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Ubaldo Jimenez, in quietly strong spring, is the Orioles' dark-horse Opening Day starter candidate

Sunday always loomed as the day when Orioles manager Buck Showalter knew he’d have to get his starting rotation in order for the April 4 Opening Day game against the Minnesota Twins and the ensuing week of pitching.

While many will rightly assume that the honor of starting the Orioles’ opener will go to the man who has done it the past two years, Chris Tillman, a second candidate has emerged this spring for whom such a distinction would have been unthinkable at this time last year: right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez.