Pearson still unhittable for Vancouver

Nate Pearson has been in professional baseball for a little over a month, but he's quickly adjusted to life in the Minor Leagues. 
In fact, the Northwest League has been hard-pressed to get a hit off the eighth-ranked Blue Jays prospect.
Pearson fanned five and issued one walk over four hitless innings as Class A Short Season Vancouver rolled to a 3-1 win over Everett at Everett Memorial Stadium on Thursday night. The right-hander, who has not surrendered a run in seven professional outings, has not yielded a hit over his last 10 innings on the hill. 

Gameday box score
"He was very impressive," Canadians manager Rich Miller said. "I was curious to see not only for him, but for our other pitchers as well, because Everett's ballpark isn't a true professional park in terms of their home run distances -- it's a small ballpark. I thought their hitters were going to be aggressive to see what they were going to do off Nate. They were aggressive, but Nate was aggressive early and struck out the side in the first inning. He had good, electric life on his fastball. He didn't have the good fastball command he's had in previous outings, but his fastball had great life."
Pearson dominated the junior college circuit this year, accumulating a 5-2 record and 1.56 ERA while fanning 118 hitters in 81 innings at the College of Central Florida. The Odessa, Florida native hasn't missed a beat since getting selected by Toronto in the first round of June's Draft, as he's whiffed 21 hitters and allowed just six to reach base in 17 innings across the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League and his current circuit. Opponents have mustered an .073 batting average against Pearson and collected just one extra-base hit.
"He's a big guy who throws really hard," Miller said. "What's nice about him is that his delivery is very smooth. It's not powerful, it's not herky-jerky. He stays within himself. He gets release times to the plate when he gets men on base, he's not very slow to the plate. He'll give our catcher a chance to throw somebody out.
"Jim Czajkowski, our pitching coach, has done a great job with him to say, 'Hey, this is what you have and we're going to get better with it. His breaking stuff is better and he's starting to use it more. Obviously, he's going to need that when he gets to the higher levels."
Pearson came out strong from the outset Thursday, striking out the side on 14 pitches. He tossed another 1-2-3 frame in the second, adding one more punchout. 
After Manny Pazos lined out to right field to start the third, Ronald Rosario drew a walk to give the AquaSox their first baserunner of the evening. But the 21-year-old remained in control and got Joe Venturino to pop out on one pitch before Chris Torres lined out to right to end the inning. 
Back out for the fourth, Pearson fanned Austin Grebeck on five pitches and then induced a groundout from Eugene Helder and a lineout from Greifer Andrade to close the book on his night. Over the course of his outing, the 6-foot-6, 245-pound hurler faced one over the minimum and threw 39 of 60 total pitches for strikes. 
"Personally, himself, I think he thought he was in total command," Miller said. "Yes, he did walk a guy and came right back right after the hitters. I think he felt that this was a lineup that he could get out, just like he has with everybody else."

Although Pearson has made things look easy early in his career, Miller knows there is going to be a point in time where his starter is going to face some adversity, whether that's this year or in subsequent seasons. The skipper believes Pearson has the right mix of stuff and intangibles to do it. 
"You hate to see somebody struggle, but everybody does, whether it's on defense, whether it's a hitter or if it's a pitcher," Miller said. "You need to see them struggle and, if we're talking about pitchers, pitch through some tough times."
Travis Bergen (1-0) took over in the fifth and allowed one hit while striking out five over four scoreless innings. Orlando Pascual surrendered a home run to Torres in the ninth, but finished the frame for his fifth save of the year.
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On the offensive side, No. 17 Blue Jays prospect Riley Adams delivered an RBI triple to extend his hitting streak to 14 games. Deiferson Barreto and Bryan Lizardo also chipped in two hits apiece for the Canadians.