There’s nothing that matters so much in spring training as having everyone either stay healthy or get healthy. Monday afternoon’s otherwise-meaningless spring training game tie between the Orioles and the Red Sox had one of these key markers in Birdland. The game marked Félix Bautista’s first time in any kind of game action since his 2023 Tommy John surgery.
Bautista came in for the fifth inning after each of Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano pitched two scoreless innings. Yes, the fact that Bautista went three-up, three-down means less since he was facing the bottom of a road spring scrub lineup, but still: He got all three batters out, looked good doing it, and it seemed like his arm was fine.