No Offense, No Britton Was the Right Non-Move

If there is one personality trait Orioles manager Buck Showalter is known for it’s his loyalty to his players.

He’s never going to throw them under the bus to the media.

If there’s a major league manager who understands the media, it’s Buck Showalter. He was a featured analyst for ESPN for several years before landing in Baltimore in 2010. TV cameras and sound bites into microphones do not have an expiration date.

He certainly was not going to call out his overmatched hitters during his postgame press conference after the Blue Jays’ dramatic 5-2, 11-inning victory in Toronto on Tuesday night.

As soon as he sat down to talk to reporters, he was blitzed with several questions about his decision not to insert ace closer Zach Britton into the game: “Was he hurt?” “Was he available?” “Why not?”

Showalter answered every question without really answering anything: “The situation didn’t call for it,” he said in several different ways, while never explaining his explanation. “It didn’t work out.”

The situation was this: The Orioles’ hitters gave him no reason to bring in the prized reliever on the road, despite the “all hands on deck,” winner-take-all stakes on hand.

After the sixth inning, the Orioles managed to get one runner on base — a Chris Davis walk — and they went down in order in each of the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th innings.

No hits among 16 batters isn’t going to give any manager the confidence to bring in a reliever and risk losing him as an option after another 1-2-3 inning.

Sure, the Blue Jays brought in their closer Roberto Osuna in the ninth inning, but that was different. The Blue Jays, though being shut out for five straight innings, still had plenty of threats to score. Hard-hit grounders were turned into two inning-ending double plays, but Orioles fans never really felt out of danger when the home team was up.

By the 11th inning, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons had burned through his better relievers and was ready to stick with regular starter Francisco Liriano — the same lefty who had shut down the Orioles just a week earlier. By theory, Liriano may have been expected to be able to pitch another five, six innings, if need-be — especially after mowing through five outs on Tuesday night on just 17 pitches.

And, meanwhile, Britton sat and watched.

The Cy Young Award candidate was up briefly warming up in the top of the ninth as Showalter was hoping the Orioles could push a run across. He was obviously available to pitch.

But, “the situation didn’t call for it.”

Granted, I’m of the school that says closers should only be brought in for save situations, but in a one-game playoff set-up, the fact that the game was tied should not be the reason to keep one in the bullpen.

The Orioles showed no threat to score, and that’s what handcuffed Showalter.

If the game was tied, say 8-8, with both teams racing around the bases like it was the Preakness Stakes, that would have been different. That’s when a visiting team can bring in a shut-down closer for the top of the ninth and expect the offense to reward the decision with some scoring before the stud reliever can pitch a second inning to lock it down.

I know hindsight is 20-20, but I’m not giving Showalter a pass on bringing in Ubaldo Jimenez, who was likely given some consideration to start the game before he settled on Chris Tillman. I personally would have rather seen Dylan Bundy or Tommy “Two Claps and a Ric Flair” Hunter jogging in from the bullpen to pitch the 11th — especially with Devon Travis’s hard-hit leadoff single.

But Showalter’s decision to leave Britton in the bullpen was totally understandable, no offense.