Showalter on Machado/Pedroia, Kim and more

The tarp remains on the field and a light rain is falling at Camden Yards. Manager Buck Showalter sounded confident that the Orioles and Red Sox will play tonight. Every effort will be made to avoid the season's first postponement.

Dustin Pedroia isn't in the Red Sox's lineup after Manny Machado slid into the back of his left knee last night and sparked a huge controversy over the intent and the interpretation of the double play rule.

Almost forgotten was a 2-0 victory that improved the Orioles' record to 11-4, the best in baseball.

Machado texted Pedroia after the game and insisted that he wasn't trying to inflict harm. Pedroia seems to be more understanding about it than his teammates.

"He just said he hopes I'm OK. I just said, 'Thanks for reaching out,'" Pedroia said.

"I don't have an issue with anything. My job's to play baseball and win. This isn't seventh grade, man. You know what I mean? I just play baseball. That's it. I care about our guys. I don't care about anybody else. So we just play the game."

Asked whether he thought it was a dirty play, Pedroia replied, "I'm not the baseball police, man. I've got three kids. I don't have time for that."

I'm starting to like this guy.

Showalter really wants to avoid the topic, but it's impossible the following day.

"I understand I look at things through Orioles glasses, orange and black, and they look through ... I understand their feelings, but I do understand ours," Showalter said.

"I didn't realize for sure until afterward that Manny was safe at second and was out when he tried to keep Pedroia from ... he knew he made contact with him. I was talking to him some about it after the game and what he saw.

"Not real impressed with some people in the media calling for somebody to be thrown at. I don't think that really fits their job description. That's their choice, how they choose to do their job. That's the world we live in. I know there's a lot of respect from both teams for each other. Very much like when Jon (Schoop) got hit the year before by (Pablo) Sandoval. It was a good, hard slide. Some people looked at it differently. We didn't. It's unfortunate. Jon kind of learned a lesson in some ways. A lot of times it has something to do with the feed, too.

"I don't go around casting blame on stuff. I'm in a job where I have do, things get emotional and things get like this, I have to step back because I do have the safety of some human beings that I have to think about. I said many times with people talking about throwing stuff, how are you going to feel when you're standing at home plate and some guy's got hit in the head and blood's coming out of his ears. You really feel that manly making that decision. Is that really smart?

"I try to step back sometimes and I'm not always good at it. Like last night, if they hadn't let us go to replay after standing out there at second base with their back to me for 45 seconds, I'd have had an issue with that."

Showalter understands why the Red Sox were angry. It looks bad when a player slides through the bag, spikes up, and plants them into an opponent's leg. But there was no intent from Machado to injure Pedroia.

"If I was looking at it through their eyes, yeah, I understand how you might look at it differently. I do. I respect that," Showalter said.

"We've had that happen with our players. It's part of the reason why some of the rules came into play. I think he was actually playing for the out there. Hopefully, he'll be playing today or tomorrow. It's good for baseball for him to be out there. He's a good man."

Showalter agreed that the controversy wouldn't have reached this point if a different player slid into Pedroia.

"Honestly, probably not," he said. "Maybe not the emotional part of it or the drama part of it."

Hyun Soo Kim is on the bench again tonight because the Red Sox are starting knuckleballer Steven Wright, and he's likely to sit again on Sunday with left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez providing the opposition.

"We're hitting a stretch here where the matchups play in our favor one way versus the other," Showalter said. "I've talked to him and I've seen him with the knuckleball. Wright's almost a reverse splits guy, too. We gain the defense. Craig (Gentry) was on base three times last night. He puts a lot of pressure on the pitcher, something that we'd like to be able to do more.

"We're just going through a period where the matchups are such, especially in our division. Boston has all these left-handers and we seem to catch (J.A.) Happ all the time and we caught a couple other ones. But I know we're getting ready to face three right-handers against Tampa, so this will pass. It's April and he's going to get an opportunity to continue to make contributions to us. But it's a tough stretch for him.

"We're able to do a lot of things we weren't able to do last year and that includes Kim. He'll be there. He'll have plenty of opportunities. I'm trying to look at the big picture here. And he trusts us with it, too. He'll be ready. I go by the cage the last two days and he's working on some things that he doesn't feel quite right about. You've got to remember what went on in April last year. It took a while for him to get going."

Here's more from Showalter:

On Joey Rickard's batting practice session: "That went real well. Very encouraging. I know he's upbeat about it. He'll do that again tomorrow."

On why Zach Britton is seeing a hand specialist Monday: "It's more about the pressure on the ball is where he had a little discomfort. That's all gone. I talked to him on the way down here. Once they clear all that, which we're expecting on Monday and Zach's expecting it, then we'll get him throwing. That's the last piece we have to cross over."

On Seth Smith: "Seth is about the same as yesterday. I think he's available to pinch-hit, but we want to be careful and make sure it's real meaningful before we lose the possibility of those backdate days. Just trying to see if we can get through it."

On Rule 5 outfielder Anthony Santander: "He's throwing to bases. I look at it every day. We're hoping we're getting closer to him playing. He's doing well. He's a good one. It's going to be a tough year to get him through and get the 90 days. We'd really like to keep him."