Steve Pearce on his PRP injection, Britton on Gausman's outing

The Orioles' Steve Pearce said he cannot take part in baseball activities for 10 days after getting a platelet-rich plasma injection to alleviate discomfort in his right elbow/forearm area.

Pearce received the injection yesterday following an exam in New York with Dr. David Altcheck. With just 17 games remaining, can Pearce even make it back to play at all in the final games?

"I don't know. That is going to be we go on feel and see what I can do. For now, I got the PRP shot and we're going to give it 10 days to heal," he said.

Acquired on Aug. 1, the final day of the non-waiver trade deadline, from Tampa Bay for minor league catcher Jonah Heim, Pearce is batting .217 with three homers and six RBIs in 70 plate appearances for the Orioles.

"It's frustrating," he said of dealing with an injury now. "Especially where we are at in the season. We're so close to the playoffs. The timing of it is not really ideal and it's unfortunate."

Did Pearce feel he was finally past some of the elbow discomfort before he felt it grab on a throw Tuesday at Fenway Park?

"We were just keeping on maintaining it. Before the throw it was always a day-to-day thing. Sometimes it felt good, sometimes it didn't. It just depended on the day."

Pearce was also asked if the area could need surgery in the offseason.

"At this point, we are just trying to get this under control to finish out the season," he said.

Meanwhile across the clubhouse, O's closer Zach Britton was asked about the Orioles strong 6-3 road trip. During his answer about winning all three of those series, he turned to last night's game and the eight scoreless innings from starter Kevin Gausman.

"The icing on the cake was the way Gaus threw yesterday. That was impressive. I think it bodes well for us going forward. But, at the same time, you are only as good as the next game you play. So we have to go out and take this series, too," Britton said.

At the All-Star break, Gausman had an ERA of 4.15. But in 12 second-half starts, he is 7-4 with a 2.58 ERA. Over his last five starts, he has four scoreless outings, an ERA of 0.82 and a 1.00 WHIP. Britton was asked about Gauman's recent improvement.

"I think it is confidence," Britton said. "He's been able to get his pitch count up too, recently. When you know the manager has faith in you to run you back out there when you are over 100 pitches, you dig a little deeper as a young pitcher.

"He's done a nice job mixing in his breaking ball, too. I think the big thing for him was having something else he could go to when one of the other pitches wasn't there. He's just becoming a better pitcher, but it was something we knew he was capable of doing. Same thing with Dylan Bundy. These guys have impressive stuff. Not too many young pitchers in the game have better stuff than them."