masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgManager Buck Showalter spent about five minutes taking questions from reporters after tonight’s 3-1 loss to the Twins.

On Jeremy Guthrie:
“His health, he’s turned the corner. He’s in good shape. He gave us a real chance to win. Deserves a better fate. Just ran up against a guy who was as good as he was tonight, and maybe a little better. Got a changeup out over the plate to (Jim) Thome. And we just didn’t put much together offensively. We didn’t square up many balls at all. We knew…Manager Buck Showalter spent about five minutes taking questions from reporters after tonight’s 3-1 loss to the Twins.

On Jeremy Guthrie:
“His health, he’s turned the corner. He’s in good shape. He gave us a real chance to win. Deserves a better fate. Just ran up against a guy who was as good as he was tonight, and maybe a little better. Got a changeup out over the plate to (Jim) Thome. And we just didn’t put much together offensively. We didn’t square up many balls at all. We knew (Scott) Baker was going to present a challenge coming in, locating the fastball, especially on the inner half. A two-seamer running in there. We got some balls we put in play, but you could just tell they weren’t squared up.”

On the home run allowed by Michael Gonzalez:
“Changeup. We gave up two home runs on changeups tonight. Mike’s had four days off. Obviously, that wasn’t the story of why we lost, but we know Mike’s capable of pitching better. It’s going to be hard doing it just sitting down there. But he’s better than that. He showed that the last month or so of the season. But we’ll see. He’s got to get better and he knows that.”

Buck Showalter tells the media why two changeups may have cost the Orioles the game tonight

On having right guys up with scoring chances:
“Close. But there’s a fine margin of error there. With Baker, you don’t get many pops at him and when you do, a lot of them were with two outs and you want to take advantage of it. It was about the pitching. Affirms you can feel like you’re swinging the bats pretty well – we talked about that earlier – but when you get a pitcher on top of his game and hitters on top of their game, not that we necessarily are, the pitcher’s going to win that battle. That’s why pitching’s at such a premium.”

On whether he considered pinch-hitting Jake Fox for Robert Andino in the ninth:
“Robbie’s swinging the bat well. Thought about it. Yeah.”

On no run support for Guthrie:
“Well, it’s not intentional. We’re trying and Jeremy had a good season for us last year and obviously had some good starts this year and won a game in Tampa to start the season, so I don’t think you dwell on that. You do what you can do and there will be days where it’ll be the other way around.”

The Orioles have scored a total of six runs in the 26 innings that Guthrie has been on the mound this season.

Also, Brian Roberts extended his hitting streak to nine games.