MIAMI — With the roof open at Marlins Park, a gust of wind blew from right to left field as Elias Diaz stepped to the plate in the fifth inning, and he promptly swung at a first-pitch, four-seam fastball. The ball left his bat at a speed of 108.6 mph and had only the fourth-highest launch angle of any hit Friday night.
But Diaz, using a leg kick he began experimenting with in spring training, struck the ball so hard it was lined a few feet over the wall in left field for a 393-foot, two-run homer to give the Pirates a lead. The at-bat displayed the 27-year-old's limitless potential and why the Pirates trusted him to be Francisco Cervelli's backup this season.
Then, later in the inning, Diaz's throw to second to try to catch a runner advancing on a sacrifice fly sailed into center field and allowed two more runners to score. The error cost the team a one-run lead, and the Pirates never recovered in a 7-2 loss to the Marlins, as their struggling offense mustered only five hits to drop their record to 9-4.
However, neither Clint Hurdle nor Diaz's teammates begrudged him the misfired throw. After all, Diaz's fearlessness is why he has proven to be capable of handling a prominent role in the major leagues.
"I’m going to continue to throw the ball," Diaz said afterward. "I’m going to make an error because I’m human. I’m going to continue to be aggressive. If I can make an out, I do."
A closer look at the play shows why Hurdle found nothing wrong with Diaz's decision. The Marlins (4-9) loaded the bases off Chad Kuhl with three consecutive singles to bring Starlin Castro, the club's No. 3 hitter, to the plate with no outs. Castro hit a slider to deep right field, and Gregory Polanco made the catch.
Here is how it all unfolded:
Polanco threw to home plate to try to get Dillon Peters, the Marlins' starting pitcher, but his throw was well off the mark. Diaz quickly read the play and fired a throw to second base to try to get Miguel Rojas. His throw, though, went over Jordy Mercer's head, and Starling Marte was not in center field to back up the play.
Hurdle had an issue with Polanco's decision to throw home instead of to a cutoff man or to third base, because the Pirates' scouting report on Peters profiled him as a capable athlete who should score easily on a ball hit that far into the outfield.
"He had a play at second base. He threw it high," Hurdle explained. "Maybe he got in a hurry. I don’t know, but he made a play. I thought he made a good read to go get the ball because, first of all, the ball wasn’t directed to home. It should have been directed to third base. That’s our feeling we shared with Gregory. It’s just too long of a throw. You’re up a run. You give up that run, you make that throw to third, we cut it off, whatever. … That can maybe accelerate a player sometimes on a redirect, because I think with a good throw, we get an out there."
All three runners scored on the play, two on the error, giving the Marlins a 5-2 lead. Diaz's throwing arm long has been the best in the organization, and that continued in the majors last season. His throws to second base were measured by Statcast as being the fifth-fastest in the National League.
He made two impeccable throws to first Friday night, and he nearly picked off a runner at first in the second inning after signaling to Kuhl for a pitchout.
"I trust his arm," said Kuhl, who allowed four earned runs on 11 hits. "I want him to keep throwing it. Take your shot. I felt like he had him. Ninety-nine times out of 100, I think he makes that play. I don’t fault him there. I want him to keep throwing it."
That trust in Diaz has been earned. He caught Kuhl throughout the minor leagues and has proven to get the most out of the 25-year-old the past two seasons. Kuhl had a 3.17 ERA in 11 starts with Diaz behind the plate last season, while his ERA was 6.30 in 15 starts with Cervelli.
Throughout spring training, both Hurdle and bench coach Tom Prince expressed excitement over Diaz's command of the pitching staff. It has become one of his strengths after it was viewed as his weakness throughout his minor-league career. It was Diaz's bat, not his defense, that struggled in his 64 games with the Pirates last season.
Diaz batted just .223/.265/.314 with one home run and 19 RBIs in 200 plate appearances. He went 2 for 2 with a walk against the Marlins and is 5 for 12 this season.
"It’s a big difference," Diaz said of the leg kick. "I stay in my legs, I throw some more in my hands. I’ve got good balance. I’m going to continue to do it. Sometimes it’s hard when you don’t play every day with the timing. With the leg kick, I go to the plate and I don’t do the leg kick because sometimes I don’t feel the timing is right."
He used it, though, on the two-run homer to give the Pirates a one-run lead:
"That ball is mauled that Diaz hit," Hurdle said, beaming.
Moments after the game ended, Diaz sat at his locker stall inside the visitor's clubhouse as Cervelli and Heberto Andrade, the Pirates' bullpen catcher, stood over talking to him. Cervelli later said he won't speak to Diaz about the play until tomorrow, but he made it clear what his instruction will be.
"Keep throwing it," he said. "Trust your arm. It's happened to me a million times."
1. Same problem plagues Kuhl.
Kuhl has the weapons to be a viable major-league starter. His sweeping slider can be deceiving, and the curveball also can fool hitters. But neither is effective if he can't command his fastball, and that remains a problem. He continued to leave his four-seam fastball and sinker high in the zone, and the Marlins made him pay.
He was pulled from the game in the sixth inning after allowing back-to-back singles. The right-hander threw 58 of his 94 pitches for strikes and had a few outstanding sequences, including his strikeout of Justin Bour on a 2-2 slider to end the first inning.
His first run allowed was the result of a wild pitch, and he didn't give up an extra-base hit, but singles were enough for the Marlins.
"The fastball command was inconsistent throughout the night," Hurdle said. "There was more up in the zone than we wanted to be up in the zone. There was soft stuff up in the zone, as well, especially with [Marlins right fielder JB] Shuck. The consistency of his overall pitches was average at best."
Kuhl has a 5.74 ERA and 1.79 WHIP in three starts this season, averaging just over five innings per start. Opponents are batting .369 against him, and he's allowed 13.79 hits per nine innings.
2. Lack of awareness by Crick in the sixth.
Kyle Crick made an inexcusable mistake in the sixth inning upon replacing Kuhl. Crick, recalled earlier Friday, failed to cover home plate when Chad Wallach laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners. Diaz collected the ball and made a nice throw to Josh Harrison at first to get Wallach; however, there was no one at home plate, allowing Shuck to score easily from third base, giving the Marlins a three-run lead.
That was Crick's job, as Hurdle explained later.
"We didn't cover home the next inning, so we left the door open, and they ran through it like major league teams do," Hurdle said. "Your pitcher is right there. I think Crick will tell you that. That will probably never happen again in his career. Unfortunately, it happened tonight. He just needs to follow that play and be right at home. He’s 10 feet from it."
Crick pitched a scoreless inning, and Dovydas Neverauskas allowed a two-run homer to Justin Bour in the seventh inning, raising his ERA to 10.80.
Crick, who was acquired in the Andrew McCutchen trade, flashed his potential in his first regular-season game for the Pirates, striking out Tomas Tellis with a changeup low and outside. He also didn't allow a hit, and his four-seam fastball reached 95.3 mph. But having such a lack of awareness could cost the Pirates another game like this.
3. Give Peters credit for silencing the offense.
Harrison, Polanco, Mercer, Josh Bell and David Freese went a combined 0 for 18. The Pirates went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and left four on base. Two of their five hits were infield singles, and their two extra-base hits were Diaz's home run and a double by Corey Dickerson, who went 2 for 4, in the seventh inning.
Peters, who had a 9.35 ERA entering the game, allowed only two runs on four hits in six innings with three strikeouts and two walks. He doesn't have overpowering stuff — his four-seam fastball averaged 90.5 mph — and fell behind in the count often, but the Pirates just missed producing significant damage.
"We got in offensive counts like we have all season, and his fastball, whether it was the deception or the crossfire angle, was just beating us, just beating us, just beating us," Hurdle said. "A lot of balls in the air. You give him credit. Early on, he had four strikes and four outs and was pitching behind in counts. We had balls we fired on and had been getting good results on, but we weren’t able to synch up and square him up. "
4. Dickerson rewriting narrative about his defense.
There was reason to wonder if Dickerson was a strong enough defender to play left field at PNC Park. After all, he recorded negative-1 defensive runs saved in left for the Rays last season, despite playing in smaller ballparks. His last time playing in a spacious outfield regularly was 2015, and he was worth negative-6 runs defensively for the Rockies.
He has been outstanding for the Pirates so far this season, though. Dickerson, who has continued to express confidence in his defense, is worth 6 defensive runs saved, according to FanGraphs, and made another impressive play Friday. With a runner on third, Kuhl left a four-seam fastball high in the zone, and Derek Dietrich sliced the ball to left, only for Dickerson to make a sliding grab near the chalk to end the inning.
5. The Marlins are ... sad.
The ballpark is beautiful, as much as I hate to admit it. It's perfect for the city, and the short, yet fascinating history of this franchise. A DJ played music in left field. The stupid sculpture is still out in center. The fish tanks are still behind home plate. And there's still a small, very loyal fan base still coming to games.
The Marlins deserve better. The taxpayers who paid for the ballpark deserve better. Any comparison to the Pirates should stop, though. The Pirates are fielding a major-league roster with proven players who have the ability to excite the fan base. The Marlins don't. Heck, their manager could probably hit for a better average than most of these young players.