Pleased with tempo, Pelfrey seeks strikes

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Mike Pelfrey couldn't get through the third inning of an 11-5 loss against the Orioles on Wednesday, and he came away dissatisfied with his pitch location.

Pelfrey, who threw two scoreless innings Friday against the Red Sox in his first outing, gave up two runs on three hits over 2 1/3 innings against the Orioles. He threw 47 pitches, with 31 going for strikes, lamenting the lack of quality strikes thrown.

"I was kind of all over the place," Pelfrey said. "But it's still early. And physically, I felt good."

Pelfrey, though, said he was continuing to work on his tempo while on the mound and that he believed it would be much better than last season.

He got through the first two innings Wednesday with relative ease but struggled in the third, getting chased on a one-out RBI double from Quintin Berry, who later scored on an RBI single from Xavier Paul with reliever Jared Burton on the mound.

"I thought it was better," Pelfrey said about his pace. "I'm conscious of it, just not wanting to walk around the mound and stuff. I'm conscious of it, and I'm trying to be better. But the biggest thing tonight was I didn't throw enough strikes."

Pelfrey fared better than left-hander Scott Diamond, who was hurt by a throwing error from Jorge Polanco in the sixth inning, and ended up giving up five runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks over two innings. Diamond is competing for the fifth spot in the rotation along with Vance Worley, Samuel Deduno and Kyle Gibson.