Steve Pearce is hot; taking 3 of 4 from the Rays
Last night he hit his 16th homer.
Did anyone pick Steve Pearce in the 16-homer poll? I still don’t get him. Granted he swings hard but he let’s go of the bat all the time and is swinging one-handed. No matter, he’s penciled in the Orioles lineup daily and most of the time, he produces.
Pearce is a product of the South. He grew up in Florida and played baseball at the University of South Carolina. Actually, he was a star at South Carolina winning the triple crown and hitting 40 homers. Holy smoke.
So after this successful run in college, he signed with the Pirates. And then he began the traveling game. He went from the Pirates to the Twins to the Yankees to the Birds.
Now he’s 31-years-old. And now he’s a big-time player for the first-place Birds. Recall he had never batted more than 200 times in any of his stops. Now he’s over 300 at-bats.
These Birds are great. We have determined that this is a team built for the long haul. That bullpen is as good as it gets. Picking up Andrew Miller from the Red Sox was brilliant. He fits right in with Tommy Hunter, Darren O’Day and Zach Britton.
We had a four-game series with Tampa this week. Granted the Rays aren’t great but that pitching staff can eat you up even without David Price.
Game one came on Monday. Chris Tillman was going for win No. 11. A six-run fifth inning decided this game. Delmon Young cracked a three-run homer. JJ Hardy joined in on the fun with another dinger. The Rays made a pitching change and Chris Davis greeted the reliever with a solo shot. It was a rout to the tune of 9-1.
On Tuesday, we had a chance to show that giving up on Grant Balfour wasn’t such a bad idea. Recall, we almost had him. He’s now 1-6 after losing to the Orioles.
We didn’t launch one single homer in the 4-2 win. Caleb Joseph drove in a pair of runs in the 4-2 win. Brad Brach picked up his fifth win in this game.
On Wednesday, we didn’t do enough hitting. Davis’ homer accounted for one of our two hits in the 3-1 loss.
In the series finale last night, the Rays jumped out early. We trailed 2-0 and 4-2. No panic for these Birds. Peace homered as we came back. A timely error by the Rays knotted this game up at 4-4. And then Hardy blooped one in for the go-ahead run. Brach, Miller and Britton shut down the Rays in the 5-4 win.
Oh, more cool stories from my book, “Tales from Orioles Nation.”
Like the time Mike Young, Mike Boddiker, and Mike Flanagan all came down to our DC office for autograph sessions.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/bill-pemstein/tales-from-orioles-nation/paperback/product-21757959.html
