Showalter on Britton, his replacement closer and more

Orioles manager Buck Showalter remains encouraged this morning after checking on closer Zach Britton, who sprained his left ankle last night.

Showalter doesn't know when Britton will pitch again and he's not revealing his choice of designated closer, but he's feeling good about the situation.

"Like I did last night," Showalter said. "Not much swelling. You all talk to him yet? He'll talk to you about it. I think he'll be a pitcher shortly, hopefully."

"It's the left one. Actually, I kind of like that a little better than the right one. I'd rather have that one as opposed to the landing foot. It was more like kind of jamming the capsule in there a little bit as opposed to turning it, kind of what Richie (Bancells) thought. The lack of swelling kind of reiterated what Richie thought it was, looking at the tape.

"Nowadays, we look at the tape to see what kind of injury it was."

Britton agreed that the left ankle may be less problematic if you're searching for a silver lining.

"It's going to be a big test, a huge test," he said. "I think it would be worse if it was actually my land leg. But, yeah, it's going to a nice test in a few days if I can push off. Once I can do that, I think I'll be fine. It's just a matter of if I've got to tape it, wear a brace or something to help me through it.

"Just kind of nip it in the bud right now. We have the off day tomorrow, which I guess is good timing. You never want to say good timing on an injury, but I guess having the off day would be nice. Hopefully, I can get back in the next few days."

The Orioles haven't scheduled an MRI.

"We talked about it, but surprisingly there was no swelling today, so we don't really have to do one, but maybe if it doesn't feel better in the next few days, we'll do one," Britton said. "Right now, we haven't talked about going to get one today or tomorrow."

The injury capped off a strange game and an 8-7 loss.

""It was a tough night, I think," Britton said. "Us down there in the bullpen, especially. We pride ourselves doing a good job after the starter, give him those wins, especially those games that we should win. We didn't do a very good job last night, but we'll bounce back, and the guys will do a good job today if they get into the game."

So who's the closer in Britton's absence?

"I'll never tell until I get there," Showalter said. "We talked about it. We've got some options. That's a whole different roster, different batting order, different look that the Yankees will bring. Right now, I'm a lot more interested in trying to beat these guys with one of the best pitchers (Chris Sale), if not the, in the league."

The choice of closer also hinges on who's available. Darren O'Day is the logical pick, but not if he needs a day off. He threw 21 pitches last night and his status is unknown.

"We've got certain guys - I don't broadcast it before the game and somebody can ask me afterward - who aren't available," Showalter said. "I'm not going to talk to them (the White Sox) about it. It would be easy if you had two or three days off before you played.

"I've got a couple guys I won't use today, so I can't just kind of push things down like they're able to with (David) Robertson when he was gone. He's back today. All they did was take their seventh and push him to the eighth and take their eighth and push him to the ninth because they're real confident about getting six or seven innings out of their starter, which they do almost every night."

It's doubtful that Dylan Bundy would close unless other options are exhausted, but Showalter was asked about it.

"I think about anybody who gives us the best chance to win a game. All eight guys down there are in play, not one more than the other," Showalter said.

"This thing about closer. I mean, Mychal Givens closed a game in the sixth inning the other day. They're all relevant. There's just a certain finality about that inning. What is it, you get to go home if you get three outs?"

Showalter still wonders why umpires didn't call a triple play after Manny Machado slid wide of second base and reached for Brett Lawrie's ankle. And that's not the only question on his mind.

"Lawrie was out at the plate. He was out. I'm trying to figure out why they didn't overturn that one," Showalter said.

"We had an angle. The front foot never touched the plate. He was out. And strike three definitely (from Vance Worley). Right pretty much center cut."

For the White Sox
Adam Eaton RF
Carlos Sanchez SS
Jose Abreu 1B
Todd Frazier 3B
Melky Cabrera LF
Brett Lawrie 2B
Jerry Sands DH
Dioner Navarro C
Austin Jackson CF

Chris Sale LHP