Professional baseball has arrived and former Pirates didn’t take long to leave an impact on their ball clubs. Alec Burleson made the Cardinals opening day roster for the 1st time in his career, and Connor Norby though he didn’t land on the Orioles 40 man roster did find himself in Triple-A Norfolk.
Last Season Burleson appeared in just 16 Major League games recording 48 at bats. This season he didn’t see his name on the lineup card for opening day but did get to start in the 2nd and 3rd game of the season over the weekend. After a rough 0 for 4 stent on Saturday Burleson found his footing on Sunday. In the 1st inning on the 2nd pitch he saw he hit a 363 foot home run to left. He later added two doubles and ended up 3 for 4 on the day his 1st Major League multi hit game.
Connor Norby although didn’t have as spectacular of a game as the one Burleson had on Sunday, had a very constant opening weekend. He started in all three games for the Tides and had at least one hit in each of them. When the weekend wrapped up Norby had four hits, two of which were home runs, had six RBI, and had drawn a pair of walks.
It’s a long season that is for sure. But, we hope our former Pirates can keep up the good work in their time after leaving Greenville.