Zach Britton talks about setting a major league record

After recording his latest save last night in the 3-2 win over Texas, Orioles closer Zach Britton is a major league record holder. He is 2-1 with a 0.59 ERA and 33 saves in 33 chances.

According to STATS, LLC, Britton has the longest save streak in as many chances to start a season by a left-handed pitcher in major league history. He broke a tie he held with Willie Hernandez, who went 32-for-32 for the 1984 Detroit Tigers. Britton's run of 33 straight saves to start a season is tied for seventh-best all-time.

"You know it's pretty cool," Britton said this afternoon. "I thought about it a little bit last night. Anytime you are in the company with some of the guys they are mentioning, it's pretty cool. Still got a long way to go, but was able to take it in a little it last night how far I've come in obviously a different role than I ever thought I'd be in.

"It feels good. It's kind of crazy to think of having success in this role. Obviously, I always envisioned myself as a starting pitcher. So to kind of see myself now, three years removed from starting, my third year in the bullpen and to be where I am at right now is pretty cool."

The previous best mark by an Oriole to start a year in saves was set by Chris Ray, who went 18-for-18 to begin the 2006 season. Britton blew by that and even added a save in the All-Star game that doesn't count in his 33 straight in 2016.

"Like I said, when you look at the guys on the list, I hadn't really paid attention to it," Britton said. "Someone brought it to my attention, so I thought I should do the research and actually get to know the people you are passing. And realize some of these guys had great careers and you don't take it lightly and just feel really fortunate.

"I went and looked up Willie Hernandez. Didn't realize he won a Cy Young and MVP and World Series. That is a pretty good track record right there. But I've got a long way to go. Those guys had great careers."

Hernandez achieved all of that during that great 1984 year he and the Tigers had. They went 35-5 to start that season, won 104 games in the regular season and beat San Diego in the World Series.

Britton's save Wednesday night was the 106th of his career, the most by a lefty in team history as he passed Tippy Martinez. Britton is the active major league leader with 35 consecutive saves dating to Oct. 1, 2015.

Britton was once of the game's best young starting pitching prospects. He was ranked No. 63 on Baseball America's top 100 prospects list in 2009 and No. 28 at the end of the 2010 season. He hasn't started a big league game since Sept. 4, 2013.

Does he ever think about going back to being a starting pitcher?

"I embraced the bullpen a long time ago," he said. "Maybe one reason I got off to a decent start in the bullpen was I kind of accepted that was where I was going to be. Unless anything changed or they told me I was going to start again, I just went with the flow on it. I don't know what the future holds, but right now I'm really happy doing what I'm doing. It would be kind of difficult to go back. When you have success and start to get comfortable in a role, it's hard to go back to something different."