Young succeeding as second hitter (we're tied)

Orioles starter Chris Tillman has thrown 38 pitches tonight in two scoreless innings, stranding three runners along the way.

The first two Twins reached in the first before Tillman struck out Joe Mauer on a 91 mph fastball and retired Kennys Vargas on a grounder and Oswaldo Arcia on a fly ball.

Kurt Suzuki doubled with one out in the second, but Tillman fanned Eduardo Escobar and Jordan Schafer.

Tillman had allowed 19 runs in first inning this season and 17 in the second. He got away clean tonight.

Earlier today, I asked manager Buck Showalter whether he expected Delmon Young to take a different approach to hitting while placed in the second spot in the order.

I was joking. Young isn't going to start slapping the ball to the right side or laying down bunts. He freely admits that he's trying to hit home runs.

Showalter agreed that Young wouldn't change his approach. "And we wouldn't want him to," he added.

Young may be the popular choice to bat second while Steve Pearce is day-to-day with a strained right abdominal muscle. Not a prototypical No. 2 hitter, but Nick Markakis isn't your typical leadoff hitter. Let's tear off the labels.

Young singled off Twins starter Kyle Gibson in the bottom of the first inning and is 17-for-41 (.415) with three doubles, three home runs and eight RBIs in 10 games in the second slot.

Why mess with a good thing?

Young also is batting .321 against right-handers, compared to his .270 average against lefties.

Nice minor league signing in January.

I may as well pass along quotes from Pearce about the strained abdominal muscle heard 'round the world.

"It's day-to-day. The MRI revealed no tears, so it's something that we'll let it rest for a little bit," he said.

"Very relieved, but it's just what I thought. Just wanted to take care of it before it got out of hand.

"I think right now we're just working on day-to-day. Hopefully, in the next couple of days it will feel better and I can get back to working on baseball activities."

The discomfort doesn't surface until Pearce swings a bat.

"As far as doing just regular things, I don't really feel it. I only feel it on the baseball field, so that's another good sign," he said.

"Just a light strain, a mild strain. But I think we got out in front of this where it will be easy to treat and be able to take it day-by-day.

"Even talking with the trainers, the trainers thought that this was exactly what they thought was going on, so we're in high hopes that it's not that bad and we can get out there in the next couple of days."

Pearce is shut down except for his trips to the trainer's room.

"Today, we're just going to treat it and rest it," he said. "I think I'm off baseball activities for the next couple of days."

Not this guy. I'm covering every game the rest of the way. If I strain my abdomen, it's because I crammed too much into my carry-on bag.

Update: Jimmy Paredes picked up his first extra-base hit since May 21, 2013, a ground-rule double in the fourth that scored Chris Davis and gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead.

Davis walked, J.J. Hardy singled and Paredes followed with a ball that sailed over center fielder Danny Santana's head and hopped over the fence.

The Orioles had runners on second and third with no outs, but they couldn't pad the lead.

Chris Tillman has stranded seven Twins in four innings. Minnesota is 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Update II: Tillman finally fell off the tightrope in the fifth, with Oswaldo Arcia's sacrifice fly scoring Joe Mauer to tie the game 1-1.

Mauer walked with one out and Kennys Vargas singled to bring up Arcia.

Tillman has thrown 100 pitches in five innings and Tommy Hunter is warming. That should be it. Tillman has allowed one run and six hits, walked three and struck out six.