Baltimore Orioles: Zach Britton injured in loss

The Baltimore Orioles announced that closer Zach Britton has a sprained left ankle following last night’s 8-7 loss to Chicago. With two outs in the ninth inning of a tie game, Britton went to field a bunt and jammed himself – which caused the injury. The Orioles are listing him as day-to-day.

Courtesy of Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

The good news is that Britton was probably looking at having today off as it was, given that he had worked in two straight games. Tomorrow is also an off day, so Tuesday would have probably been the next game in which we would have seen Britton – at the earliest. It’s unclear at this point whether or not this will turn into a DL situation.

Kevin Gausman pitched a solid six innings for the Orioles last night, leaving them in a position to win the game. Gausman’s line: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 R (2 earned), 1 BB, 2 K. Gausman pitched to contact all night, which led to some quick outs. Unfortunately however, the defense behind him was somewhat suspect at times, which was surprising. But nobody can be perfect 100% of the time!

Mark Trumbo‘s RBI-single in the last of the first gave the O’s an early lead. However in the third inning we saw a rare Machado error, as he air mailed a throw trying to turn a double-play – allowing a run to score. Later in the inning Jonathan Schoop literally dropped a blooper shallow in the outfield, allowing another run to score. One inning later, Lawrie launched his second homer of the series and the Orioles trailed 3-1.

But the O’s didn’t trail for long. Both Pedro Alvarez and the aforementioned Schoop homered in the last of the fourth, and the O’s had suddenly tied things up. Alvarez would also smack an RBI-double an inning later, followed by an RBI-double by Adam Jones in the sixth, and the Birds held a 5-3 lead. All a recepie for victory, right?

Similar to the O’s, no lead is safe with the ChiSox. They cut the lead to 5-4 on an RBI-single by Jackson in the seventh, and Abreu’s RBI-single in the eighth tied the game. Frazier then smacked a two-run homer later in the inning, leaving the O’s trailing 7-5. That is…until Chris Davis smacked a two-RBI double in the last of the inning to tie things up at seven a piece.

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However it was Abreu’s RBI-single in the top of the ninth following Britton’s injury which gave Chicago the lead for good – and an 8-7 victory at Camden Yards. The situation with Britton is probably of a more pressing concern than the loss for the O’s, although manager Buck Showalter hopes that he’ll heal up quickly (quote courtesy of Roch Kubatko of MASNsports):

"Richie (Bancells) and them were looking at the replay and talking. He jammed it more than rolled it. I’m sure you all saw the replay, too. The proverbial day-to-day. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Zach’s always been a pretty quick healer, so we’ll see."

In the same respect, you also don’t want to rush a player (especially a pitcher) back and risk further injury. As I said, I don’t think Britton was going to see the field today anyways, and tomorrow is an off day. I suspect that they’d let Britton sit as long as Tuesday and possibly even Wednesday before they’d consider sending him to the DL. That’s just a prediction, but obviously if it were to become obvious that he was going to need to go to the DL before then they’d make the move.

Next: Baltimore Orioles: Nolan Reimold joins the party

The series with Chicago concludes this afternoon (weather permitting), with the O’s hoping for a series victory and the ChiSox a split. Ubaldo Jimenez goes to the mound for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Chicago’s Chris Sale. Game time is set for just after 1:30 PM.

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