masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgBrad Bergesen didn’t feel like he brought his best stuff into tonight’s start.

“It was a really a battle, but when I look back on it, it was really that one breaking ball to Billy Butler that was the one that sticks out,” he said. “Kranny (Rick Kranitz) and (Matt) Wieters both came out there and told me, ‘All 0-2 pitches, everything out of the zone.’ And sure enough, first pitch, I try and get it down and I hung one right in the zone and he made me pay for it. I can’t do that. That was…Brad Bergesen didn’t feel like he brought his best stuff into tonight’s start.

“It was a really a battle, but when I look back on it, it was really that one breaking ball to Billy Butler that was the one that sticks out,” he said. “Kranny (Rick Kranitz) and (Matt) Wieters both came out there and told me, ‘All 0-2 pitches, everything out of the zone.’ And sure enough, first pitch, I try and get it down and I hung one right in the zone and he made me pay for it. I can’t do that. That was the deciding factor in the game.”

Bergesen is referring to Butler’s RBI double in the seventh.

“That was a missed location,” he said. “They told me to have it out of the zone and I left it in the middle of the plate.”

Asked about the balk call, Bergesen said, “I didn’t even know what I did at the time, but I found out after the game. They said that I kind of rocked back and then stepped off. It was a balk. It stinks that it was one of the deciding factors in a one-run ballgame. It happens. Lessons learned.”

Here’s what he said about facing Butler again after taking the line drive off his shin last July:

“I knew I was going to face a couple of questions about that. No, it wasn’t in the back of my mind at all. I was more affected by him hitting that double today like he did. He’s a good hitter.”