Andrew Miller, one of Buck Showalter's former relievers, strongly defended the manager after he failed to use Zach Britton in the Baltimore Orioles' Wild Card loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Miller pitched for the Orioles in 2014. He regards Showalter as one of the best in baseball at running a bullpen.

"He's getting buried right now, but I tell people all the time how good he was," Miller said. "That's his reputation. It's not just me that's out there saying it. Today might not be the day to do it, but if you polled front-office guys who are out there, I think in general he would be as well-regarded as anybody at that particular skill."

With one out in the 11th inning, Showalter called on Ubaldo Jimenez rather than Britton. Jimenez allowed singles to Devon Travis and Josh Donaldson and an upper-deck home run to Edwin Encarnacion in a five-pitch span.

"I'm as surprised as anybody Britton didn't find his way into that game,'' Miller said. "But even with the earlier moves, [Darren] O'Day and [Brad] Brach did such a good job, it almost looked like, 'Buck knows what he's doing. He's got something going on.' It just backfired. If it worked out, everybody would have said he was a genius and had it all figured out. That's just the way it goes.''