Buck Showalter on bullpen and 4-2 win

Orioles manager Buck Showalter indicated tonight that he won't have a seven-man bullpen for Thursday's series finale against the Rangers. However, starter Bud Norris will be available in relief in an emergency.

It appears that Tyler Wilson, recalled today, will be optioned to Triple-A Norfolk to make room for starter Kevin Gausman.

Wei-Yin Chen allowed two solo home runs over eight innings, throwing only 87 pitches, in the Orioles' 4-2 win before 23,019. Zach Britton struck out the side in the ninth for his 23rd save.

Showalter said he's hoping that Chen doesn't miss any more starts the rest of the season.

Here's a sampling of Showalter:

chen-face-on-white-pitching-sidebar.jpgOn Chen's efficiency and if he considered letting the left-hander pitch the ninth:
"He was very efficient, solid. Like I said two or three times, it's usually not the solos that get you. I think he started mixing in some off-speed pitches that helped him after the first time around the batting order. He was solid. He had two 20-minute long innings where he made a lot of pitching changes, too. And let's face it, we've got Zach out there. I was going to try to keep him around 90-95 tonight anyway and he was in the mid-to-late 80s. Would rather let Zach start clean. Those long innings, he had a long one before the eighth and would have had another 20. But he was the difference tonight."

On whether he might have let Chen pitch the ninth if the Orioles scored in eighth:
"I would have contemplated it, which I already had, but I was really hoping with the 106 pitches last time out, I really wanted to try to see if I could shorten him up a little bit tonight. He wouldn't let us. But innings are always good for him."

On Manny Machado's two outstanding plays in the seventh:
"I don't know which one was ... He's really playing a lot of shortstop these last two years with the shifts. He's playing about as much shortstop as J.J. (Hardy). Much like (Adrian) Beltre, you get that type of third baseman, you can do so many different things. He makes all the plays and makes them with a lot of efficiency."

On Britton:
"The good thing last night was he only threw like nine or 10 pitches when he needed to pitch an inning. The other part I didn't like was the people that he faced last night. I was hoping he would face a different part of their order. So when you face basically the same people tonight, that was the one. ... There were many things I didn't like about last night, but that was something I was hoping to stay away from. When you're pitching like Zach did tonight, it doesn't really matter if you've seen them."

On Hardy's clutch tie-breaking two-run homer:
"J.J.'s had a lot of big knocks for us. His 1-for-3 or whatever is usually pretty productive. The ability that he and Manny have, it's one thing to get to the ball and glove it, it's another thing to finish off plays. That's been fun to watch. J.J., having him and Matt (Wieters) back defensively, it's really put us back at a good level that we need to be at."

On decision to designate Delmon Young for assignment:
"It's very tough. There's not a right decision there. Nobody is trying to present it as such. We've got good quality people and you reach a point where you can't keep them all. Unfortunately, we're probably not done. It tugs at your chest. When you're around people as much as we are for this period of time, go though some of the things that we go through and not make it a real difficult conversation, not one that you can present as why you're right. We exhausted every possibility and as we go forward there's not a good decision to make. Anybody we do is going to end up in the big leagues with somebody else. It's where we've graduated to, I hope. Baseball has a way to make paths cross again. He's done some good things for us and been a good teammate and a contributor. That's what makes it tough for everybody, including Dan."

More on Young:
"Obviously, there's been some good things we've gone for Delmon's career. It's tough for both of us. I remember the first conversation I had with him when he came down to minicamp. He didn't have a whole lot of people knocking on his door. Everything I asked of him, he did. So that's what makes it tough. There's nothing he did wrong."

On Norris being available Thursday in relief:
"Bud's work day tomorrow, he may be available to us in the bullpen. Bud came in today and told me was available after six innings and 100-plus pitches. That was a 'no' from me, but I appreciate him offering."




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