Wieters Set To Make Season Debut In Cleveland
(AP) -- With their latest losing streak now in the past, the Baltimore Orioles hope the return of Matt Wieters from Tommy John surgery will help begin a run in a positive direction.
The three-time All-Star will see his first major league action in more than a year Friday night in the opener of a road series with the Cleveland Indians.
Catching on an every-other-day basis for the time being, Wieters will be in the lineup for the first time since May 10 of last season. He was hitting .308 with five homers and 18 RBIs before his 2014 season was cut short after 26 games.
"It will be a work in progress," manager Buck Showalter said.
Wieters went 5 for 16 in five minor league games, hitting a home run for Triple-A Norfolk on Wednesday.
Adam Jones hit a tiebreaking solo homer - his first in 84 at-bats - in the eighth inning to help Baltimore (24-29) snap a five-game slide with Thursday's 3-2 victory at Houston.
"I don't talk about streaks and slumps ... what's it mean tomorrow?" Showalter told MLB's official website. "We will take it."
Jones had three of the eight hits recorded by the Orioles, who collectively continue to struggle while totaling 17 runs and batting .200 in the last seven games.
"We haven't been playing as well as we can," reliever Darren O'Day said. "We know that we're better than the team that's been out there."
Chris Tillman (2-7, 5.94 ERA) believes he can pitch much better than he's shown while going 0-6 with a 6.10 ERA in his last seven starts.
One of his better efforts during that stretch came May 26 when he allowed two runs in seven innings of a 4-1 loss to Houston. However, the right-hander followed by yielding six runs, nine hits and three walks over 4 2-3 innings of Sunday's 9-5 defeat to Tampa Bay.
Despite that rough outing, both Tillman and Showalter still feel it's a matter of time before the 27-year-old breaks out of his funk and returns to the form that won him 29 games the past two seasons.
"I've had my ups and downs," said Tillman, whose 28 walks rank among the most in the majors. "I feel like we are headed in the right direction. I saw a lot of positives (Sunday). I think the negatives kind of overwhelm it, but I think we are getting somewhere. I just got to make the last big step and we will be all right."
He's 2-2 with a 5.19 ERA in five starts against the Indians (26-27), but last faced them in 2013.
Jason Kipnis is 2 for 6 with a double and a home run versus Tillman.
After leading the majors with a .429 average and 51 hits in May, Kipnis went 2 for 12 while his club took two of three at Kansas City to open this month. One of those hits came Thursday, as the Indians won for the 12th time in 16 games, 6-2 in a rain-shortened contest against the Royals.
A victory in the series opener would put the Indians at .500 for the first time since they were 2-2.
Trying to further secure the fifth spot in Cleveland's rotation, Shaun Marcum (2-0, 5.49) looks to win his first three decisions for the first time after he allowed a two-run homer over 5 1-3 innings in Saturday's 4-3 victory at Seattle.
"To be able to go out there and give these guys a chance to score some runs, and give us a chance to win, is the most important thing," said Marcum, who has allowed eight of his 12 runs this season on six homers. "Hopefully I can go out and continue to do that."
The right-hander hasn't faced the Orioles since 2010.
Jones hasn't seen Marcum since that season, but is batting .381 (8 for 21) with a triple and a home run against him.
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