Left-hander Tony Saunders pitched in a competitive situation Wednesday for the first time in four years, something he thought would never happen.

“I thought that the next time I pitched would be in an old-timers game,” said Saunders after he threw nine pitches to get a strikeout and double play in one inning of Baltimore’s intra-squad game. “When I retired, I wouldn’t have anticipated this in my wildest dreams.”

Saunders, the Devil Rays’ first pick in the 1998 expansion draft, snapped the humerus bone in his left arm on May 26, 1999, pitching for Tampa Bay in a game at Texas. He broke it a second time, 15 months later, in a game for Class A St. Petersburg. He retired at 26 and didn’t expect to play again.

“I had no butterflies because I’m not competing for a job,” said Saunders, who needs to re-establish himself by pitching in the minors. “I don’t know how hard I threw, but I threw hard enough to get them out. I’m concentrating on location, and I was able to put about half of the pitches where I wanted them, so I still have a way to go.”

When he was finished, pitching coach Ray Miller offered a handshake and said, “Welcome back.”

“It’s special,” manager Lee Mazzilli said. “When someone goes through that, you pull for guys like that. He knows how to pitch. He has an idea of what he’s doing.”

Saunders, who won a World Series ring with the Marlins in 1997, will know more today about well his arm has progressed. “I look at this as an extension of the first rehabilitation,” Saunders said. “I didn’t give the bone time to heal then, but it is healed now. I want guys to hit the ball and put it in play. It means that I throw less pitches, and that is good.”

Around camp

Brian Roberts and Napoleon Calzado each doubled in runs in the 1-1 intrasquad game. Center fielder Luis Matos threw two runners out at the plate. Right-handed pitcher John Maine hit Melvin Mora in the helmet, and Mora left the game as a precaution. Lefty Matt Riley will start against the Marlins today, with James Baldwin, Hayden Penn, Jay Witasick and Steve Kline scheduled to pitch.