A left-handed closer, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said, is a “Utopian closer,” and he believes so for a variety of reasons.
“That Utopian closer is left-handed, because those guys negate the left-handed bats late in the game that come off the bench, a lot of these ballparks are left-handed friendly, it holds runners — it does a lot of great things to have a left-handed closer,” he said before Wednesday’s game.
His own Utopian closer, Zach Britton, just hours after his manager praised his growth into the role over the last two-plus seasons at length, clinched a lot of great things on his own in Wednesday’s 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers.