Final clubhouse quotes from Markakis, Gonzalez, Jones and Joseph

KANSAS CITY - Here are more comments from the quiet Orioles clubhouse after today's 2-1 loss that sends the Royals to the World Series and ends the O's 2014 season. Nick Markakis on this year: "We had a great season. We just fell short of where we wanted to go. Doesn't take anything away of what we did all season. We did what we were supposed to do, just came up short a little bit. "They made great plays when they needed them. They kept us out of big innings. Pitching and defense, they say, wins. They did a good job of both this series." Markakis on Buck Showalter: "He's awesome. He's the manager you want to play for. He lets you be yourself, he lets you be a baseball player. He knows what to expect from you and he's everything you want in a manager." Miguel Gonzalez on today's loss: "They deserve it. All we can do is forget about it, come back next year and try to do as best as possible. This is really tough to swallow honestly. It could have gone either way. "Everything they did, the little things, just went their way. We wouldn't change anything. I thought we battled all four games and you can't take anything back." Gonzalez on allowing two runs in the first without a ball leaving the infield: "It's tough, everything was going their way and nothing our way. Broken bats, base hits, they were finding a hole and their pitching was great. That was the difference." Caleb Joseph on the 2014 Orioles: "A great group of guys. We had something special here and we achieved a lot." Adam Jones said it was a special season: "Unbelievable season. Career year for everything. My first time getting to the ALCS. Nelson (Cruz) hitting 40 home runs. (Jonathan) Schoop playing a full season. A lot of major league debuts. (Chris) Tillman having a great year. Our bullpen having a great year. (Zach) Britton and (Darren) O'Day career years. "There are a lot of bright spots. As a team, we played our (butts) off. According to Sports Illustrated, we were supposed (to be) out by June. "You never know what can happen in the playoffs. We're going to have to fight again. It's going to be another tough division in the East in 2015, but the Orioles will be ready to go. "We played really, really good baseball, but fell short. The Royals played a little bit better baseball. It's not anything we didn't do. It's what they did do. They played flawless baseball and had timely hits."