Tommy Hunter

There was some real concern after Sunday's game in Toronto when right-handed reliever Tommy Hunter grabbed a hard comebacker with his pitching hand. But after preliminary X-rays, icing and some rest, Hunter described the injury as "an itty, bitty bruise" on Monday. He played catch at Nats Park before Monday's game and underwent another X-ray, which Orioles manager Buck Showalter said came out "clean. " "It's not too bad," Hunter said. "Just kind of feels like what a hitter would feel like after taking a ball off the ankle.

Orioles right-hander Jake Arrieta , who was called up from Triple-A Norfolk on Friday to provide bullpen depth, will start Monday night against the Tigers in Detroit in place of right-hander Jason Hammel . Hammel returned to the ballpark Sunday after two days away with a stomach virus, but manager Buck Showalter said he's uncertain if Hammel will be ready to pitch in Tuesday's game. "I've been waiting just for an opportunity, and I look forward to capitalizing on that and just contributing to continue help this team win," Arrieta said Sunday after the Orioles' 6-3 win over the Boston Red Sox. "We're playing good baseball.

Last season, the Orioles and Boston Red Sox played four extra-inning games against each other, including games of 17, 13 and 12 innings. The Orioles won all four, mainly because their stellar bullpen kept compiling scoreless innings until the bats could do their job. The one exception was the Orioles' 17-inning win at Fenway Park last May, when the Orioles needed two scoreless innings from Chris Davis on the mound. Thursday night, Davis - who has become a star this season with incredible run-production numbers - helped the Orioles' bullpen with his bat, hitting a bloop walk-off single with two outs in the bottom of the 13th inning, giving the Orioles a 5-4 win before an announced 20,098 at Camden Yards.

Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman might not be the biggest name in pitching in the major leagues right now, but his performance over the past two seasons ranks among the best. Since the beginning of the 2012 season, Tillman is 16-5 for a .762 winning percentage. That winning percentage is the fourth-best in all of baseball for players with at least 20 decisions. Tillman ranks behind only Cincinnati's Mat Latos (.833), Detroit's Max Scherzer (.781) and St. Louis's Lance Lynn (.765)

Not a lot of news coming out of pre-game interviews with the team and Orioles manager Buck Showalter. Some highlights: ** Tommy Hunter says he has an “itty, bitty bruise” on his pitching hand after barehanding a sharp comebacker yesterday. He's beating himself up for being “stupid,” but says his right hand feels OK. It wasn't really swollen, so the plan was for him to play catch today. Showalter said Hunter would get an X-Ray on the hand, but it seems like the Orioles dodged a bullet.

Orioles right-hander Tommy Hunter, the starter in Sunday's marathon in Boston, has been demoted to Triple-A Norfolk to make room for reliever Jason Berken. The Orioles needed bullpen help after the 17-inning victory against the Red Sox on Sunday. Hunter lasted just 4 1/3 innings and gave up eight hits, one walk and five runs. “Physically, I'm fine, but mentally …,” Hunter said moments after being told he was being demoted. Hunter is 2-1 with a 5.00 ERA in six starts. He has allowed nine home runs in 36 innings pitched.

If the Orioles' 4-2, 18-inning, five-hour and 44-minute victory over the Seattle Mariners wasn't weird enough, consider the plight of reliever Tommy Hunteron Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. He picked up the win. And some bird excrement in the process. We're not joking. Hunter was in the bullpen, about to enter in the 16th inning, when one of many seagulls at Safeco Field, deposited some droppings on Hunter's hat. “I was minding my own business, not doing anything. I thought it was [reliever Luis]

This is the third article in an occasional series about Maryland area athletes away from the game. Tommy Hunter still hears it a lot in the Orioles clubhouse. "Judo champ coming!" someone will sing out. "Here comes Judo Boy!" another player will say. "It definitely gets old," the veteran right-hander says with a weary smile. "I've heard it since I've been playing baseball. . . I roll with it. " Sure, as a two-time Junior Olympics gold medalist in judo, the 6-foot-3, 260-pound Hunter could get one of his wise-guy teammates in a wicked armbar or chokehold and end the needling in a heartbeat.

The Orioles have dropped the first two games of their four-game series against the Twins here in Minnesota, and now the team will turn to right-hander Tommy Hunter to end the slide. Hunter has been recalled from Triple-A Norfolk, the team announced today. The Orioles will need to send someone down in a corresponding move yet to be announced. Hunter was 3-4 with a 6.11 ERA in 15 games (13 starts) with the Orioles this season. He's been sent to Norfolk twice before and is 2-1 with a 4.66 ERA there in three Triple-A starts.

SARASOTA, Fla. -  Orioles pitchers Jason Hammel and Tommy Hunter threw in separate minor league games Friday at Twin Lakes Park to get their work in, but the free-swinging Tampa Bay Rays Class-A hitters they faced didn't help. With the Orioles facing mostly American League East opponents and the Minnesota Twins - their first opponent in the regular season, Orioles manager Buck Showalter has sent some of his starting pitchers to the team's minor league complex to pitch so they won't get overexposed.

Last season, the Orioles and Boston Red Sox played four extra-inning games against each other, including games of 17, 13 and 12 innings. The Orioles won all four, mainly because their stellar bullpen kept compiling scoreless innings until the bats could do their job. The one exception was the Orioles' 17-inning win at Fenway Park last May, when the Orioles needed two scoreless innings from Chris Davis on the mound. Thursday night, Davis - who has become a star this season with incredible run-production numbers - helped the Orioles' bullpen with his bat, hitting a bloop walk-off single with two outs in the bottom of the 13th inning, giving the Orioles a 5-4 win before an announced 20,098 at Camden Yards.

The Orioles activated right-hander Pedro Strop off the disabled list before Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, but how Strop will be used in the club's constantly morphing bullpen remains to be seen. Strop allowed multiple runs in his last two outings and owned a 6.11 ERA before going on the DL with a strained lower back. Control has been a struggle for him throughout the season - he has 14 walks and 17 strikeouts over 17 2/3 innings. In Strop's absence, right-hander Tommy Hunter has received an expanded late-inning role.

Each Wednesday, blogger Matt Vensel will highlight five statistics that really mean something for the Orioles. 72 -- number of doubles Manny Machado is on pace to hit in 2013. Somewhat surprisingly, the 20-year-old third baseman did not have a double in Tuesday night's 9-3 loss to the Washington Nationals. But Machado had hit five doubles in the five previous games, raising his season total to a league-leading 23 doubles, four more than Boston's Mike Napoli. With 23 doubles in 52 games, Machado is on pace to hit 72 over a 162-game season, which would break Earl Webb's all-time record of 67 doubles in a single season.

Some of you are wondering why manager Buck Showalter stuck with closer Jim Johnson in the ninth inning of the Orioles' 6-5 loss to Toronto on Sunday afternoon. The bottom line it that right now this Orioles bullpen is spent. This game was Johnson's to close or lose, and I think 10 times out of 10, Showalter will like his odds with Johnson against Toronto's No. 9 hitter Munenori Kawasaki. I've heard Showalter say it many times: He won't compromise the health of the bullpen. He realizes that this Orioles team will go as far as its bullpen will take it, and there's no way he will put his relievers - as he puts it - “in harm's way.” “Buck doesn't ever put you in a situation where you're overtaxed,” right-hander Tommy Hunter said.

There was some real concern after Sunday's game in Toronto when right-handed reliever Tommy Hunter grabbed a hard comebacker with his pitching hand. But after preliminary X-rays, icing and some rest, Hunter described the injury as "an itty, bitty bruise" on Monday. He played catch at Nats Park before Monday's game and underwent another X-ray, which Orioles manager Buck Showalter said came out "clean. " "It's not too bad," Hunter said. "Just kind of feels like what a hitter would feel like after taking a ball off the ankle.

Not a lot of news coming out of pre-game interviews with the team and Orioles manager Buck Showalter. Some highlights: ** Tommy Hunter says he has an “itty, bitty bruise” on his pitching hand after barehanding a sharp comebacker yesterday. He's beating himself up for being “stupid,” but says his right hand feels OK. It wasn't really swollen, so the plan was for him to play catch today. Showalter said Hunter would get an X-Ray on the hand, but it seems like the Orioles dodged a bullet.

Even though he didn't get the win or even a quality start Sunday, pitcher Tommy Hunter kept the Orioles in the game en route to a 5-3 win over Kansas City. He had a high pitch count early, but finished out the 5th inning - and his start - at 97 pitches, exiting with the score tied at 3. "Tommy bent but didn't break," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. "It wasn't one of his sharper outings, but he gave us a chance to win, didn't let it get away from him. " When Hunter has struggled this season, it has mostly stemmed from the home run ball.

Now that the Orioles' bullpen has returned to the conventional seven-reliever setup, roles will be magnified for each reliever. That goes for right-hander Tommy Hunter, who allowed back-to-back homers in the sixth inning of Wednesday's game against the Red Sox before the Orioles rallied in a five-run ninth for an 8-5 win at Fenway Park. Hunter, who was the first Orioles pitcher to take the mound after a 43-minute rain delay, actually started the inning strong by striking out the first two batters, including outlasting third baseman Will Middlebrooks on an 11-pitch at bat. But after striking out Middlebrooks, Daniel Nava and Jarrod Saltalamacchia both homered on 96-mph fastballs.

OK, so the Orioles go into this afternoon's series finale in Toronto having won four of their last five games and you might be asking yourself -- how is that possible? Over the past three games here in Toronto, no Orioles starter has gone more than five innings. The bullpen's ERA is 9.00 in that span.   Orioles manager Buck Showalter didn't want to use Darren O'Day in the eighth inning Saturday but he was forced to bring him in to hold a one-run lead. Steve Johnson, who arrived in Toronto at 8:30 a.m. after barely sleeping, was charged with two runs over 2 2/3 relief innings, but struck out five of the 12 batters he faced.

TORONTO - It's become a popular question this year, whether Orioles third baseman Manny Machado belongs in the same class as the Angels' Mike Trout and the Nationals' Bryce Harper. That question was presented on MLB Network before Friday's game in Toronto, and at the time, a few Orioles players -- Machado among them -- were watching in the visiting clubhouse of the Rogers Centre. “Forget that,” reliever Tommy Hunter said jokingly as he turned to Machado. “I'm taking either one of the other two guys.” If there is a gap, Machado continues to close it -- and he's doing it with fine all-around performances on the road, the latest one coming in Friday's 10-6 win over the Blue Jays . Machado became the second player ever under the age of 21 to compile five straight road games with three or more hits and the first since 1907.