Arrieta Makes His Spring Debut, Reimold; O's and Rays Play to a Tie

This afternoon in Grapefruit League action, the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay rays played to a 3-3 tie. Baltimore’s Jake Arrieta made his spring debut on the mound and threw two scoreless innings in which he did not allow a hit.

Even though Arrieta won 10 games last year, he ended up needing surgery (to remove bone spurs in his elbow) last summer and missed two plus months of the 2011 season.

However, on Friday, Arrieta, according to various reports, threw hard – as high as 97 miles per hour recorded; in addition, he seemed not to show any ill effects from his surgical procedure and rehab.

For Arrieta, it is so far, so good; therefore, it is hard to gauge progress after only one spring training game. Then again, it is good for us fans to know that he is healthy.

Pitchers Pat Neshek, Chris George, Jon Link and Steve Johnson threw scoreless innings in their outing today; however, Brad Bergesen struggled, giving up two runs and Oliver Drake went four innings, but gave up a game-tying homer to Tampa Bay’s Brad Coon during the eighth inning.

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