Buck Showalter explains not using Zach Britton

Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter faced some tough questions after his team lost to the Toronto Blue Jays 5-2 in the 11th inning on a 3-run walk-off home run by Edwin Encarnacion. Most of the questions were about why he never used reliever Zach Britton, who is a Cy Young contender.

Showalter confirmed that Britton was ready to pitch and available, but the manager opted not to use him.

“He was fine, he was fine,” Showalter siad of Britton. “I considered a lot of things during the course of the game. Our guys did a good job getting set point, we just couldn’t finish it off.

At first Showalter said there was nothing philosophical about his decision, but he later acknowledged that playing on the road had something to do with his decision.

“Looked like it was going to be one of those (games) where it was going to be more than one inning (of extras). Nobody’s been pitching better for us than Ubaldo (Jimenez), too. It was nothing philosophical.”

When Showalter was asked if he regretted not using Britton, he said that given the loss he did and talked about not wanting to use his best reliever until they had the lead.

“You could (second guess it) afterwards, but we went about four innings afterwards … but playing on the road had a little something to do with it. We had some good options that have done great for us all year. Zach’s one of those.”

Showalter heavily defended Jimenez, who surrendered three hits including the walk-off shot. He also defended using all of the other relievers in the team’s bullpen (he used seven pitchers total in the game).

Regardless of his reasoning, not using a reliever who had a 0.54 ERA during the regular season is inexcusable.