Orioles reliever Brian Matusz will undergo a minor arthroscopic procedure on Monday in Baltimore to clean out his right shoulder. It's outpatient surgery and he will fly home to Phoenix, Ariz., the following day.
Matusz had a cortisone injection in the shoulder in spring training. The discomfort has returned, though he remains available to pitch.
"It's just something that's been bothering him as he turns," said manager Buck Showalter. "It's in an out, outpatient. They think it's pretty minor.
"He's fine. Guys have this stuff going on. He won't be the only one, I'm sure, having something done."
Matusz is 1-4 with a 2.98 ERA in 56 appearances. Left-handers are batting .180 against him and right-handers are batting .244.
Matusz is making $3.2 million this season. He's arbitration-eligible again and the Orioles must decide whether to tender him a contract. They engaged in trade talks involving the left-hander over the winter.
Manny Machado is in the lineup at shortstop for Game 1 of the doubleheader against the Blue Jays, and he's going to start at third base in the nightcap, running his streak of games this season to the full 158.
Showalter met with Machado to gauge whether he wanted to keep the streak alive. No other player in the majors has appeared in every game.
"I wanted to know how important that is to Manny. It is and he'll play," Showalter said.
"It's a private conversation. I didn't time it. It's just something you don't ever assume as a manager. When someone's played that many games, you give them a say on it. He probably won't start opening day next year to get it out of the way."
Showalter was joking about that last part.
"I did tell him it's something as you go forward in your career, there are going to be a lot of things I hope that you're going to be real proud of, but you're always going to be able to tell the young whippersnappers that come through, 'I posted up 162 that year. What did you do? And I came off surgery.' It's going to be something he's going to be very proud of and not many people can do. I think it's going to be rarer and rarer and rarer," Showalter said.
Showalter was asked whether he had any updates on the contract statuses of his coaches.
"Yes, but I'm not going to talk about it right now," he replied. "Nothing bad. It's all good. I'm not going to tell you a fib. There's always something new day-to-day, but nothing that will change the storyline. Dan's working on it."
Adam Jones remains out of the lineup with back tightness. He's played once since Aug. 21.
Asked whether Jones will play again this season, Showalter replied, "I don't know. I hope so. I hope it's the second game of the doubleheader. We'll see. I'm not going to broadcast it, where he is physically, but I hope so."
With his team eliminated from the playoff race, Showalter has a chance to watch the games at home as a fan. The opportunity is there, but don't count on him seizing it.
"No. I'm a fan of the Orioles," he said.
"It's painful. Not painful. That's wrong. Like I've said, jealousy is a horrible emotion. I try not to let it get at me. People at this level are participators, they're not watchers."
Showalter may check a few innings of Tuesday night's American League wild card game.
"I might glance at it," he said. "It depends who's playing, the connection. It would be with the sound off, that's for sure, but I watch all the games with the sound off. Unless Keith Jackson came back."
With the season ending on Sunday, the Orioles have started their exit physicals and Showalter is meeting individually with players.
Vice president of baseball operations Brady Anderson already is setting up offseason workout schedules. Players don't need to be coaxed into attending them.
"We've never had that problem," Showalter said. "We've got really four destinations. We can go anywhere and we've got coverage. Brady travels constantly with Joe (Hogarty) and Ryo (Naito). They constantly travel to these things. They do a lot of maintenance during the season, but this is really their time now. We've gotten a great return for it.
"Our guys are very engaged with that and I think a lot of it is they've seen the return for guys like, I could name 10-15 games. And it's not some gestapo boot camp. There's a purpose and they get after it. I've been really happy with the return on it.
"We're starting the exit physicals today and blood draws and making sure we've got everything in order, because you can't get surprised by something in the offseason or spring training. The day of just turning everybody loose and, 'I'll see you in Sarasota,' too late then. We've already set up our minicamp dates and everything that we've got to be on top of."
Update: Miguel Gonzalez gave up two runs in the second inning, one unearned, and the Orioles trail 2-0.
Russell Martin had an RBI double, took third on Manny Machado's 21st error and scored on Ryan Goins' single.
Gonzalez has thrown 58 pitches in three innings.
Update II: Gonzalez left in the fourth inning with two on and two outs, and Jason Garcia let both inherited runners score to give Toronto a 4-0 lead. Ben Revere had an RBI single and Jose Bautista walked with the base loaded.
Three of the four runs off Gonzalez were earned. He threw 75 pitches, 43 for strikes.
Gonzalez has a 4.91 ERA in 144 2/3 innings.
Update III: The Jays sent nine batters to the plate in the fifth inning and scored four unearned runs to take an 8-0 lead. Garcia and Chris Davis committed throwing errors and a bunch of stuff happened. Carry on.
Update IV: Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run homer off Steve Johnson in the top of the seventh and Steve Pearce homered in the bottom half. Jays 10, Orioles 1.
Pearce has 15 home runs this season.
Update V: Bautista hit a solo home run and Justin Smoak hit a two-run shot off Jorge Rondon in the ninth to give Toronto a 13-1 lead. Bautista has 40 home runs this season.
Update VI: Rondon gave up five runs in the ninth, Junior Lake committed the Orioles' fourth error of the day and the Jays clinched their first division title in 22 years with a 15-2 win in Game 1.
The Orioles won't post a winning record this season.
Steve Clevenger had an RBI triple in the ninth.
The four errors are the most by the Orioles since Aug. 12, 2008, according to STATS.
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