By Eduardo A. Encina The Baltimore Sun Baltimore Sun

1:11 p.m. AKDT, March 18, 2012
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.—
Orioles left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada made his first major league Grapefruit League appearance, striking out three batters in two relief innings in a 2-2, 10-inning tie with the Braves at Champion Stadium at the ESPN Wide World of Sports.

After entering the game in the sixth inning, Wada struck out Braves second baseman Martin Prado swinging on three pitches, fooling Prado with his change-up. He also struck out Dan Uggla looking to end the inning.

“It being the first official spring training game for me, of course I was very glad to be ready to start,” Wada said through interpreter Danny McLeith. “The fact that I got through everything with my elbow, I’m very glad. To say I felt great, I know I have a lot of ways to go.”

At one point in his first inning of work, Wada – known more for his location than his velocity – threw one fastball that was clocked at 94 on the stadium radar gun to Braves catcher Brian McCann.

“He’s leaving room for improvement,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said of Wada, whose fastball was mostly between 88 and 90. “I could tell he was a little pumped up. I was like ‘Oh, that was a little more than I was expecting.’”

The Braves scored a run off Wada in the seventh after Joey Terdoslavich’s leadoff double to the left-center-field gap. He moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout.

Right-hander Jason Hammel continued a promising spring, going 4 2/3 innings of four-hit ball, yielding one run and striking out five.

The Orioles (5-7-4) rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the eighth inning, paced by top position prospect Manny Machado’s RBI single, which scored L.J. Hoes, who led off the inning with a ground-rule double. Machado later scored on a fielding error by Jordan Parraz.

Orioles designated hitter Nick Johnson, a non-roster invitee making a major push for a roster spot this spring, reached base on all three of his at-bats, going 2-for-2 with a double and a walk.