re: Tonight’s Lineup

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Is anyone else surprised to see Pearson leading off?

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No. He led off against ULL. Jay spoke highly of him giving quality at bats and hitting the ball hard when down in the count, and wanting to get Tre out of there. Will he stay there? We'll see. Personally, I'd like to see Stevenson or Doughty there, each for different reasons.

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Is anyone else surprised to see Pearson leading off?

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Jay Johnson's thoughts on it...

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“He had 41 at-bats under his belt coming into (Tuesday), and Josh is the first guy that has given us stable, quality at-bats,” Johnson said. “We could shove him up in front and a couple things are going to happen: He’s going to walk, he’s going to hit the ball hard … then your next two best hitters are Dylan Crews and Jacob Berry, so they’re sitting there after a guy has taken a quality at-bat.”

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“In terms of a good leadoff hitter, I want somebody who can put fear in the pitcher right from the first pitch of the game,” Johnson said. “We led Kris Bryant off when he was a junior, just mainly so they would walk him at least once a game.

"Josh has the ability to hit the ball over the fence, hit the ball in the gap, knowledge of the strike zone. The entire objective of every leadoff hitter in every inning is to get on base.”

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