Hearing from Showalter, Brach and Gausman after 7-6 12-inning win

BOSTON - The Orioles moved eight games above .500 today for the first time since the conclusion of the 2013 season. They're two games ahead of the Blue Jays in the American League East standings. It wasn't done easily. Not against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, where today's game went 12 innings, lasted 5:05 and may have forced the Orioles into another roster move following their 7-6 win. Manager Buck Showalter said there are three or four options being discussed to add a fresh arm, including activating Bud Norris from the disabled list. "We're shuffling around here," Showalter said. "We could activate Bud tomorrow, too. Problem is, you've got to make room for him. We're kicking around three or four ideas. Because of the All-Star break, you get four free days to play with on the send out." Here's more from Showalter: On David Lough contributing off the bench "I had gone down there about the scone inning, I knew he was a little down after yesterday. He said, 'I'm good, I'll be there when you need me.' He made two or three plays off the wall. That was almost as impressive as the hit. J.J. (Hardy) had some big hits. Brachy (Brad Brach). I wasn't going to use (Darren) O'Day today. (Zach) Britton was as one-up, one-in. I was talking to Chris Davis, I said 'You're next.' He was ready." On Brach "I was kidding him after the game. I said, 'You're going to keep messing around here and present yourself as a starter.' Brad has got a really good makeup. He's not scared. He's the kind of guy you like. We're all going to have challenges about getting major league hitters out from time to time. Our location was off today. We were missing spots by a large margin and paid the price for it there in the seventh inning." More on Brach and Britton "His pitch count was down yesterday and that was his last inning. Timing was good to score a run. Think about how hard it is to come in and close the game down with that part of the order coming in. One-run leads again on the road in the American League East is a good test for a closer." On the club's resiliency and thoughts of the 17-inning game here "I had some deja vu going because Chris was in the dugout that game. He was DHing. I'm going, come on. That's the kind of game that good teams win. I was thinking that in the dugout. It's so easy just to say, 'Boy, it wasn't meant to be today.' Instead of making it happen." On Kevin Gausman "Guys that have really good stuff are not going to throw 80 pitches in seven innings, because pitchers make a living on pitches that appear as something you want to swing at. He's going to have deep counts. So, you'd love to see him have a little lower pitch count, but I think every time he goes out, it's good for him. We're managing his innings so at some point he's good enough and we're good enough to pitch the rest of the season. There's a method to what we're doing here. We're trying to make sure a guy like him is available the whole year." Here's Brach, who picked up his fourth win in his last seven outings and extended his scoreless-innings streak to 12: On getting another win "The last three times I've just happened to be out there when we took the lead. Right spot, right time, I guess." On trying to go as many innings as possible "I pretty much knew I had to go out there and give, whether it was going to be three, four or five innings and just put up zeroes. I wasn't worried about who was going to be able to pitch, just more put up zeroes and give us a chance to win." On winning the last two games "Awesome. Especially playing 30 innings in two days, to come out with two wins is huge. It would have been a tough one if we hadn't won today, so it was great going out there and helping us get a win. It was a great weekend." Here's Gausman, who was charged with one run and four hits and struck out seven batters in 5 1/3 innings: On the long wait after he came out of the game "It was a while. That's for sure. Especially because I didn't go as deep in the game as I would have liked. A lot of sitting around in the clubhouse for sure. I had to have been out of it for at least 2 ½ hours, probably. It definitely felt like that. I was just walking around, chugging a water to try to get something going. Just anything I could do to try to get us to score some runs." On how he threw "Good. I threw a lot of fastballs today. Really challenged them. And my last outing, I think I kind of shot myself in the foot, kind of just throwing too much off-speed there. Today, that was really my main focus was to just go in there and try to pound the strike zone in and out with my fastball." On escaping jam in fourth inning with two strikeouts on fastballs "I think both of them were elevated fastballs, too. I think the one to (Stephen) Drew was a two-seam away. Yeah, I just felt good about my fastball and my fastball command today was good. I still walked two guys and I hate walking guys, especially with no outs, but I felt pretty good about everything." On wishing he could have gone longer and saved bullpen "Yeah, but at the same time I understand I was at 104 pitches and I haven't gone that deep in a game in a while. I understand it, but I'm definitely a competitor and I wanted to get that guy, especially David Ortiz, who hit me for a double his last at-bat. I was kind of hoping to be able to get a ground ball and get a double play." On what's next for him "That's really not up to me. Just try to pitch well when I can and when I get the opportunity to, but I have options and they're going to use them if they feel like they need it. If we need a bullpen guy, that's what it's going to be."



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