Pearce on win, Brach on 'pen, Chen on his outing after victory over Houston

Steve Pearce said American League ERA leader Dallas Keuchel of the Houston Astros made a rare mistake.

With a man on first base and with a 3-2 lead in the last of the seventh, his first pitch to Pearce was up in the zone and Pearce didn't miss it. He hit a two-run homer to right-center that put the Orioles ahead 4-3, and they won by that margin today over the Astros.

Coming off back-to-back losses in Miami, it was big to win the series opener in come-from-behind fashion against the team with the second-best record in the majors.

Could this be the start of something for the Orioles, who would have fallen to 19-23 with a loss?

"We want it to be," Pearce said. "It's a big win. Big win to start the series. Hope it propels us the rest of the year."

Pearce hit his fourth homer and first since May 21 against Seattle.

"We just capitalized on his mistakes and we hadn't been doing that all year," he said. "Hope this is the start of something. We have a good hitting team, but haven't been consistent all year. Now is as good a time as any to get hot.

"This is huge for us as a team. Our division is very tight right now so to start this series with a win against this pitcher, hope it swings some momentum our way.

"Never feel good about losing but we bounced back. Didn't let losing to a team that was struggling affect us. Today is a new day and new series and we flushed whatever happened in Miami away."

Right-hander Brad Brach blanked Houston in the sixth and seventh innings. He retired all six batters he faced on just 23 pitches. This after Houston batters went 11-for-25 against starter Wei-Yin Chen.

"I just was throwing strikes and today located my fastball really well," Brach said. "Tried to throw some off-speed early in the count because from pitch one, they are ready to hit. For me, it was get them out front and I had some good velocity today on the fastball."

Brach talked about the O's relievers pitching four scoreless innings, retiring all 12 batters they faced with six strikeouts. That included a 17-pitch eighth inning from rookie Oliver Drake.

"He (Chen) kind of set us up there," Brach said. "He was throwing a lot of balls in the zone and they found some holes. They were real aggressive and that played good for us. Get ahead with off-speed and then locate our fastball.

"His (Drake's) splitter is filthy. For him to go out there in a tough situation, that was awesome to see. Hopefully he can keep rolling and he looks real good so far."

Chen gave up 11 hits today, one off his career high and three runs over five innings. He had pitched seven or more innings in four of his last five starts.

Houston was just 1-for-11 against him with runners in scoring position. That one hit was a bloop two-run single to right by Chris Carter that put Chen and the Orioles behind 3-2 in the fifth.

"I allowed a lot of hits today," Chen said through interpreter Louis Chao. "But I'm thankful for my teammates, who played good defense behind me. That ball wasn't hit that hard, but it dropped in a bad place for me. All I can do after that is manage damage control."

Chen was asked about pitching today against the AL leader in ERA.

"Keuchel is a great lefty. When I see him, there is opportunity to learn. Even though I didn't do that well, still I am happy to have the opportunity to pitch against him," he said.

With the four hitless innings today, the O's bullpen has allowed just six earned runs over the last 30 1/3 innings for a 1.78 ERA. The 'pen has allowed just one hit with 10 strikeouts over its last eight innings.

Here is something that sure seems rare and happened in today's game: The Orioles had no runners left on base and had no at-bats with a runner in scoring position. They had a runner reach first base five times via a hit or walk. Each time the runner either was erased on a double play or scored on a home run.