CINCINNATI — Jeff Branson, the Pirates' hitting coach, reared back from only 40 feet in front of home plate and threw a fastball inside to Corey Dickerson. Dickerson choked up on the bat handle and whacked the pitch over the netting above the center-field fence at Pirate City, striking a car in the parking lot.
Branson threw the next pitch and again, hard contact. When the exercise was over, Branson had thrown two large buckets of baseballs and those violent swings caused the blisters on Dickerson's palms to bleed. The exhaustive workout helped Dickerson solve his greatest weakness, yet choking up came at a price: he had only seven home runs at the All-Star break.
Dickerson spent the four off-days brainstorming a solution, and it appears he found one. The left fielder powered the Pirates to their eighth straight win with two solo home runs in a 6-2 victory over the Reds Saturday night at Great American Ball Park. Dickerson, their most consistent hitter in the season's first half, has four homers in the past three games, and his power has returned with his teammates at their best.
"I pick my spots," Dickerson said of hitting for power. "I decide when I want to hit for power. I know I have a lot of power in BP and stuff like that. I’d rather — if I’m struggling and my timing’s not quite there — I’d rather hit for average and get my hits. That’s kind of how the year was playing; I was getting my hits, so why change anything? It took the All-Star break, and I was able to reassess to try to drive the ball a little more. It’s working."
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEOThe Pirates (50-49), above .500 for the first time since June 6, have won nine of their last 10 and are now eight games back in the Central Division. It's their first eight-game winning streak since 2015, and this is their third series win in a row.
In addition to Dickerson's offense, Nick Kingham, making his 10th start of the season, pitched six scoreless innings with three strikeouts and only two hits allowed before yielding a two-run homer to Curt Casali in the seventh. The Pirates' rotation has a combined 2.67 ERA with 70 strikeouts and 17 walks in its past 10 games.
Josh Bell went 4 for 4 with an RBI double in the fourth and scored after hitting a leadoff single in the sixth. Bell has reached safely in nine of his last 10 games, going 17 for 36 with seven walks in that span. Kingham, who hit a two-run double in a recent start against the Phillies, hit a two-run single with the infield crashing in the sixth inning.
Starling Marte extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games with a single in the first, and Gregory Polanco is now batting .318 in his past 26 games. Their resurgence has coincided with the club's ascent; however, Dickerson's discovery could provide the offense with what it's lacked for much of the season.
Despite Polanco's team-high 16 homers, the Pirates rank just 22nd in the majors in home runs. Bell has only five in 98 games after hitting 26 as a rookie last season. That ranked second on the team behind Andrew McCutchen's 28. Dickerson, acquired from the Rays for Daniel Hudson and minor-league shortstop Tristan Grey, was supposed to address the lack of power.
Dickerson, an All-Star for the Rays last season, hit at least 24 home runs in three of the previous four seasons, including 27 in 2017. That wasn't his priority, though. The 29-year-old wanted to become a better all-around hitter and to do that, he had to address his greatest weakness: hitting fastballs.
"I try to have a plan," Dickerson said. "Thinking about my weaknesses, what he’s trying to do, the situation. Really just try to have a good plan in my head and stay on the pitch as long as I can. I’m really more worried about my timing. If my timing is there, my hand-eye coordination can work. If my timing’s not there, I'm going to miss pitches. That’s what I’ve been working on — getting my timing as good as I can."
Dickerson's whiff rate against fastballs was the worst in the majors last season. He particularly struggled on inside fastballs. Choking up rather than staying on the knob of the bat has allowed Dickerson to not have to anticipate the pitch so much. He can wait longer before committing to swing, and he credits that workout with Branson for opening his eyes to its effectiveness.
His whiff rate on fastballs is down from 30.2 to 15.6 percent, and his overall whiff rate is a career-best 19.4 percent. Dickerson has also posted a career-high 83.9 contact rate in the strike zone, and he has 50 hits with two strikes. He's struck out only 45 times in 88 games. To compare, he had 89 strikeouts through July 21 last year and finished with 152 in 150 games.
"The more barrel you lose, the more leverage you lose, unless you throw me middle in and I'm able to turn," Dickerson said. "I'm unique enough to where I can go back to my old swing and drive the ball. ... My percentage is higher choking up, so it's risk versus reward. All those percentages play into it."
He's batting .307 with a .833 OPS and 40 RBIs this season, while choosing to choke up more often than not. As a result, he has 10 home runs, compared to 18 home runs, 43 RBIs and a .903 OPS at this point last season. But Dickerson hit only nine home runs and had a .663 OPS over his final 58 games last season.
He's hopeful the two-strike approach of choking up has him better prepared to not fall into such a slump. Dickerson was content generating two-strike hits and leading the Pirates in batting average at the break, but he wanted to make a greater impact. So, Dickerson has started taking more swings with his right hand on the knob, and the adjustment has made a remarkable impact, as he powerfully illustrated Saturday night.
Dickerson choked up a few inches in his first at-bat against Anthony DeSclafani and grounded out to second base on an inside two-seam fastball. His second time up, though, Dickerson chose to go back to the knob. He then hit this first-pitch hanging curveball 417 feet to dead center for a solo home run in the third inning:
Two innings later, DeSclafani threw Dickerson a first-pitch four-seam fastball inside that Dickerson turned on for a 395-foot solo home run and a 5-0 lead:
"There’s times he’ll go two inches up and then he’ll go four inches up," Clint Hurdle said. "Sometimes he stays on the knob. It's really a feel thing for him. We talked about it tonight after the first home run. I asked him before the game, ‘Where are you going? Where are you going to start?’ I’m not even sure what he said, but he had a plan going in and he follows the plan. … I’m not trying to figure him out. I’m just watching him, taking notes and trying to be aware of what they’re doing and how they’re doing it."
Dickerson hasn't even figured himself out. He was going to switch bats before the game, but Colin Moran talked him into sticking with the same Marucci he hit a solo home run with Friday night. Dickerson's plan changes from inning to inning. He studies the best in the game — both past and present, including Barry Bonds — and receives advice from Justin Morneau, a former American League MVP.
Dickerson ranks ninth in the National League in batting average, and he's starting to find a happy medium between choking up and going back to the knob — the strategy he used while hitting 27 home runs last season:
"I wanted to stay on pitches, stay through the zone a little bit longer," Dickerson said. "I think I was coming out lately, and the first at-bat I was a little choked up. I decided to go back on the knob and had success after that."
1. Kingham shows his worth in the rain.
Kingham was sent back to the team hotel in the fourth inning of Friday night's game to get some extra rest in preparation for this start, but nothing could actually prepare him for what he'd encounter. It began to rain moments before first pitch, and Kingham, who had not started a game in eight days, had trouble finding the release point in his delivery.
That resulted in back-to-back walks to lead off the first.
"Coming back from the break, my release point was off," Kingham said. "First time facing hitters in nine days, I think. The rain, the guy yelling. Everything tumbled into one. I just couldn’t get a feel for the ball." Oh, and then he had to face Votto with two on and no outs. Kingham fell behind 2-0 before getting the former MVP to roll over on a two-seam fastball for a 4-6-3 double play.
Kingham retired 13 of the next 16 he faced and needed only 69 pitches to get through six innings. Jesse Winker led off the seventh with a single and Casali, the Reds' backup catcher, barely cleared the wall in left for the two-run homer. Kingham was pulled at just 79 pitches, but he retired 14 on three pitches or less and the Pirates have now won his last three starts.
He's pitched through the sixth inning in four of last five starts, lowing his ERA and WHIP to 4.11 and 1.11, respectively. The 26-year-old has also struck out 54 with 14 walks and opponents are batting just .224 against him. Although the offense had 12 hits, including two with runners in scoring position, Dickerson said it's pitching that's propelled the Pirates during this winning streak.
"It starts with the pitching," Dickerson said. They’re dominating."
2. No post-break slump ... for now.
The Reds' pitching has been terrible the past two games. DeSclafani was pulled after just 4 1/3 innings and Tyler Mahle, a bright spot for Cincinnati in the first half, was pulled in the sixth Friday night after allowing six runs on eight hits. Their bullpen hasn't done well, either. That group allowed five runs in the series opener and three more Saturday night.
But the Pirates have struggled against bad pitching in the past. These two games are a sure sign that the four-game break had little impact on their momentum. There was a certain focus to this group upon arriving in the Queen City. "We have unfinished business," Ivan Nova told me.
They're playing like it. They've outscored the Reds 18-3 with 28 hits in the first two games. Moran had four hits Friday and Bell matched a career high with four more Saturday. Eight different players had at least one hit Saturday, including six extra-base hits. Polanco led off the fourth with a double and scored when Bell doubled to the right-field corner for a 2-0 lead.
The Pirates added to their lead in the sixth when three of the first four reached, capped by Kingham's two-run single up the middle. Unlike when they scuffled in June, they're receiving contributions throughout the lineup. More important, their best players are finally starting to produce on a consistent basis.
"Things are contagious," Hurdle said. "Guys are working hard. If there’s one thing about this club that I didn’t know about coming in, these guys, almost to a man, would rather give up a small body part than to give away an at-bat."
3. Marte's mistake in the first.
The Pirates won seven in a row by playing mostly mistake-free baseball. As Hurdle pointed out Friday, they moved runners over, played sound defense, pitched well and got leadoff hitters on base. There were few baserunning mistakes and they had committed only two errors since July 6.
With that in mind, Marte had no business trying to stretch a single into a double in the first inning. The 29-year-old extended his hitting streak to a career-best 14 games with a hit through the left side of the infield and although he's supremely confident, Reds left fielder Adam Duvall had four outfield assists entering Saturday.
Also, Marte should have liked his chances to simply steal second. After all, the Reds started their backup catcher, Casali, and Marte leads the majors with 25 stolen bases. Or he could have just stayed at first base. Hitters are more likely to see fastballs with Marte on base since the pitcher must prepare for Marte trying to steal second base.
Oh, and it was raining for much of the afternoon and during the first inning. Naturally, when Marte tried taking second, he slid right off the wet bag at second and was tagged out by Scooter Gennett.