Scott Garceau: I Really Like Our Guys
At 12:53 AM Matt Wieters blasted a neck high pitch over the Camden Yards right field wall ending Thursday's doubleheader on Friday morning. Two games, rain delays and extra innings capped with a terrific Orioles Magic comeback, WOW! After gutting out a pair of wins over the Pirates, Buck Showalter dropped an "I told you I like our guys" in his post-game press conference at 1:07 AM.
For those Orioles fans who showed up shortly before 4:00 o'clock they got 19 innings of baseball, two Oriole wins, and a" I like our guys" T-shirt. Almost forgot the doubleheader also included the return of Manny Machado, that's a nice return on your hard earned money. The Orioles won the opener 5-1 with a couple of interesting heroes. Steve Pearce was designated for assignment on April 22 and released five days later. After turning down an offer from Toronto, the first baseman was re-signed Monday after Chris Davis went on the disabled list.
Pierce had 3 hits and 2 RBI's in the opener. Buck likes this guy. "Stevie gave us a real lift," Buck said. "Made a couple nice plays at first, too. Stevie was a big contributor. Great example of players having an opportunity of deciding where they want to play. He wants to play (for us). We're thankful that he did." The strange sequence of Pierce events was not lost on Showalter. "I don't know if you'll ever see it again.
Buck also likes Ryan Flaherty, considerably more than some talk show callers who couldn't believe Buck would keep Flaherty and send down Steve Lombardozzi. Flaherty answered with a 2-run game winning hit in the opener. I like our guys!
Rain caused a 46 minute delay before the start of the second game, but it was worth waiting for. The Pirates were cruising with a 4-nothing lead when the Birds battled back scoring 4 runs with two out in the 6th inning. The Pirates went up 5-4 but Nick Markakis' second homer of the day made it 5-5 in the 7th. It stayed that way until the bottom of the 10th, with the bullpens emptied out, Matt Wieters blast touched off a happy home plate celebration, and all over The Yard you could hear Buck and fans in Orange saying "I Like our guys."
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