O's position players remain confident in bullpen, Hunter on the grand slam

When it was over and the Orioles had let a game get away against the New York Yankees, two key position players expressed big confidence in an O's bullpen that has been scored on in each game this year.

"Hell yeah. One game doesn't determine if you are doing bad. Our bullpen is the best in the league. I have a lot of confidence in them. All of us do," third baseman Manny Machado said.

"One good swing. Just part of the game. I think we have the best bullpen out there and they will keep battling their (butts) off. Just have to keep battling and eventually they are not going to give up any home runs anymore.

"That one pitch hurt us, but you know what, we come out tomorrow and beat their (butt). Control one pitch at a time and keep battling," Machado said.

Adam Jones was asked how the Orioles bounce back from their 6-5 loss to the Yankees.

"Tomorrow is a new game," he said. "New game. Today is over with, man. ... It is all about opportunities. To put ourselves in situations to bring the tie run and go-ahead run to the plate, if you create the opportunity, you can't get mad at that."

Here is Jones' take on the bullpen: "I have the utmost faith and respect for those guys. Hey, get it out of the way now. No one wants to see that in August or September. It is just how it works. I am pretty sure they are all frustrated, but me being the center fielder, I have all the faith in those guys. Tomorrow, they'll be out there unless Miggy (Miguel Gonzalez) goes CG. Bullpen will turn the page come tomorrow and be ready to do your job."

With the Orioles leading 4-2 in the seventh, Tommy Hunter gave up a pinch-hit grand slam to Stephen Drew that led New York to a win in the series opener.

"The pitch was a fastball," Hunter said. "You don't have to throw a fastball, I chose to throw one. If you locate it, different things happen. Not locate it, it was up out over the plate and (he) put a good swing on it."

Was his command off tonight?

"Yeah. It wasn't my best," Hunter said. "Ball was up and a dink hit here and there and pop, four runs."

Right before the grand slam, Jacoby Ellsbury reached on an infield hit with two outs when second baseman Jonathan Schoop made a hard throw toward Chris Davis at first base. The ball popped out of Davis' glove and Ellsbury reached on the hit, extending the inning to bring Drew to the plate.

"It's close," Hunter said. "Guy is pretty fast. Great play by Schoopy, tough play by Chris. The guy is 10 feet away and Schoopy has a pretty good arm. He flicked that ball in there pretty hard. Tough play all the way around."

Despite giving up the lead tonight, Hunter said he wants to pitch in game-on-the-line situations.

"You love (getting) the ball, I love (getting) the ball," Hunter said. "I would consider myself a pretty competitive person. Big situation, Yankees coming to town. I don't want to put any extra emphasis on one team, but game like this in your division. (Wei-Yin) Chen threw a great game, just upsetting to not get him the W he deserved. Tomorrow is a new day and maybe I'll get another shot to face somebody in that kind of situation again."

The game did see Machado go 2-for-4 with an RBI double after starting the season 1-for-19.

"Yeah, it was actually pretty good (to get my offense going)," Machado said. "But at the end of the day, we came up with a loss. I should have got that hit in the last inning off of (Andrew) Miller and before that. Part of the game. Have to battle tomorrow, long season ahead and a lot of baseball to played. We'll grind it out. Tough loss today and we are all bummed out in here, but we need to just forget about it and go out tomorrow."