O'Day, Markakis and Jones comment on Davis suspension

Before we get to the jubilation of the Orioles' 2-1, 11-inning victory over the Yankees in Game 1 of today's split doubleheader at Camden Yards, it's necessary to take the pulse of the clubhouse following news of Chris Davis' 25-game suspension. Team union representative Darren O'Day was the first Oriole to address the media. "I was very surprised," he said. "I know how much Chris loves playing baseball and loves coming to the park every day and being with his teammates, so surprised that he would put that in jeopardy. Surprised was my first reaction. "We talked. We talked for a little bit and we didn't get to that, but he did reach out to a few guys." Asked about the mood of the team, O'Day replied, "You know, I can't speak for everybody, but I'm sure guys are disappointed to lose a big part of our team like that at this time of year. We're going to miss him on the field, off the field, and I'm sure he's going to miss us a lot. It's going to be tough on him for these next few weeks." It must feel similar to the team losing Matt Wieters and Manny Machado to season-ending surgeries. "Yeah, it's similar, but different," O'Day said. "You can't really predict injuries. You failed one test. You can't put anything in jeopardy and mess around. Yeah, it's going to be more to overcome for sure." Should baseball change its policy on Adderall? "It's tough," O'Day said. "I'm the team rep, but I can't speak with authority on the drug policy. I know from my perspective, I like that they're enforcing this policy. I wish this hadn't happened to Chris, but I like to know that it's happening, at least test the right people. As for the TUEs, they've been tough on it, which is great. It should be a rigorous process to get these TUEs. It's a long season. You're going to suffer some attrition from the length of the season and the games you have to play, so everybody should have to suffer through it the same way." Nick Markakis said he was shocked by the news after manager Buck Showalter called him into the office. Reminded how Davis has been an outspoken opponent of steroids, Markakis said, "He didn't get in trouble for steroids, he got in trouble for amphetamines. Either way, it was wrong. Either way you look at it. I know he knows that. We have rules to abide by. Those are things we have to do as a baseball player. We have to follow the rules and the guidelines, what they set. They don't set them for just any rhyme and reason. It's to keep the integrity of the game and protect our players, too. "It's just a bad situation overall, and I think he knows that and we all know that and it's something we have to deal with. "It's just another bump in the road that you've got to overcome. It's a long season and to have every single player on the same page is a tough task. You're tested throughout the course of the season by doing that. There's some things that you can't do. We know what we have to do, and like you said, it's another bump in the road that we have to care of." What about the team's morale? "Everybody's shocked, but you know coming to the ballpark anything can happen," Markakis said. "These are the type of things you have to deal with. It's like I said, a bad situation, and we've got to move forward and put this behind us because dwelling on this isn't going to do us any good. We have to put this behind us and continue to put this behind us. Today was a big win for us, and that's our standpoint." Markakis said he hasn't spoken to Davis. "I don't know if anybody else has spoken to him," he said. "Everybody makes mistakes. You have to be careful when you make your mistakes. Now is not a good time to make a mistake, but like I said, these are things you have to deal with, and hopefully we can get far enough along for him to come back and help us out." Adam Jones also heard about the suspension this morning. "It's unfortunate," he said. "A great guy made a mistake I'm sure he's regretting. But us as a team, we still stick by him, we still have faith in him. If and when he's able to come back, we'll assess that, we'll see how that works. But we support him. Bad move, bad decision, but we support him. "People are going to react in the public, are going to rip him and say all this. Let them say what they want. In this clubhouse, there's 25, now 40 guys and we support him. Everybody makes bad decisions. We're going to have to pick it up in other places because he is a big part of our team and our lineup and our clubhouse. We're just going to have to pick it up. We're going to miss him, but we still support him." Is Jones surprised given Davis' stance on performance-enhancing drug users? "I think we're all surprised at it," he said. "I think when it came out as Adderall, I think it lessened the blow a little bit, but still, we all have to take accountability for what we put in our bodies, and that's what he's doing. He's taking accountability for it and he's manning up. That's the honorable thing to do and he's doing it. "As a man, if a man admits his faults, you can understand it." Jones described the clubhouse mood as "shocked," but said it won't affect the team's performance on the field "because we're professionals." "We've still got a game to play," he said. "Without Wieters, Machado, we've still been playing good baseball. So now is another blow to the team, but there's going to be somebody to pick it up. That's just how our team works. "I can't say I'm disappointed because that's not a word I really like to use. It's just unfortunate. Mistakes happen. If you put yourself in our positions, you can understand why those things do happen. But like I said, it's unfortunate. "The timing is obviously the worst of everything because we're going into the stretch run and trying to get into the playoffs and all of this, but it's the nature of the game. We support him, but we're going to be without CD for 25 games, so we're going to have to pick up the slack." Jones also addressed the testing process. "It's not easy to play this game in general," he said. "It's unfortunate that everything is, there's no real excuse for anything that does it, it's just how sometimes a game is. This game is tough as is, so you never really understand why, but when you play every day you get a sense of why things do happen. "Look what Adderall is. It's to get you going, but it's not something that's going to sit there and make you look like the Incredible Hulk. It's just something that's going to get you going for a little bit. It's unfortunate, but got to move on and stay focused." Davis hit 53 home runs last season to lead the majors, and Jones doesn't question how he did it. "I don't personally, but leave it up to the public, they're going to do whatever they're going to do with it," he said. "Me personally, I wouldn't question what he did last year, but you put it into the billions of other people, let their opinion matter. We don't care. We care about this clubhouse. We don't care about the opinion outside of it." As for the Game 2 lineup, it doesn't include Markakis, Jones or shortstop J.J. Hardy. For the Orioles Alejandro De Aza LF Steve Pearce 1B Jimmy Paredes 3B Nelson Cruz RF Delmon Young DH David Lough CF Caleb Joseph C Ryan Flaherty SS Jonathan Schoop 2B Bud Norris RHP