Showalter ignoring trade rumors (O's lose 3-1)

No matter how many names are leaked and reported in trade talks and rumors, Orioles manager Buck Showalter knows where to keep his focus. It never strays from the 25 players in his clubhouse. He's been in this game for too long to do it any other way.

Players don't seem to be impacted by the speculation. Showalter would know if it became an issue.

"Not much. It's blown out of proportion. Especially a club like ours," Showalter said before tonight's series finale against the Rockies at Camden Yards.

"You don't become insensitive to it. It's kind of cold. You'd like for there to be a scoreboard when you're wrong three out of four times and it's not even close to being right. I understand the pressure, especially on these national people, to come up with all this stuff. You can call them any time of the night the last 10 days and they're going to answer the phone. But if there was a scoreboard...

"I think players know how inaccurate a lot of it is. The one they're right about ... But they're not doing it unless people are reading it and watching it and looking at it, so that's good for the sport, but sometimes I think they lose sight these are human beings with families and children. I've addressed it sometimes with guys, but most of the time they go, 'It's not a big deal.' A lot of them say, 'I kind of like the fact that my name's being talked about. Somebody might covet me.'

"But the tough one is, somebody might say, 'Would you have interest in this guy?' Well, I'm not going to talk about that because that means somebody goes away in our locker room. They don't want to hear that. You don't hear me say, 'We need this, we have got to have this.' We have somebody in there trying to fill that role, so what kind of reflection is that on them?"

As Showalter continued, he addressed a pet peeve that is revisited every summer as the non-waiver trade deadline approaches, the date pushed to Aug. 1 this season.

"It's a cold time. It's really cold," he said. "Anything that makes players feel like a piece of meat being moved around, I'm not on it."

Showalter hasn't lost any players yet, or his sense of humor.

"Now, what are the rumors today?" he said, smiling. "No. I haven't read one. I hear a lot of them from you all. What's out there? I don't think we're really in a lot of big discussions. We're not in the rumor mill much, are we? We should be. What are they rumoring us to be doing and for who?"

Now that outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. has been dealt to the Blue Jays, the talk returns to starting pitching and the number of arms being scouted at ballparks across the majors. Names linked to the Orioles include Jeremy Hellickson, Andrew Cashner, Rich Hill and Hector Santiago.

"And what are we giving up to get it?" Showalter asked. "Dan (Duquette) has brought a couple things to me, but nothing that seemed imminent.

"A couple of them, 'Yeah, I like that guy. For what? No, of course we shouldn't do that.' You can get a pretty good starting pitcher for 'blank' and he's gone at the end of the year. Dan and the organization have shown we'll go for it if it's right, if we think it's a big difference-maker and really fills a big weakness we think we might have."

Update: Dylan Bundy retired the first 16 batters he faced before Mark Reynolds walked with one out in the sixth and Nick Hundley hit a two-run homer to break a scoreless tie. Two ex-Orioles ruined Bundy's perfect game, no-hitter and shutout.

David Dahl hit his first major league home run with two outs in the inning. Mychal Givens replaced Bundy, who threw a career-high 89 pitches and struck out a career-best eight batters.

Both home runs came on changeups.

Manny Machado hit his 21st home run with one out in the bottom of the sixth to reduce the deficit to 3-1.

Update II: All the scoring took place in the sixth inning and the Orioles lost to the Rockies 3-1, only their second home series loss of the season.

Mychal Givens, Darren O'Day and Chaz Roe combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings.

The Orioles (58-42) remain two games ahead of the Blue Jays in the American League East.