masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgThe Orioles finish the month of April with a 14-9 record and uncertainty over the status of their closer beyond an early diagnosis of a sprained left ankle.
Zach Britton is day-to-day after jamming his ankle in the ninth inning, capping off the madness of an 8-7 loss to the White Sox in a game that lasted 3 hours and 42 minutes.
Britton was receiving treatment and unavailable to the media.
“We’re going to have challenges during the year,” said manager Buck Showalter. “We did a lot of good…

The Orioles finish the month of April with a 14-9 record and uncertainty over the status of their closer beyond an early diagnosis of a sprained left ankle.

Zach Britton is day-to-day after jamming his ankle in the ninth inning, capping off the madness of an 8-7 loss to the White Sox in a game that lasted 3 hours and 42 minutes.

Britton was receiving treatment and unavailable to the media.

“We’re going to have challenges during the year,” said manager Buck Showalter. “We did a lot of good things tonight. But no, I’m not one of those guys. Something happens, we’ll deal with it and our club knows that. We had a lot of good things happen tonight.”

Hyun-Soo-Kim-orange-swing-sidebar.jpgShowalter included Pedro Alvarez, who collected three hits, including his first home run. And Hyun Soo Kim, who doubled for his first major league extra-base hit and also singled twice.

Matt Wieters caught back-to-back games for the first “and felt good,” Showalter said. Kevin Gausman “pitched well,” allowing two earned runs (three total) in six innings, but denied the win after the bullpen had a rare misstep.

Chris Davis tied the game in the eighth with a two-run double off White Sox left-hander Zach Duke.

“CD had a big hit off a tough left-hander,” Showalter said. “That’s about as clutch as you can get. That guy’s tough on left-handers. We gave them four extra outs and it ended up biting us.

“Finished the month 14-9 and something like 7-4 in our division, so we’ll move on to May. One down, five to go.”

Showalter tried to wade through the confusion over the challenged double play that could have turned into a triple play. White Sox manager Robin Ventura was ejected by crew chief Gerry Davis after the ruling on the field stood and he continued to object.

Manny Machado slid to the left of second base and reached for Brett Lawrie’s ankle. The Orioles caught a break.

“It’s all about slides and impending force play,” Showalter said. “I didn’t have a whole lot of argument if they had overturned it, to be honest with you. If they had called him out at first.

“We’ve gone over that countless times. In spring training, we’ve done it again here, about what’s permissible and what’s not. Manny just got a little over-aggressive. Where we got fortunate is they didn’t attempt to turn the ball over to first base and didn’t feel like it impacted the play, I guess.

“We’re going to look for an explanation, too, because we would have challenged that, too. When I first saw it, I didn’t think we’d have much argument. It’s a little bit of a, I don’t want to say ‘flaw,’ but there’s been some gray area in a lot of people’s minds. But the way to combat it is to not do what we did.”

Britton, who hasn’t been on the disabled list since 2012 with a left shoulder impingement, was charged with the loss after Vance Worley let the inherited runner score on Jose Abreu’s single. Adam Eaton’s bunt single led to Britton’s injury and defeat.

Showalter said he wasn’t going to use Brad Brach or Dylan Bundy tonight.

Worley appeared to strike out Carlos Sanchez, but he didn’t get the call from plate umpire Carlos Torres. Sanchez walked and Abreu delivered the RBI single.

“The 2-2 pitch where Matt almost threw, thought the guy was running? Yeah, that’s strike three, but Matt may have blocked him out,” Showalter said. “I was told it was strike three. I haven’t seen it yet. But young umpire. I thought he had a pretty good game. Didn’t know what to expect. I thought he did a pretty good job tonight.”

Kim, booed on opening day, was cheered tonight after each hit. He’s winning over fans in his limited action, with nine hits in 15 at-bats.

“That’s very typical of our fans,” Showalter said. “This guy has been grinding and working and sometimes … I was telling, it might have been Scott (Coolbaugh) today, that sometimes it might have been nice for him to take a little breather and kind of step back and get to watch a major league game and kind of step back because he’s a watcher. He watches the game. He likes to see things through, and I think in some ways today it may have kind of helped him to kind of step back and take some of the pressure off for a while.

“Even his batting practice has been a lot more crisp. He’s really worked hard at it.”