Sam Perlozzo defiantly defended his status as manager of the Orioles before Tuesday’s game against Toronto.

Perlozzo, in his second full season with the club after taking over later in 2005, defended his game decisions.

“First of all, I think that if you haven’t put your people in the right place that you should worry about your job, and I don’t feel that’s the case,” Perlozzo said. “I think if anybody knows anything about baseball that they’d know that many of the games we’ve lost are setup guy and closer [innings]. You put the people in and if they don’t do their job then we pick up the pieces and we go out there the next time. You’ve got to have some common sense and knowledge of the game to realize what’s going on out here.”

Perlozzo said he did not think twice about whether or not he has the support of his team.

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“When you manage a team, you’re going to have some people that may not like you, and if they can’t perform because they don’t like me, then they can’t be very good people,” Perlozzo said. “People get paid to go out and do a job. A lot of people come here to see people play. That’s all there is to it. There’s no right in this world not to give 100 percent out there, no matter who’s in charge.”

Jim Duquette, the team’s vice president of baseball operations, appeared angry when asked about Perlozzo’s animated press conference.

“We’ve been talking about it for two weeks,” Duquette said, his voice rising. “We’re not going to be talking about the manager’s job. You want to talk about something else, I’ll be available, [executive of baseball operations] Mike [Flanagan] will be available.”

Players like second baseman Brian Roberts talked about the pressure facing Perlozzo.

“Maybe he’s not doing all the right things, but it’s our job to go out there and score runs,” Roberts said. “The manager is under scrutiny, but we’ve got to go out on the field and get the job done.”