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 The question now is whether the 26-year-old left-hander will
settle into the Baltimore Orioles' ninth-inning role.
Manager Buck Showalter was noncommittal on whether Britton would
take over as his closer after the Orioles' 2-1 win over the Kansas
City Royals.
"Guys graduate," Showalter said. "It was a good start, and it's good
to know that if we need him for a given night, he'll be ready. We'll
see how it goes from here."
Britton lowered his ERA to 0.81 after retiring the side in order on
three groundouts. He got the ball in the ninth after closer Tommy
Hunter blew his past two save chances.
"I just make sure I'm prepared," Britton said. "Everyone is prepared
to throw that inning, whenever Tommy (Hunter) needs a break. To me,
it was three outs, just like any other three outs. I just wanted to
get ground balls."
Britton was the last of four Baltimore relievers who backed up
left-hander Wei-Yin Chen in shutting down the Kansas City offense to
end the Orioles' four-game losing streak.
Chen (5-2) limited the Royals to one run on seven hits over 5 1/3
innings before turning over the lead to the bullpen.
Darren O'Day, Troy Patton, Ryan Webb and Britton held the Royals
hitless after Chen exited. O'Day prevented two inherited runners
from scoring in the sixth.
"The chain works when you don't have anyone blinking, but you still
have to execute," Showalter said of his relievers. "I actually think
the job Darren did in the sixth was more important (than the ninth),
but it's all part of getting the 27th out. Darren was sharp.
"They had some tough matchups coming up against Wei-Yin, so we
thought it was the right time to get him out of there. I felt like
it was a spot where there was some momentum moving, and we looked at
Darren's strengths and their strengths."
Royals right-hander Yordano "Ace" Ventura (2-3) gave up a two-run
home run to designated hitter Nelson Cruz in the fourth inning.
Ventura retired 10 in a row after Cruz homered, striking out seven
in that span. He finished with nine strikeouts in his 6 1/3-inning
outing. Ventura allowed seven hits and walked one.
"After the home run, I got a little more aggressive ... in the
strike zone," Ventura said with teammate Bruce Chen his interpreter.
"I felt like all of my pitches were working real well after that. I
pitched liked that until they took me out."
Cruz, who homered Wednesday off Tigers right-hander Justin
Verlander, hit his 12th home run Thursday. His shot followed a walk
by first baseman Chris Davis. Cruz, who ranks second in the American
League in home runs, drove Ventura's first pitch out to
right-center.
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The Royals got a run back in the bottom of the second. Singles by
first baseman Eric Hosmer, catcher Salvador Perez and left fielder
Alex Gordon loaded the bases with one out. Third baseman Danny
Valencia just missed a grand slam, settling for a sacrifice fly to
the left field warning track that David Lough caught, scoring
Hosmer. The Royals traded Lough to the Orioles in December for
Valencia.
"When Nelson hit the home run and we had the lead, I wanted to not
allow any runs to give us a chance to win," Wei-Yin Chen said
through a translator. "Valencia hits my fastball pretty good. I
think I threw a curve. My heart skipped a beat (when it looked like
it was going out)."
The Royals also got a scare on the play when Perez was shaken up
sliding head first into third base. Manager Ned Yost and the Kansas
City trainers rushed to Perez's side, but the catcher remained in
the game.
"He's fine," Yost said. "When he slid into third, he hit (Manny)
Machado's knee, and it just stretched his neck a little. It didn't
even have anything to do with his head. It was his neck."
Right fielder Nick Markakis collected three of the Orioles' 10 hits.
Machado and shortstop J.J. Hardy added two hits apiece.
Gordon paced the Kansas City offense with two hits.
NOTES: Orioles RHP Kevin Gausman, who was called up to start
Wednesday and took the loss against the Tigers, was optioned to
Triple-A Norfolk on Thursday. Gausman surrendered five runs in four
innings against Detroit. Baltimore recalled RHP Evan Meek from
Norfolk, adding an extra arm to an overworked bullpen. ... Royals
RHP Wade Davis was unavailable because of a stiff neck. ... Kansas
City is 4-1 with a split in its past six series.
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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