ORIOLES’ DAVIS HITS THIRD HR OF SPRING

Don’t tell Chris Davis that home runs in the Grapefruit League don’t count.

Coming off a couple of seasons so poor that he considered retirement, the Baltimore Orioles slugger kept up his spring power surge with a three-run homer against Miami on Saturday in Sarasota, Fla., his third longball in four games.

“I’ll take them in exhibition, spring training, winter ball, whenever,” Davis said. “Especially after the way the last two years have gone. I’ve got plenty of baseball left to give.”

Davis turns 34 next month and is in the middle of a $161 million, seven-year deal. He got that contract after twice leading the majors in home runs.

In 2018, Davis hit only .168 with 16 home runs and 49 RBIS, striking out 192 times in 128 games. Last season didn’t go much better when he batted .179 with 12 homers and 36 RBIS in 105 games.

Davis also became known for a mighty slump — he began the season hitless in his first 33 at-bats, extending an overall 0-for-54 skid.

“It’s nice to see some results,” Davis said. “I would like to get off to a good start just for peace of mind, especially after struggling the past couple years.”

Ailing Judge

Yankees star Aaron Judge has undergone an MRI and further tests as the team tries to determine the cause of his ailing right shoulder.

Manager Aaron Boone said Judge “was not right” while taking batting practice in an indoor cage Friday.

“We’re in a holding pattern with it, just trying to figure out what exactly is going on,” Boone said Saturday. “We’re trying to get our arms around if we can pinpoint something that’s causing some of the discomfort. At this point we haven’t found that.”

Judge was shut down from hitting a week before spring training after experiencing soreness in the shoulder. The slugging right field had been scheduled to take batting practice on the field for the first time since being shelved this weekend.

Boone feels Judge could be ready for the start of the season if he’s able to play in games over the final 10 days or so at spring training.

“First things first is getting him to that point and I don’t know when that is,” Boone said. “I’m a little frustrated for him.”

Notable

Yu Darvish’s spring training debut began exactly the way he predicted. First pitch, home run. Orlando Arcia connected right away, launching a drive over the fence in leftcenter field, prompting the Chicago Cubs right-hander to rapidly snap his glove open and closed, imploring the plate umpire to give him another ball.

“I knew that he was going to swing, and also this is first game, so I want to throw a fastball, a get-me-over fastball for a strike,” Darvish said. “So I was thinking last night if Arcia is the leading (off ), he’s going to hit the homer. So it happened.”

Darvish wound up going two innings against Milwaukee, allowing only one more hit while striking out three. He touched 98 mph with his fastball and mixed in five other pitches.

“I tried to throw 100; I tried to hit 100, but only 98,” Darvish said, smiling.

• The U.S. may get some better players for its second attempt to qualify for the Olympic baseball tournament.

Major League Baseball and the players’ association agreed to make players not likely to be on 26-man major league rosters available for the Americas qualifying tournament, to be played in Arizona from March 22-26.

When the U.S. stumbled in its first chance to qualify, at the Premier12 tournament in November, only players not on 40-man big-league rosters were eligible for selection and the 28 Americans at the Premier12 combined for a career 2.1 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball Reference.