Koji Uehara

Before last night's loss to the Yankees, Buck Showalter had made all the right moves when managing the Orioles bullpen. He was playing the matchups, using his top relievers in key situations before the ninth inning and going with his gut in save situations. But last night, Showalter's moves ended up looking like the wrong ones because Kevin Gregg blew a save opportunity in the ninth inning and Michael Gonzalez allowed the game-winning run in the tenth. The 6-5 loss was the Orioles' fourth straight.

One Orioles starting pitcher simply was tuning up for Opening Night, while another was trying to make the club for the final time this spring. The pitching lines weren't impressive and the game results were mixed Sunday as the Orioles' reserves lost, 9-5, to the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin and the starters beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3, before an announced sellout crowd of 8,495 at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota. Jeremy Guthrie, who was making his final start of the spring before pitching the regular season opener versus the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night, allowed four runs on 12 hits in five innings against a Blue Jays lineup that featured all nine regulars in Dunedin.

Each morning, Monday through Friday, I'll hook you up with some reading material to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday -- that way I'll have an excuse to do the same at the start of mine. Running it back: With the help of a pair of home runs from catcher Jake Fox , the Orioles smacked around the Pirates, 13-3, on Thursday. Matt Wieters went 4-for-5 in the win . ... Coach Fang Mitchell rejected an offer to remain at Coppin State , saying the contract was "unacceptable.

On a day when they performed terribly on the field, the Orioles got much-needed positive news on the injury front as the imaging results on Brian Roberts and Justin Duchscherer turned up no new concerns and Derrek Lee and Koji Uehara moved closer to seeing game action. Still, there is no timetable on any of the four, and they are running out of time with Opening Night on April 1. Orioles manager Buck Showalter described Duchscherer's chances of making the Opening Day rotation as being "in peril" and said Roberts' opening the season with the club remains a "possibility," a softening of the stance team officials have taken on the second baseman for much of the spring.

The Orioles' spring training MASH unit had a busy day Monday. Second baseman Brian Roberts had an MRI on his back in the afternoon. He will meet with his specialist at 9 a.m. Tuesday to go over the results. It's the same doctor who worked with Roberts in 2010. Right-handed pitcher Justin Duchscherer had an MRA on his left hip late Monday afternoon. He visited a chiropractor in the morning. An MRA is similar to a MRI, except dye is injected into the ailing joint. It provides a more specific readout — if the dye spills out, it is an indication of damage.

Orioles right-hander Koji Uehara said he has e-mailed with his extended family members in Japan and believes they are all fine after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the country's Eastern coast Friday. "This morning, I heard about the news," Uehara said through interpreter Jiwon Bang . "The families are safe; some of the friends I can't get a hold of at this moment. I couldn't use phones, but e-mail I can use. " Uehara's wife and son are in Baltimore, but the rest of his family resides in or around Tokyo.

The question didn't even have time to slide safely into Buck Showalter's consciousness when the Orioles manager politely interrupted and motioned with his hands to indicate that the topic was premature. "So far, so good," Showalter said when asked about the Orioles' revamped bullpen. "It would be nice to break camp with all the pieces. That would be something that we didn't have last year. " The early returns on the Orioles' offseason bullpen makeover have been positive. Kevin Gregg, signed to a two-year, $10 million deal in January, has thrown four scoreless innings.

Questions about the health of several of the Orioles' top players dominated conversation at Ed Smith Stadium Thursday as the club learned that first baseman Derrek Lee and starter Justin Duchscherer could get game action soon, while pitchers Brian Matusz and Koji Uehara could be sidelined for a little while. Uehara, who is expected to battle newly acquired Kevin Gregg for the closer role this spring, got a cortisone shot in his right elbow after experiencing what he described as "arm fatigue" in recent days.