"By all accounts, the battle for what might be the final slot in the Orioles' starting rotation is a friendly one, especially this early in the exhibition season. Chris Tillman took his turn Monday afternoon at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers and took a few licks from a pretty good Boston Red Sox lineup, but he was upbeat about his performance and in a rush to get back to Sarasota to see Zach Britton take the mound Monday night in the MASN-televised night game against the New York Yankees at Ed Smith Stadium. The right-hander arrived in time to see Britton, the Orioles' top pitching prospect, throw three scoreless innings in front of a sellout crowd at Ed Smith Stadium. "I think that goes with the friendly competition," Tillman said after giving up three runs on four hits in the first inning of the Orioles' 6-5 loss to the Red Sox. "I want them to do good, and I want to do better. It helps everybody. It's going to help Britt, too." Britton got all the help he needed from the national anthem singer, who botched the lyrics and then started over, putting a smile on the face of the young left-hander. Britton acknowledged after his first spring outing against the Philadelphia Phillies that he was so nervous, he had no idea what going on. "I was excited to be out there, but I really wasn't nervous," Britton said Monday. "I was talking to the guys, and they were like, 'Hey, just go after the guys.' They were no different than the Phillies were. I have a lot of respect for what those guys have done on the field, but in between the lines, I was like: 'I don't care who you are, I'm going to go after you today. If you beat me, you beat me.'" Britton allowed two hits, walked one and struck out one. He started the game by retiring Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira on a total of 13 pitches, all on ground balls. Tillman, 22, said he "felt great" in the rocky first inning and was getting used to mechanical adjustments he has been working on with pitching coach Mark Connor. The Red Sox hit the ball solidly, but Tillman insisted that there were only two pitches in the inning that he would take back." Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-0308-20110307,0,2696120.story
