The 12C(p, π +) 13C and 9Be(p, π +) 10Be reactions at 185 MeV are examined. We start with a model in which the pion is produced by an incident proton which then becomes a bound neutron. A non-relativistic reduction of the pseudoscalar operator results in a non-Galilean invariant pion production operator. The recent Uppsala data are then fit with a DWBA calculation which takes the pion's distortion from the Kisslinger potential. In this calculation, which uses the free pion-nucleon coupling constant at the interaction vertex, the same pion optical potential accounts for both the elastic and (p, π +) data. The reaction is sensitive to details of nuclear structure because of the large momentum transfer involved. The final nuclear state has components which consist of a single particle of high angular momentum (or high radial quantum number) coupled to an excited state of the target. The amplitudes of these components are calculated in perturbation theory. Such configurations participate in the reaction in three ways (i) a (p, p') reaction, in which the target is excited, followed by pion emission from the p'; (ii) pion emission from the proton followed by a (π, π') reaction; and, (iii) the proton emitting the pion first, and then exciting the target (pre-emission). The size of these effects is not negligible but can be absorbed into the freedom of choosing the wave function of the bound neutron.