Let's watch Steve Pearce take his new teammate J.A. Happ deep again and again
Steve Pearce is the newest Blue Jay, but he's already well-acquainted with one of his new teammates. The longtime Oriole has faced J.A. Happ more than any other pitcher and the results have been tremendous for Pearce.
In 33 plate appearances against Happ, Pearce has compiled a .357/.424/.967 slashline with five home runs. Although Pearce is known to have a bit of pop, he has only 66 career homers. This means 7.6% (!) of his home run output has come at the expense of Happ.
In honor of the two officially joining sides, let's take a look back and marvel at all five homers.
The first time Pearce took Happ deep was on Sept. 27, 2014. Apparently he enjoyed it so much that he did it for a second time in the following at-bat:
On May 21, 2015, with the bases loaded and two outs in the first inning, Pearce dug in against Happ and proceeded to hit the only grand slam in his career to date:
This past year, Pearce took him deep two more times. First he pulled it off as a member of the Rays on May 16:
And then, he got him one more time on Aug. 30 after returning to the Orioles:
There can be no doubt that Happ will be pleased to no longer have to encounter Pearce in the opposing batter's box.