Britton on his ankle, Hart on his win

Orioles closer Zach Britton isn't a doctor, but he knows the warning signs of a serious injury, and they weren't apparent this morning.

"My foot and ankle were still there," he said. "It was good."

Nothing to see here, folks, after Britton rolled his right ankle last night while recording the second out in the ninth inning. He stayed in the game after a visit from manager Buck Showalter and head athletic trainer Richie Bancells, and a few warmup tosses, to retire pinch-hitter Chris Carter to seal a 6-5 win over the Yankees.

Britton busted Gary Sánchez's bat with his heavy sinker and shifted into survival mode.

"I feel good," he said. "It was just an awkward step. The way the bat broke, it kind of juked me out a little bit. The courtesy visit from Buck and Richie wasn't needed. I have no issues.

"It was like a bat shard that flew off. So it kind of flew to my right, so I managed to juke myself out."

What followed was the usual teasing from teammates who will pounce on any embarrassing moment. No mercy.

"Absolutely," Britton said, "so I got the video clip deleted so we'll never see that one again."

Britton may get the day off after appearing in all three games, though he needed only nine pitches last night and the Orioles have been off twice this week. Showalter checked on him following the win and again during batting practice.

"It's tough to talk to really all of them, not just Zach," Showalter said. "When the game's over and they've pitched, there's such an emotion and adrenaline flowing that you've almost got to wait 15 or 20 minutes to kind of get to the crux of what you might or might not be dealing with."

Britton retired Sánchez despite the nasty spill, gathering the ball and bouncing it to first baseman Chris Davis.

"I threw the ball about 10 feet and CD made a nice pick," Britton said. "He's been doing a good job over there. Trying to get him the Gold Glove. That's what I'm trying to do.

"The first three games of the year, five or six at least. That's kind of on the high side, but he's picking guys up and saving errors and saving runs. That's huge. You talk about how good defensively our infield is overall, but I think a lot of times it gets overlooked. They make great plays, but at the same time he's picking balls out of the dirt, so I think he gets overlooked with how good our other infielders are."

Left-hander Donnie Hart earned his first major league win by retiring the second of two batters he faced in the seventh. The Orioles took the lead in the bottom half of the inning on Seth Smith's two-run homer, making Hart the pitcher of record.

"I got a few phone calls," he said. "I think one of the coolest ones was I had a longtime pitching and hitting instructor (Butch McBroom) when I was a kid, who called me, so that was pretty cool. I probably saw him once a week for six years when I was 6 to 13 years old. He was a big part of my pitching career when I was a little kid when I was living in north Texas. He actually was the head baseball coach at UT Arlington for several years.

"He called me and wanted to tell me 'congrats.' He actually gave me a book probably 10 years ago and said, 'Open this up when you make it to the big leagues,' and this offseason I found it and opened it up and found a note. That was pretty cool. That was also one of the memories that will last me forever."

Hart had no idea that he was the winning pitcher until one of his teammates broke the news after the game. Britton gave him the ball this morning as a souvenir.

"I was just happy to get the first (appearance) out of the way," Hart said. "That was really where my mind was. Do your job and get this first one out of the way and then start rolling with it. The win didn't even cross my mind until I got back in here and someone said it. I didn't even realize it, so that was pretty cool."