While Thursday's off-day might have come at the perfect time for the Orioles, the Royals might be better off without it.

Baltimore is coming off a stretch of 20 games in 20 days, which ended with a loss to the Red Sox on Wednesday. The gauntlet took a toll on the injury-ravaged Orioles, who have eight players on the disabled list, and the club rested regulars J.J. Hardy and Matt Wieters on Wednesday so the two could heal their nicks and scrapes.

"An off-day is welcome to everybody to get a little rest and to be ready to go when we come back Friday," Wieters said. "It's nice to get a day off, more than anything just to get the body rested."

bviously, I want to be getting deeper into ballgames, but the knee is just not cooperating right now," Hammel said. "I'm doing everything we can between starts to build strength and get to those sixth, seventh, eighth innings."