To hit a walk-off grand slam in the majors is unequivocally one of the coolest athletic feats to aspire to and, if some chips fall the right way, to then accomplish. To do it twice in one season would be incredible. Toronto OF Steve Pearce just did it twice in a four-day span, leaving everyone wondering where this aggressive burst of power came from. Pearce is not a highly-regarded fantasy OF, being owned in just 6% of Yahoo leagues and a paltry 2.7% of ESPN leagues. He went just 2-12, 2 R, HR, 4 RBI, BB over the weekend series with the Angels, but the buzz was all about his consecutive series with chances to deliver a pair of POLLYWOGS in recent days. So where's this been all season? Pearce usually bats fifth or sixth for the Jays, so no shocking revelation there on how he gets gifted a bases-loaded situation after All-Star cleanup man Justin Smoak does his thing. Right place at the right time for a .267 hitter with just eight homers prior to these eye-opening slams? Well, yes, in multiple senses of the word: Pearce's walk-off Sunday helped Toronto avoid—by just one run—a sweep by the Angels (themselves likely ticked off after being dealt some stinging losses in Cleveland). Oakland is just not playing very good all-around baseball right now, so to spur the Jays on to a sweep of them at hitter-friendly Rogers Centre also seems a little easier, in context. A lower BABIP than last year's for Pearce loosely correlates to the ISO that is flying under the radar at .195, but that still seems like grasping at straws. Both of these blasts were pulled to LF by the righty, so Bud Norris and Liam Hendriks each got burned by a guy comfortable at home with low-90s fastballs in high-leverage situations. I love the story, and Pearce's 16.7% HR/FB ratio is perfectly fine. But ultimately, the hard contact (33.3%) and plate discipline sabermetrics do nothing to wow me into thinking I can trust this guy rest-of-season to be a steady producer. He's a veteran player, but the stats just aren't there in the longer term to necessitate the advice of adding him immediately. Watchlist it up, but he's decidedly better against RHP and splits very poorly away against southpaws. Sounds like Pearce merely took advantage of a very favorable situation, which may now may not happen again soon if opposing bullpens were paying attention at all last week.
Let's take a look at what else is going on in the world of MLB hitting:
