Baltimore Orioles led to victory on the bat of Steve Pearce

Steve Pearce was re-aqcuired by the Baltimore Orioles last month in a trade, and he may have come through big time in one of the biggest games of the year.

The Baltimore Orioles knew who they were getting in Steve Pearce when they traded for him last month. They also knew who they were getting when they re-signed Tommy Hunter (who had been released by Cleveland) prior to yesterday’s game. Both are role players for the Orioles. But both are very valuable as well.

The Orioles absolutely needed to have a strong start out of Kevin Gausman yesterday. And they got it. Gausman’s line: 7.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K. Gausman was great, and he shut down a pesky New York lineup that had given the Orioles fits all weekend.

Yesterday I wrote about how New York had a crop of young players, and how they basically had no business trying to compete their way into the post season this year. Part of that attitude stems from the fact that young players tend to be overly enthusiastic and will thus make mistakes – which is why veterans are more stable. As much as has been made about NY’s Sanchez, he fell victim to just that on a Teixeira second inning base hit. Sanchez decided to try to go from first to third – and was thrown out by Steve Pearce from right field.

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Again, that’s where it pays to be old! A veteran isn’t going to think that he can make that play and will smartly hold up at second. The one exception is that teams don’t expect their opponents to make mistakes like that, so sometimes it’ll end up working out in an idiot savant type of manner. But luckily for the Orioles Steve Pearce had ice water in his veins yesterday.

And that was proven two innings later in the sixth when Pearce smacked a solo homer to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead. It was a much-needed moment for an Orioles team that’s had a rough go of things the past few days. If it wasn’t their fans getting called out for cheering in a visiting ballpark, it was their team leader sucombing to leg cramps. Needless to say, the O’s have had it somewhat rough the past couple of days.

But Pearce wasn’t finished quite yet at that point. One inning later he came up with the bases loaded, and smacked a two-RBI single to center field. In a game dominated to that point by pitching, that broke things wide open. And one inning later Mark Trumbo effectively ended the competitive portion of the game with his league-leading fortieth homer – this of the two-run variety – to give the Orioles a 5-0 lead.