Britton shines in his debut

Another day, another excellent outing by an Orioles' starter. One run by O's starters in 20 innings in Tampa. Sure, I'll take that, works for me. Zach Britton's performance in his debut was outstanding today. It looks like the O's will go to the pen in the last of the seventh. We could not have asked for much more. He will leave this game tied 1-1, allowing just a run and three hits over six innings. He threw 96 pitches. Sure he got into some deep counts and walked a couple, but to criticize that would be nitpicking. He looked composed and the results were outstanding. This was not just another day in the season. It was a debut of one of baseball's best prospects and he lived up to the hype. Britton and the O's fans who watched him today won't soon forget this afternoon. Buck Showalter said it best before the game. He said something like "what I felt about Britton before the game, I will also feel after." Basically meaning, they like the kid a lot and if he stumbled today in his first outing, that would not change. You can go a long way with pitching and defense and the O's have shown both in this series. As I write this, they have scored eight runs this weekend, yet have a chance to sweep the defending AL East champs. If the O's take the lead in the 7th here and Britton could even get a win, that would be icing on the cake. But today, Britton proved what many of us have been saying. He is Major League ready now. By the way, Tampa hitters batted just .094 vs. Orioles' starters in this series, going just 6 for 64 at bat. They were 3 for 26 vs. Guthrie, 0 for 18 vs. Tillman and today just 3 for 20 vs. Britton. Amazing pitching. I posted some roster notes about the O's minors today. If you haven't seen that, click here. Update: Reynolds with an RBI and Hardy a 2-run double for 4-1 lead and Britton can be a winner in his debut.