Steve Pearce: "We know we can turn this thing around"

ARLINGTON, Texas - Steve Pearce didn't issue a Joe Namath guarantee last night. He didn't go that far. But he told reporters that the Orioles aren't "out of this thing" and better days are ahead - beginning this afternoon.

"It almost seems like nobody wants to take that last (wild card) spot," he said. "We've got the team for it. We know we can turn this thing around and it's going to start (today)."

The Orioles are facing their third consecutive left-hander. Derek Holland is making only his fourth start of the season and his third since coming off the disabled list.

Holland lasted one inning and threw only nine pitches before exiting his April 10 start against the Astros with an injured left shoulder. He returned on Aug. 19 and has allowed six runs and 15 hits over 12 1/3 innings, with one walk, nine strikeouts and four home runs in his two outings.

Holland is 4-2 with a 3.60 ERA in seven career games (six starts) against the Orioles. Manny Machado is 4-for-11, Adam Jones is 4-for-17 with seven strikeouts, Matt Wieters is 2-for-15 with two home runs and Chris Davis is 0-for-7 with six strikeouts.

Davis was 2-for-29 with 17 strikeouts before his single in the eighth inning. Captain Obvious says he needs to heat up again.

Miguel Gonzalez hasn't worked more than 5 1/3 innings in 10 of his last 13 starts. He's allowed 10 runs and 14 hits over 9 1/3 innings in his last two starts, with five walks, six strikeouts and two home runs.

Gonzalez is 7-6 with a 4.24 ERA in 16 starts in the first half and 2-4 with a 5.95 ERA in eight starts in the second half. He's 0-3 with a 6.84 ERA in five August starts, with 20 runs and 32 hits allowed in 26 1/3 innings. He's walked 13, struck out 22 and surrendered six home runs.

Gonzalez is 2-2 with a 4.76 ERA in four career starts versus the Rangers, and 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA in two starts at Globe Life Park. Mitch Moreland is 4-for-10 with a home run, Shin-Soo Choo is 3-for-8 with a double and home run, and Adrian Beltre is 1-for-11.

The Orioles are 4 1/2 games behind the Rangers for the second wild card. The losses bring greater pain when they come against a team in front of you.

"Yeah. Every game you think about that because you know they're on top of us and you have to come here and try to win games, but that hasn't been the case in the first two games," said Ubaldo Jimenez. "Hopefully, we can get it going (today)."

"I think there's a good run ahead of us," said manager Buck Showalter, "but we've just got to start at some point."

Searching for positives, Showalter talked about free-swinging outfielder Dariel Alvarez drawing a walk with one out in the ninth inning. Alvarez also had two hits.

"I thought Dariel handled himself well. I thought the walk was impressive," Showalter said.

"You don't want guys to take until they hit. That's been thrown out the window with moneyball and all that stuff. You can't play the game that way. He did a good job of hitting until he took tonight and that's really hard to do because you've got a very small window there in order to do it. We'll see what (today) brings, but it was a good night for him."