Showalter on Hardy, Davis and O'Day

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Orioles manager Buck Showalter explained why shortstop J.J. Hardy was out of today's lineup, why Chris Davis returned to it and why Darren O'Day hadn't pitched in the past three games. Let's stay in that order. On Hardy "Just trying to stay ahead of it. Trying to be a little proactive instead of reactive. Turf. Another thing that turf does. He could play. He's available. Just didn't like how he felt after the game last night and decided to be cautious with it today. I assume he'll be in there tomorrow unless he has to play a lot today and the turf kicks it up again. That's another great thing about this place." On Davis "I have the ability to reconsider. No, Chris and I talked. I thought he might need a day. Chris has that cachet. I like that. We had both of them (lineups) made up. I had a feeling where we'd end up, but I wanted to make sure I was right. He didn't talk his way in. Nobody talks their way in. You can talk your way out. No, I like that we have options. "I wanted to get Stevie (Pearce) in there. I don't care how much you do - tee work and all that early stuff. There's nothing like game speed to declare somebody healthy. Steve was ready to play yesterday, but decided to give him one more day. But you still have caution until you actually get through a few game speed at-bats. That's like guys who throw on the side. We're at that point now where he needs to play. Now, your first game back with (Drew) Smyly ain't a whole lot of fun." On O'Day "He's had some challenges with his hamstring a little bit, but I think he's going to be available today. We'll see." Let's not stop there. What about Zach Britton, who also didn't pitch last night? "He was available in his mind," Showalter said. "I wasn't going to use him. I had five guys I wasn't going to use last night because of what we had to do to win three games against Cincinnati. We could have, but I'm not going to." The Orioles may want to rest Britton a little more this month in his first season as a reliever. "I don't take it for granted, but Dom (Chiti) has got his arms around it," Showalter said. "I trust him. And we sit down every day about 6:15 for a 7 o'clock game and go over the whole bullpen. We've got a yes, no. We don't have any grays. You go out there, it's available and not available. We usually talk about it on the plane and the next day they go out in BP and we get a read on all of them. We read body language, face, how they feel physically. "I can count on one hand the number of times someone said, 'I shouldn't or can't or won't pitch today.' They don't say that, so you can't leave that... That's not a pitcher's decision. You can't put that in their head. That's not fair to them. It's like going out and telling somebody if he wants to pitch to somebody or if he wants to stay in or not. That's not their job. Don't put them in their position. That's not fair to a pitcher."