Showalter on Pearce and Morse

NEW YORK - Orioles manager Buck Showalter is hoping that outfielder Steve Pearce will be ready to come off the disabled list in 12 days, which would make him eligible on Sept. 12. Yes, that's my birthday. No, I don't consider Steve Pearce to be an appropriate or suitable gift. Pearce is bothered again by inflammation in his left wrist, which is heavily wrapped this morning. He's already gone on the DL once because of his condition. "He's going to head to Sarasota in the next day or two," Showalter said. "Left wrist still been bothering him. That's one of the reasons we haven't been playing him against some of the left-handed pitching. Hopefully, we can clean that up down in Sarasota. Luckily, he lives in Lakeland so it should work out. Instructional League starts on the 11th. Our trainers and a couple of our coaches there are going to have to work overtime. Stevie will head down there. "Stevie is such a competitor and such a grinder. He's a physical guy and not to be carrying everything... He's gone through periods when he feels great, and then because of the work that all guys do to get ready to play... It's just a very repetitious sport, and there's a fine line between it. But we're going to take a look at it with our specialist down there and make sure there's nothing structurally wrong, which we don't think there is. I think he'll be back in 12 days. I hope." Pearce will decide after the season whether to undergo surgery on the wrist. "Just some inflammation there," he said. "It's about the same (as before). It's good for me to take care of it. The only thing that's good for this type of injury is time off. In baseball, it kind of stinks because I need my wrist to swing. "It's been very frustrating. I've been dealing with it all year and when I started getting into a groove it started to flare up again. It's probably something I'm going to have to address in the future. "I should be able to come back after the two weeks off. We'll get it back by then." Showalter chose to sit Michael Morse today and start him Sunday against Andy Pettitte. Morse had travel issues last night. Also, Showalter wanted to play Wilson Betemit today. "We kind of like Wilson, too. We're going to use everybody," Showalter said. "(Morse) got to the hotel around 3:30 this morning. The plane had issues coming out of Houston. They didn't get airborne until whenever. It was a full flight. Six-foot-five in the middle seat in the back of the plane, he was telling me. Last flight out of Houston. So, it's been a tough travel for him. But he'll be in the lineup tomorrow and available to us off the bench today. We'll give him a day to get his feet on the ground. And he doesn't sleep on planes, either. "He's pretty excited about being here. He was kidding about some of our guys. When they were in our place, he had heard a lot of talk about our interest in him. He said it's been a long wait." Showalter said the Orioles will add at least one player from Triple-a Norfolk on Sunday, the first day that rosters can expand. Wei-Yin Chen is here and still scheduled to start on Sunday. Today is Hall of Famer Frank Robinson's 78th birthday. The Reds say he's an old 78.