Impressions from Today's Games: Britton and Tillman

The Orioles had quite a mixed bag from their young starting pitchers on Monday, as they played two split squad games in one day.

Baltimore moved to 4-3-2 in exhibition baseball action as they played to a 0-0 tie to the New York Yankees in the night cap. I saw the game on MLB.tv last night and young Zach Britton looked good despite a few hiccups in his start.

He went three innings, gave up two hits, allowed one walk, and struck out one. Considering he faced part of the Yankees A-team lineup – Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixiera and Robinson Cano – Britton’s outing was quite impressive.

The bullpen – Kevin, Jeremy Accardo, David Riske and Clay Rapada – did their job and kept the Yankees off the board.

Baltimore’s offense was non-existent as they only got six hits; however, the story of the day was Britton’s outing and that should give him a lot of consideration for the 5^th starter spot. Then again, he may be slotted for the minors anyway just because of his experience level.

In the first split squad game, the Orioles lost to the Boston Red Sox, 6-5. Once again, Chris Tillman had a rough outing on Monday. From what I have seen so far, he needs to show some consistency in his outings and be more efficient, or he’ll be starting the year off in Triple-A. He gave up three runs in the first inning, but says his results didn’t match up his potential.

The Red Sox, who had many of their regulars in the lineup made Tillman pay in the opening frame until he calmed down to complete his outing.

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