BALTIMORE -- The latest chapter in Austin Hays' checkered injury history looks to be nearing a conclusion.

The Orioles received good news with regard to their No. 4 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, after Hays returned to game action Friday. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said Hays started in center field and played six innings in an extended spring training game, his first since being sidelined with a sprained left thumb in late March.

“The thumb was good, and I guess he was really happy with how he felt,” Hyde said.

Hays broke the news himself, tweeting excitedly:

“The kid is BACK first rehab game went great today I’m on the come up.”

One of the Orioles’ top performers this spring, Hays suffered the injury sliding headfirst at the club’s Minor League facility in Florida shortly after he was optioned following a torrid showing in Grapefruit League play. The Orioles had hoped starting Hays in Triple-A would help his development after an injury-filled 2018 campaign.

The 23-year-old spent 20 games in the Majors in 2017 but hit just .242 with 12 home runs and a .703 OPS in 66 games at Double-A Bowie last season while playing through right shoulder and right ankle injuries. He underwent bone plate surgery on his ankle in September, then hit .351 with five home runs in 12 spring contests.

Now he returns to the field at a time when opportunity exists at the big league level. The Orioles have played without a true centerfielder since optioning Cedric Mullins to Triple-A Norfolk on April 22, instead slotting Joey Rickard into an emergency everyday role there. Hays represents the bulk of their organizational depth at the position.

Rickard has pulled off a few lunging plays since moving to center full time, but has had his share of issues there as well. Rickard watched a routine fly ball fall through his hands on the warning track for an error last Friday in Minnesota, then let several catchable balls fall for hits in front of him in that series’ Sunday finale. Wednesday in Chicago against the White Sox, his decision to throw to second base instead of the cutoff man allowed a third run to score on a Jose Abreu single, the first three-run single the Orioles have allowed since May 29, 1993.

Hyde has repeatedly stressed how his outfielders need to communicate better while noting some, like Rickard, are often playing out of position.

“Those are the kinds of plays we learn from and we grow from and I think you get better as an individual player by those things happening to you,” Hyde said. “All of a sudden, you know the next time that happens that I’ve got to understand the speed a little bit more and I’ve got to understand we’ve got to communicate a little bit more. I think a lot of our guys are still learning how to play team defense and up to this point, until the other day, I thought we’ve done a really good job.”

In the midst of a 1-for-24 (.050) slump offensively, Rickard sat Friday in place of Stevie Wilkerson, who made his first big league start at center.

Play ball

In visiting students at Baltimore’s Cherry Hill Elementary School on Friday afternoon, Orioles third baseman Rio Ruiz kicked off a weekend of community events tailored around Major League Baseball’s Play Ball initiative, which showcases efforts to grow youth baseball and softball.

The Orioles also donated 100 tickets for Friday’s game to girl’s baseball players, their coaches and families within the city’s Roland Park Little League, and will conduct a clinic for more than 300 inner city youth baseball and softball players at Roosevelt Park on Saturday. Mychal Givens and Richie Martin will represent the club at that event, which will target players from the Orioles’ Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program.