Hunter on MLB team touring Japan, Showalter on MLB Network

Orioles reliever Tommy Hunter received a phone call from an official with the Major League Baseball Players Association about two weeks ago asking whether he'd be interested in participating in All-Star Series 2014 in Japan later this month.

The answer came without hesitation.

"It was pretty much a no-brainer," Hunter said.

A collection of major leaguers will play a five-game series against Japan's national team, known as Samurai Japan. Three games will be held in Tokyo from Nov. 14-16, and one each in Osaka (Nov. 12) and Sapporo (Nov. 18).

In addition, the major leaguers will participate in exhibition games on Nov. 11 against the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants in Koshien and Nov. 20 against Team Japan in Okinawa.

"This is a big opportunity," Hunter said. "I'm pretty excited. Plus, I'm going to Japan and taking my wife (Ellen) and traveling the world a little bit.

"I'm pretty pumped. Baseball in Japan, everybody knows about it. It's crazy there. They have a lot of fans, a lot of enthusiasm. The crowd is loud. I talked to (pitcher) Colby Lewis about it. He played there for a little while. The fans there have those clapper things. He said it's loud.

"The Tokyo Dome is a big sports venue and I get to go. I'm pretty excited."

This is the 36th time dating back to 1908 that a major league team has traveled to Japan for exhibition games.

The five-game format was first played in 2006, which also was the last time that the MLB All-Stars faced the Japan All-Stars. The major leaguers swept the series.

Red Sox manager John Farrell will guide the MLB team, whose full roster will be announced this week. He replaced Ron Washington, who resigned as Rangers manager in September for personal reasons.

Orioles center fielder Adam Jones originally was invited to participate in this year's series, but he declined due to a previous commitment.

Hunter was 3-2 with a 2.97 ERA and 11 saves in 60 games this season. He posted a 1.77 ERA in his final 43 appearances after Zach Britton took over as closer.

Hunter didn't allow an earned run in 13 consecutive games, the longest streak of his career, from Aug. 31 to the end of the regular season.

"I had a really (crappy) April and May, man," he said. "This game is about, 'What have you done for me lately?' I learned a lot. It's not how you start the game, it's how you finish. And after such a rocky start and things not going your way, you've got to figure out a way to win, figure out a way to contribute.

"Dom (Chiti) and Dave (Wallace) helped me out a lot trying to simplify things and concentrate on making pitches. It doesn't matter what you throw as long as you make the pitches you want. And going from a four-pitch guy in the bullpen to a two-pitch guy in the bullpen I thought was pretty big.

"It's just trying to perfect the little things you do. Perfect the fastball down and away, perfect the fastball in, instead of worrying about the cutter and changeup. Just try to do a couple things really, really well instead of a bunch of things just OK."

Hunter basically reduced his repertoire to a two-seam fastball and curveball.

"I mixed in other stuff every once in a while just to mess with people," Hunter said, laughing. "But I've still got that in my back pocket. I'm sure I could pull it out anytime I wanted.

"It was a good second half for me baseball-wise."

Hunter isn't sure how he'll be used in Japan other than a relief role.

"I don't think I'm going over there and start," he said. "I don't think I'm going to get into that."

In case you missed it, Orioles manger Buck Showalter was a call-in guest yesterday on MLB Network's "High Heat."

Host Chris Russo asked Showalter whether he was confident that executive vice president Dan Duquette will give him free-agent outfielders Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz for the 2015 season.

"I don't look at it that way," Showalter replied. "We're going to have Manny Machado, Matt Wieters and Chris Davis back and I don't know if anyone out there is going to sign three better free agents than that. I'm not coveting other people's players.

"Whether Nelson's back or not, that's going to kind of be up to him because he's earned the right to look around. At 34, 35, he's got a chance to sign a really good contract, probably his last big one, and if it's with us, so be it.

"Nicky's a big part of our culture, what we're trying to do here and I know we're working hard to get him back. The organization and ownership has already stepped out with J.J. Hardy long before he went out there, because trust me, there's a lot of people looking for shortstops right now, some of them very close in our division, so we thought that was one of the key signings for us to make everything come together. But I don't know if anybody's going to sign better free agents than what we're going to get back health-wise."