More postgame clubhouse chatter

Zach Britton said his callus is fine. The eight three-ball counts among the 21 batters he faced was a different story.

"I just wasn't very good at all," he said. "When you fall behind, you've got to give them fastballs, and they're hot, so they're hitting the ball well. When you fall behind in counts, they're going to square some balls up." Though the three runs and four hits were confined to one inning, Britton said, "I don't think it's a good outing any way you look at it. They're a hot team, I need to keep them in the game and especially log some innings and save the bullpen. As starters, we haven't gone deep in games lately, so my job was to go deep in the game. I didn't do that at all. You've got to keep them close. (James) Shields was throwing the ball real well, and three runs was too much." I'll give Britton credit for not being satisfied with this outing or trying to put a positive spin on it. Good for him. Britton said he's still guilty of trying to be too perfect "rather than just throw the ball over the plate." As for the lousy weather conditions, Britton said, "There are things you have to deal with. Shields, obviously it didn't bother him very much." He's mature beyond his years. Adam Jones was asked about Shields. "He had some good stuff going, and we didn't get any hits," he said. "It's pretty simple." Is the lack of offense frustrating? "It's hitting. It's not the easiest thing to do," he replied. "We get a little frustrated. It's the game of baseball. You can't get down on yourselves. Keep going out there, keep swinging the bats, play as a team and feed off the guy in front of you." What about those lousy weather conditions? "Pretty (crappy)," he replied. "You can't do anything about it. The conditions are the conditions." Mark Reynolds also weighed in on the offense. "That's pretty much kind of what baseball is," he said. "It's a streaky game, but it seems like when everybody is going good, the whole team is going good. When somebody has an off night, the whole team has an off night. We haven't found that right mix of some guys picking other guys up, and that's the part that's the most frustrating. "You know, it's still early. Nobody is out of anything yet. We're one good week or two of playing good from being where we need to be. There's no panic. A little bit of frustration, but that's why this game is so tough. We're going to keep plugging along and winning every game we can."