A day of loss for Buck Showalter as Orioles win finale

Players walked off the field in a straight line today as they do after every victory, except each one stopped in front of the dugout to embrace manager Buck Showalter. Pitching coach Dave Wallace hugged the guys in his rotation and bullpen, pausing to pat Wei-Yin Chen on the face and say a few words to him.

Fans chanted "We want Chris" as Davis did a postgame interview on MASN following a 9-4 win over the Yankees that guaranteed the Orioles a third-place finish in the division and a .500 record for only the second time in club history. Davis tipped his cap before heading down the steps and into the clubhouse.

Another season is over, but the emotions are running much deeper than normal. And not only because pending free agents Davis, Matt Wieters and Darren O'Day made such huge contributions in what may be their final games with the club.

Showalter managed with a heavy heart. His mother, Lina Carrie Spires Showalter, passed away late last night at age 87, but he didn't tell reporters, who learned of his loss during the game. His eyes were moist as he sat through a 10-minute postgame interview.

It's always difficult for Showalter to watch his players pack up their belongings after another season, the boxes and glances tugging at his emotions. Imagine how he felt today.

"Yeah, it's a trait that I wish I didn't have sometimes. I can take it in," he said.

It was a sad day, indeed, but "not for baseball reasons," Showalter insisted.

"There's never a sad day in baseball," he said. "You get a chance to do this every day. It's an honor. It's an honor to be able to take the tough times, too."

Davis hit two more home runs to give him 47 on the season, the fourth-highest total in club history. He had eight multi-homer games this year, raising his career total to 15.

The second shot came in the eighth inning after Yankees manager Joe Girardi removed left-hander Andrew Miller and brought in right-hander Caleb Cotham.

"That's a little too apropos, the last one. As it left the ballpark, I just went, 'Really?'" Showalter said.

"To put an exclamation point on the quality of contributions he's had ... It's been fun to have a great seat to watch him. He's been very good for our city. He's really established himself here in Baltimore. I felt very honored to be part of that. It's never goodbye, it's see you later. That's the way I always approach the end of the year."

Fans stood to applaud Davis before every at-bat and tried to coax him out of the dugout after his second home run. It felt as though they were saying goodbye.

"Our fans have been through thick and thin," Showalter said. "There's been some unbelievable moments here this year. You look at not being the last team standing, but there are so many things that you reach back for, and I was very happy we could end it on a positive note. Just a subtle reminder that nothing's ever as good as it seems and nothing is ever as bad as it seems. You try to keep a sense of reality."

Wieters had a two-run single in the first inning, a double in the fourth and a couple of outstanding throws after fielding tappers in front of the plate. O'Day blew through the Yankees in the eighth to lower his ERA to 1.52 in 65 1/3 innings. They both may be gone in 2016.

"Of course you think about it," Showalter said. "You're trying not to dwell on it because you have a job to do. Anybody who says, 'No, I just pass it off,' nobody's that cold. You spend as much time together as we do and go through, I don't want to say battles and fights. There are things going on in life that are a lot tougher than what we do, OK? I'm not going to over-dramatize it. But it's more than just somebody picking your friends for you. It's become quite a family, something that I really want to do when I came here. Make everybody feel like they had a stake in this.

"Darren was good again. You've seen so many guys kind of graduate to another level. Manny (Machado) had the year he had, Chris, Brad Brach. I take things out of stuff like that. Tilly (Chris Tillman) not giving in and coming back. That's why you like him.

"We had a lot of exit conversations, we had a lot of time with the rain delays to talk to guys and it's been a blessing. I wrote down today to remind myself of all the people who've had, I don't want to say 'career years,' but really made strides. Jon Schoop. And some guys who maintained the level of expectations that they've created. Matt came back from that injury, Caleb (Joseph) has continued to prove himself. Kevin Gausman's right where he should be in the process. I think I had about 12 of them when I was making them out today. Of course, I was giving us a lot of leeway there. I was being Mr. Positive."

It's never easy to keep that title in a season that leaves a team two notches lower in the division than the previous summer and stuck at home for the playoffs. The Yankees had much more to play for this weekend and the Orioles swept them, the first time it's happened since June 28-30, 2013 at Camden Yards.

"We keep hammering that you don't give in," Showalter said. "There's that lure that you can take anytime you want to. And it's hard, it's a challenge not to. I told the guys today I come in every day and they're my, I used a different word but we'll say 'coffee.' And we're theirs.

"Sometimes, you come in here and the sun does come up. And when you come back and play a good series and a good game and you know you've done something not just anybody can do. But there's challenges in every walk of life. Somebody has a horrible week at work and Monday, how do you go again? You just keep grinding. All of you all have had to do it. It's all relevant. It really is."

Five straight wins to close the season can ease some of the pain. Not all of it, of course. Not for a manager who's trying to treat the day like any other while grieving. But it provided the latest reminder of why he likes his guys.

"It just verifies what I say to you. They just don't give in," Showalter said.

"Their competitive fire never wavered. We looked that everything that happened, the self-inflicted challenges, and that's why, because they're such an accountable bunch. As they get old I think they'll understand what I and we and they have been preaching to each other.

"This time of year you reach for small victories, that they didn't give in. I know there were a lot of teams counting on us to play the way we played. For that, I'm really proud."

It's important to include, however, that the Orioles have reached the point where a non-losing season isn't sufficient. It's the culture here, and Showalter doesn't want the credit for its development.

"I don't create that, I appreciate that," he said. "The players create that, the fans do, the city. You just try to play better baseball and remind everybody how great this place is and can be. Every time there's the first hint of fall in the air, I want people thinking about playoff baseball and the World Series. That's why we get up in the morning, that's why you go to spring training, that's why you do the things we're going to do between now and February.

"We're not giving in. It's not good enough, though. It's not good enough. 81-81 isn't good enough. We're trying to win. We want to be the last team standing, the last city standing, and our city deserves that."