Matt Wieters will catch Bud Norris for the first time tonight. He said you can't really learn that much about working with a new pitcher until you get a few games catching him under your belt.
You don't see O's pitchers shake off Wieters very much, but he said it could happen several times tonight and that would be totally fine if and when it does.
"It is something I would actually welcome early on," Wieters said. "Because we might not quite be on the same page yet. But I try to take pride once I've caught a guy a few times to be on the same page and make the game go quick that way. Just have to pitch to his strengths and hopefully it will be a good result."
But what about facing a team that knows the O's pitcher this well with Norris facing his former team? Does that make Wieters call the game differently than he normally might?
"I think you can overthink it," he said. "You have a catcher that has caught him before, but not too many guys have actually been in the box against him. It's a whole different feel seeing him throw from behind him and then being in the box."
Norris is 6-9 with a 3.93 ERA. He has not pitched since July 24, so he will be working on seven days rest. In his career, on six days rest or more, Norris is 2-8 with a 5.36 ERA.
"It can go either way," Wieters said. "You can feel really strong or sometimes you can feel too strong. You can't really relate why sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn't. It's the luck of the draw of what kind of stuff you have when you get out there.
"Command of his fastball against an aggressive team like Houston is important. You want to get some early outs."
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