Looking back on Britton's journey to the closer role

Closer Zach Britton's signature sinker came about by accident. As a 19-year-old starter for the short-season Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds in 2007, Britton, along with pitching coach Calvin Maduro, was trying out grips that would help him develop a cut fastball.

A cut fastball is a faster version of a slider, a pitch that breaks into right-handed batters. Only Britton couldn't get the ball to cut. Instead, his pitch was sinking.

"It's definitely not what I had envisioned,'' Britton said.

So, the following season at low-Class A Delmarva, the sinking fastball became part of Britton's repertoire, which included a four-seam fastball, slider and changeup. And becoming a two-time All-Star closer wasn't what the lefty Britton envisioned for his career, either. When Britton got to the Orioles in 2011, he and Michael Pineda, then with the Seattle Mariners and now with the New York Yankees, were the top rookie pitchers in the American League.

Britton was a rookie pitcher in the hitter-heavy AL East. He finished 11-11 with a 4.61 ERA, not bad considering that he had two consecutive starts in Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium when the Red Sox and Yankees pounded him for 13 runs in one inning combined. He didn't make it out of the first inning in either game. Jim Johnson was the Orioles closer in 2012 and 2013 and in spring training the next season, Britton was assigned to the bullpen because he was out of options and the Orioles couldn't send him to the minors.

That season, Tommy Hunter was the Orioles closer, but when he faltered - his last pitch as the Orioles closer was a home run to Detroit's Miguel Cabrera in Camden Yards - Britton took over the job. He had 37 saves in his first season, 36 last year. Britton leads the AL with 33 saves this season.

He's ditched his four-seam fastball and changeup. He refers to himself as a sinker-slider pitcher. The story of Britton's accidental find is similar to how the Yankees' future Hall of Fame closer, Mariano Rivera, found his lethal cutter. Like Britton, Rivera was an inconsistent starter. The Yankees were thinking of trading Rivera in 1995. One day, Rivera was playing catch in the Yankee Stadium outfield with teammate Ramiro Mendoza. Rivera's ball started moving to the point where Mendoza couldn't catch it and got angry.

"It just happened, I don't know how I was doing it,'' Rivera said to me during interviews. "I had no way to control it. It was a gift from God.''

Yankees pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre worked with Rivera on perfecting the pitch and the rest is history. In 1996, Rivera took over for John Wetteland as the Yankees closer and Rivera's cutter helped launch the Yankees to seven World Series appearances and five championship rings.

Britton says his sinker is similar to a forkball, although an effective forkball usually breaks out of the strike zone. Britton throw his sinker for strikes. Orioles manager Buck Showalter said he'd be nit-picking if he talked about how Britton has improved since becoming a closer.

"I've never seen a guy take to it that quickly,'' Showalter says. "There's nobody out there that's better than him.''

Britton's taught Orioles starter Chris Tillman the sinker grip. Tillman has five pitches, but it never hurts to have another. Tillman says he's got a good idea of what it takes to throw Britton's sinker, "But I don't trust it yet to throw it in a situation where the game is on the line.''

Meanwhile, Orioles pitcher Dylan Bundy has taken a no-hitter into the sixth inning in each of his last two starts, first against Colorado and then against Texas, both games at Camden Yards. The Rangers were impressed with Bundy's composure, pitch sequences and location.

"You don't see command of secondary pitches throughout the whole game for a pitcher that young,'' Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "He was throwing his secondary pitches where he wanted to a group of accomplished hitters that couldn't get the barrel (of the bat) on the ball.''

Rangers designated hitter Carlos Beltran said Bundy's fastball was hitting spots in, out, up and down. And, Bundy's changeup was moving.

"It was running away and it was running inside,'' Beltran says. "It could go either way.''