Kovacevic: Mercer, Pirates forging first steps

There aren't many metrics, advanced or otherwise, that point to the Pirates being better this summer. It's simple logic, if only because it's really hard to win 98 games, as they did in 2015. And it's really, really hard to win 100. This franchise, born in 1887, has achieved that exactly twice, both during the Honus Wagner era, way back in 1902 and 1909.

Which leads me, against all odds, to reference the current shortstop.

You know, the guy who did this in the 11th inning late Wednesday night at PNC Park:



That was Jordy Mercer, of course, reaching out to poke an RBI single inside the first-base chalk and seal a 6-5 walkoff win over the Cardinals.



And yeah, that's 2-0 for the home team, 0-2 for the chief nemesis.

"Man, that felt good," Mercer told me afterward. "The moment it happens, you feel ... you feel like positive things are happening. Not just for me, but for the whole team."

Well worded. But also, possibly, truer on a broader scale than he might have realized.

See, this season is different. The roster might not be too different, but the focus absolutely is. It has to be. Because overwhelming precedent would suggest these Pirates won't top 98 wins. And definitive precedent shows they'll have great difficulty making the playoffs a fourth consecutive year, something they've never done. In a division in which the Cubs upgraded and the Cardinals will eventually be the Cardinals, that's cemented all the more.

Which is why, beyond any doubt, that Clint Hurdle, a man of countless eloquent preachings about betterment, some about baseball but most about life, began eschewing all tangible team goals heading into the spring training just passed. He spoke, publicly and to his players, sometimes in a group, sometimes one-on-one, about getting better. About looking in the mirror. About asking themselves the hard questions.

From there, his reasoning went, the collective was bound to benefit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faHj2YtEsmA

We're two games into this season. We know next to nothing about how the final 160 will play out. But what we've seen already would suggest -- and nothing more -- that a better start is at hand than in 2015, when the Pirates dug an 18-22 hole through mid-May.

How about Andrew McCutchen?

He was the biggest variable in the 2015 start, stuck at .188 through five weeks. He didn't have his first three-hit game until May 7. And all he did on this night was to go 3 for 5 with an RBI double.

"I was saying all through the spring: I'm feeling strong," Cutch said afterward.

How about Josh Harrison?

His hole was .173 deep through May 10 of last year. He went 2 for 5 in this game. His first single was a richly impressive show of his old unpredictability in lasering one pitch just foul toward right field, then ramming a single to left when the next pitch ran on his fists. His other was the infield single just before Mercer ended it.

"Swinging and hitting the ball hard," J-Hay would say with a playful shrug. "Like I always have. Like I know I'll be doing all year."

How about Gregory Polanco?

He was at .233 through the All-Star break last summer, and calls were coming from all corners to replace him with a Travis Snider-type for the stretch. Now, feeding off not only his .276 recovery over the rest of 2015, but also the fresh $35 million extension he'd signed earlier on this Tuesday, he smashed a first-at-bat RBI triple off the Clemente Wall that he'd describe as "something I wanted really bad" because of the contract.

It sure showed:



He then began the rally in the 11th with a walk that snapped a streak of 18 batters retired by the St. Louis bullpen, and raced to beat out the flip to second when he could have been forced on Harrison's infield single.

Polanco's ceiling is limitless. And now that the extension is behind him -- trust me, it weighed on his mind -- he'll be freed up to the next level.

And yeah, how about that shortstop?

Half of the Pirates' lineup was lousy to open last season, and Mercer, the guy at the bottom, was the very least of them. He was at .171 through May 22, with no home runs in 111 at-bats. He'd visibly lost confidence. He worried about his job. And even once he dug out, following an inspirational chat with Hurdle in which the manager vowed to stick by him, he still wound up at .244  for the season.

It's funny, but for all the fuss about how the Pirates were so unlucky to fall into another one-and-done wild card, and for all the dissection that followed regarding trades and promotions and payroll, what hurt that group more than anything was that four everyday cogs didn't get the job done until far too late.

That's why Mercer, in particular, was so vocal on the subject for this St. Patrick's Day column I wrote from Bradenton. And infinitely more important, that's why he's walking the walk and, maybe most striking, talking the talk.

Listen to Mercer describing how he worked St. Louis' Seth Maness in the 11th: "He threw me off by throwing three changeups in that at-bat, including the first two. After I swung and missed on the 2-1 changeup, I told myself just to kind of let it travel. I know what he's got. I've faced him a ton of times. I wanted to see it deep."

Doesn't sound like the jittery Jordy of early 2015, does it?

Maness' final pitch was a sinker away. It should have been problematic after the surprising changeups. It wasn't.

"Honestly, because I waited it out, saw it, read out, I just went the other way," Mercer said. "I just went with the pitch."

What does this 2-for-5, plus an RBI double to deep right in Sunday's opener, mean?

“Time will tell," Hurdle said. "Nothing breeds confidence like success. In business. In life. In sport. Got a big hit the other day, drove a ball to the gap, drove in a run. Couple hits tonight. Game-winner. It’s good to see.”

And does it mean something to Mercer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PWFOB-LLaM

Yep. It's a start. No more, but certainly no less.