It should be better each time out."

Rickard, the Rule 5 pick, is batting .357 in 18 games.

"He's engaged every day," Showalter said. "He walks in here every day trying to make the club, trying to impress, and he's not going to leave anything on the table. He's going to do everything in his power to present somebody you want to keep. Those are always tough, but he's done his part. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who takes anything for granted. He was a guy who really came into his own last year for really the first time. Really put a lot of things together."

Julio Borbon stole two bases after coming over today from minor league camp.

"That's what Julio can do," Showalter said.

Left-hander T.J. McFarland was charged with four earned runs (five total) and six hits in two innings. Steven Souza Jr. hit a grand slam off him in the fifth.

"The first guy reached on an error and then you get a swinging bunt and then you get a duck flare to the outfield and he gets one pitch out and they blow it out to right field," Showalter said. "So that's kind of the life of a sinkerball pitcher in spring training. I thought Mac's velocity and arm strength and angle are good. He got a lot of ground balls. He was good."

Chris Tillman, in his second Grapefruit League start, allowed three runs and five hits in four innings, with one walk and five strikeouts. The Rays hit back-to-back home runs in the third.

"I thought Tilly was good," Showalter said. "What would the score have been in a night game under normal conditions, 3-2? 4-3? You know how much nicer the night games are when you play a regular baseball game."

I thought Tilly was good. He was up to 95 today. That's good.

Pedro Alvarez hit a grand slam and Mark Trumbo added a two-run shot, as the Orioles provided another reminder that their lineup should be potent.

"There were a couple home runs that would have been out of anywhere, anytime at least," Showalter said. "Our contact to damage ratio should be good. We're getting to know Mark a little bit, what his strengths are. You do see stretches of it.

"We haven't had everybody out there yet. We're close to it. Hopefully get Matt back. He had a good day today. That was encouraging."

Alvarez, Chris Davis, Hyun Soo Kim and Matt Wieters will play in Triple-A and Double-A games on Tuesday while the Orioles are in Fort Myers. They can get plenty of at-bats leading off innings.

Adam Jones and J.J. Hardy will make their first road trips Tuesday when the Orioles play the Twins.

The Orioles will have 10 more exhibition games in Florida after Monday's off-day. Is the club taking shape?

"Getting there, getting there," Showalter said. "You see how J.J.'s moving around, knock on wood. You see Jonathan (Schoop's) health, a guy we didn't have for half the year last year. J.J. was hurt most of the year. Adam's shoulder seems to be fine. We've had a lot of things that right now are starting to ...The last one is Matt. We'll see if we can get him ready for opening day.

"If you told me we had a chance to come out of here at full strength, I'd be real excited about that. I'm hoping that (Kevin Gausman's) shoulder manages well. If it pushes him back in the rotation a little bit instead of 1, 2 or 3 or 4 or 5, we can do that. March 27th is the day that we kind of have to fish or cut bait with the rotation. Looks like we'll probably leave one guy back here to pitch."

Gausman received a cortisone injection in his right shoulder today to alleviate the inflammation.

"I don't know what's going to happen in three days or when he picks a ball up again," Showalter said. "From all indications, we're hoping this puts him over the hump. It's something if it was in the middle of the season, it's something he'd probably pitch through, but we don't have to do that right now. We can hopefully resolve it and it won't be an issue.

"He almost took an injection last year, but he pitched through it. It wasn't anything structurally wrong. It was just tendinitis that a lot of people get. He was able to pitch through it. At this stage it didn't manage itself, so Richie (Bancells) and the doctors decided to just go ahead and see if we could get it taken care of."

Whether Gausman avoids the disabled list to open the season should be determined fairly soon, with Showalter determined to set the rotation next Sunday.

"That's why we had to do it (the injection) today," Showalter said. "If we waited two or three more days, we wouldn't (have the option)."