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Volquez hit hard in loss to Orioles

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SARASOTA, Fla. – Chris Davis had a long home run and three RBI, J.J. Hardy hit a three-run shot and Wei-Yin Chen pitched three shutout innings to help the Baltimore Orioles beat a Pittsburgh Pirates split squad 9-2 Sunday.

Davis has two homers and seven RBI this spring for the Orioles, who improved to 8-2.

Baltimore scored 20 runs in two games Saturday against Boston and is averaging nearly eight runs per game.

“I have not looked at a stat sheet this spring – and won’t. I don’t look at them,” manager Buck Showalter said.

If Showalter looked, he’d see Davis is hitting .533, Hardy .400 and right fielder Nick Markakis, who had two hits, is at .633.

“I trust my eyes,” Showalter said. “I’m OK with them playing real well.”

Matt Wieters tried to downplay the Orioles’ offensive performance.

“It’s nice to swing the bat well at any time. It’s also nice to pitch well,” he said.

In his second Grapefruit League start, Chen gave up one hit and struck out two.

Edinson Volquez started for the Pirates and gave up six runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings. In two starts, Volquez has allowed nine runs in five innings.

Andrew McCutchen and Tony Sanchez homered for Pittsburgh.

Volquez left without talking to reporters. Sanchez, his catcher, said he could tell Volquez wasn’t having a good day.

“Unfortunately, that was the first time I’ve ever caught him, and him and I weren’t on the same page,” Sanchez said.

“I could see he was uncomfortable throwing to me and it kind of affected him. I take that to heart. I did not feel good back there because I knew he wasn’t really in sync. There was a lot of shakes, a lot of time in between pitches. I knew he wasn’t in the rhythm that he wanted to be in.”

Clay Buchholz pitched three hitless innings, Mike Carp hit a long homer and the Boston Red Sox beat the Pittsburgh Pirates’ other split squad 4-1 in Bradenton, Fla.

Buchholz faced nine batters and got five outs on grounders. He walked one and struck out one.

Jackie Bradley Jr., trying to win the starting job in center field, gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead in the second by grounding a two-run single into right field.

In the third, Carp hit his second home run of the spring onto the boardwalk in right-center.

Pirates right-hander Charlie Morton worked the first three innings and allowed three runs (one earned) on five hits.

Pittsburgh was hitless until the sixth, when Gregory Polanco led off with an infield single.

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