Britton focused on the playoffs, not awards (plus other notes)

Orioles closer Zach Britton is focusing on trying to get his team into the playoffs and not his chances to contend for a Cy Young Award after this season. But that doesn't stop reporters from asking him about it and he was asked yet again during the 11-game homestand that ended yesterday.

After his 14-pitch save Sunday, Britton is now 46-for-46 in save opportunities. According to STATS, LLC., with that save, Britton extended his stretch of consecutive save opportunities converted to 48. The streak dates back to Oct. 1, 2015 and is the sixth-longest in major league history since 1969. Next on that list is right-hander John Axford with 49 consecutive, from April 24, 2011 to May 4, 2012.

Britton was asked again if relievers should get strong consideration for the Cy Young Award.

"I don't have a vote," Britton said. "I think everyone, all pitchers are considered. It's not a starting pitching award. Relievers have won it before, so I think everyone is considered. Just a matter of whoever has the votes, they are going to vote the way they want to do it and they're going to do it for their own reasons. There is really nothing you can do about it as a player. It's not something I'm going to focus on."

Britton is 2-1 with an ERA of 0.56. Over 64 1/3 innings he has allowed 36 hits and just four earned runs with 18 walks and 69 strikeouts. He gets out equally well both left (.157) and right-handed (.161) batters.

Those are remarkable numbers, but even this late in the year he doesn't take much time to reflect on his special season.

"I don't look at it too much," he said. "There are some things I look at - mostly trying to keep guys off base, not walking guys, things like that. The bulk of the numbers - if you talk to a lot of the relievers in here - they fluctuate so much as a reliever. If you sit there and look at what you are doing every outing, you are only as good as your last one. When you don't have a ton of innings, every inning is important. So I try to look at the end of the year and see what you've done."

Britton finished the home portion of the regular season schedule going 26-for-26 in saves with an ERA of 0.26, allowing one earned run over 34 2/3 innings.

"I mean, I think just getting a little more comfortable," he said of his brilliant season. "At times last year I think I was better in spurts than I have been this year. Sometimes the numbers don't always dictate how you are feeling.

"I think there were times last year where I felt I was a little better than some months I have had this year. Not sure. Just really being aggressive and more comfortable closing games. I think that has something to do with it."

If Britton did win the award, he would be the 10th reliever to do so. The last reliever to win the Cy Young was the Dodgers' Eric Gagne in 2003. The last reliever to win the award in the American League was Dennis Eckersley of Oakland in 1992.

A 10-game winner: Right-hander Dylan Bundy picked up his 10th win Sunday when he gave up just one run in five innings versus Arizona. According to MASN's Jim Hunter on the telecast Sunday, Bundy became the 17th rookie in Orioles history to win 10 or more.

Wei-Yin Chen was last to do so with 12 wins in 2012, while Britton won 11 in 2011 and Brian Matusz won 10 in 2010. Others to make this list include Tom Phoebus, Mike Boddicker and Dennis Martinez.

Home cookin': The Orioles ended the regular season portion of their home schedule with a 50-31 record, posting 50 or more home wins for the 12th time in team history. That is a home winning percentage of .617. They last won that many games at home by going 50-31 in 2014.

Earlier in the the year, the Orioles had been playing around .700 ball at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. They finished their last three homestands without a winning one, going 3-5, 3-3 and 5-6 since mid-August. The last winning homestand consisted of just one series and they took two of three from Texas on Aug. 2-5. The final six games are on the road starting Tuesday with three at Toronto and three at New York.

The hurlers were good: The Orioles completed a weekend of strong pitching with yesterday's 2-1 win. Over three games against Arizona, which entered the series fifth in the National League in runs, the O's held the D-backs to four runs over 30 innings (1.20 ERA) as O's pitchers combined to walk just four with 35 strikeouts in the three games.

The three O's starters in the series - Yovani Gallardo, Wade Miley and Bundy - combined to allow four runs over 19 2/3 innings (1.83 ERA) with three walks and 21 strikeouts.

With four scoreless innings Sunday, the Orioles bullpen pitched 10 1/3 scoreless innings in the three games giving up just four hits with one walk and 15 strikeouts.

Over the last 13 games the O's bullpen has allowed just four earned runs in 48 2/3 innings for an ERA of 0.74.

But those bats: But the offense didn't exactly break out scoring three, six and two runs in the wins. They scored 11 runs in three games after scoring eight runs in four games against Boston. O's hitters went 3-for-24 (.125) with runners in scoring position versus Arizona. They have gone 5-for-49 (.102) with RISP over the past nine games.

The Orioles have now gone a season-long stretch of 15 straight games without a double digit hits game. They've had 15 in a row of nine hits or less. Their last double-digit hits game was when they had 12 on Sept. 10 at Detroit.

Holding the second AL wild card by 1 1/2 games over Detroit, now it's on to Toronto and New York to try and hold that edge and be in a playoff game a week from tomorrow.

The Orioles are 7-9 versus Toronto this year (2-5 on the road) and 8-8 against New York (also 2-5 on the road).

The final words: There were tributes pouring in all day Sunday for Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez, who tragically died in a boating accident over the weekend. It was clear that young man made a huge impact in a relatively short time on earth. So many had beautiful things to say but these words from Pirates manager Clint Hurdle struck me most of all. He said:

"If you use your eyes and ears, there's reminders throughout your week that life's short and you don't call all the shots. A sense of gratitude and a sense of joy needs to be more prevalent," Hurdle said. "It's just a tremendously engaging young man. We had a lot of commentary that night (at a banquet in 2013). Since then, whenever we played them, he'd come up and put his arm around me like he's an old soul. 'Hey, papi! How you doing, man?'

"When I walked around that corner today, I saw his picture and thought it was another news story. Then I stopped and saw the caption. It took my breath away.

"It's just sad. It's so horribly sad on so many different levels that there'll be no more of that, there'll be no more of him, there'll be no more of that emotion on the mound, that skill-set, that human being, that young man with such a gift, such a great smile," Hurdle said. "I've been trying to live that life for a while now. I wasn't always in that place. It just makes all the more sense when things like this happen. Be where your feet are. Enjoy the moment. There'll be a day where there won't be another day."