Standing at his locker Monday afternoon, Kevin Newman was asked about the differences between Triple-A and the Major Leagues. But before he could even answer about the better pitching or travel accommodations, Jordy Mercer, walking by, stuck his head into the conversation.
"Huge jump. Huge," Mercer deadpanned in what was the interview version of a photobomb.
Now, Newman and Mercer don't normally finish each other's sentences like some old married couple, but they do get along quite well despite some obvious differences in age, background and experience.
One is a mid-August call-up with all of 20 big league games under his belt. The other is a veteran of nearly 2,700 at bats and the consummate pro.
They've only been playing together for a little over a month and, more than likely, will only have another two weeks to go as teammates.
But Newman, the Pirates' shortstop of the future, is using the time to absorb as much knowledge as he can from Mercer. While his playing time has dwindled since Newman's promotion, Mercer hasn't shied from sharing the knowledge he's accumulated over his seven big-league seasons.
"It's all just a process," Mercer was telling me. "I was in the same boat and I remember exactly what he was feeling, exactly what he was going through. You want to perform and show everybody that you can play, but you've got to stay within yourself. The more times you go out there, the better off you're going to be."
Understandably, there's only one subject that Newman hasn't broached with his older teammate: Mercer's future with the Pirates. He is an unrestricted free agent at season's end and is almost certain to move on from the only organization he's ever played for.
Though it might seem a tad strange that Mercer is essentially training his replacement, it's not if you know the 32-year-old, says Newman.
"He certainly doesn't make it awkward," Newman was saying. "We still just have regular conversations and he really gives his advice on any way I can get better. Truly, he's trying to help me and make me more comfortable here as well."
For good and bad, Monday night's 7-6 walkoff win over the Kansas City Royals was just another step in Newman's process, but a fairly significant one.
Newman made his third straight start -- and his 11th in 19 games -- as the organization is getting an extended look at its likely 2019 starter. After a somewhat predictable rough start to what the Pirates hope is a long career, Newman is starting to show the form that made him the 19th overall pick in the 2015 Amateur Draft.
"He's growing," is how Clint Hurdle put it. "The beautiful part about a young player being up is you give him room to grow. You don't try to put him in a box right away. Game is slowing down for him to some degree. His confidence is growing in some areas. I think he's stabilized himself mentally. Just with the action of the game and where he's playing, guys he's playing with. So, I see him finding his way."
Monday night, Newman went 3-for-5 for the first three-hit game of his fledgling career, a day after recording his first multi-RBI game in Milwaukee. In doing so, he extended his hitting streak to a modest six games, going 9-for-23 with a double and four RBIs over that stretch.
But it didn't start out so well for the 25-year-old on Monday. In the top of the first, Royals cleanup hitter Salvador Perez grounded a ball to short that Newman booted for his second error of the season.
The error didn't amount to anything and Hurdle liked the way that Newman was able to overcome that bit of adversity.
The kid made amends by singling in the second and then beating out a soft grounder to second in the fourth, later coming around to score. But he saved his biggest at-bat for last with two outs and the score tied 6-6 in the ninth.
After fellow rookie Kevin Kramer, who had been 0-for-4 with three strikeouts reached base on a Ben Lively walk, Newman kept the inning alive by grounding a single into left on Lively's 84 mph slider.
That set up Jacob Stallings, who singled in the winning run in the first game of the final homestand at PNC Park this season.
It also gave the Pirates their third straight win and moved them a game over .500 (75-74) for the first time since Aug. 19.
Coincidentally or not, the Pirates are 9-2 in Newman's 11 starts at shortstop.
Over the final 13 games of the season, he says he's trying to find a comfortability and consistency in his game that had eluded him since coming up from Indianapolis. Even after his current run, he is hitting just .224 after hitting .302 with 30 doubles, two triples, four home runs and 35 RBIs in 109 games earlier this season in Triple-A.
"This is the big leagues, a little different, a little harder, but that's what I'm looking to do: Just contribute as much as I can," Newman said.
He certainly did that Monday night in what was a pretty impressive showing for a few Pirates youngsters. (More on that below.)
Mercer says his potential replacement has all the tools to have success in the big leagues. Much of the heavy lifting has already been done. Now it's just a matter of fine-tuning.
"I just remind him every now and then to just go be you," Mercer was telling me. "Don't go out trying to impress anybody, play your game and everything will take care of itself. You're here for a reason. You, obviously, can play. It's all about the finer things once you get here.
"In the minor leagues, it's all about ability, guys can stand out. But everyone here can play. It's all about taking the minor steps and making minor adjustments and he's doing that on the fly."
1. Stallings an unlikely starter and hero.
Francisco Cervelli had been penciled into the original lineup and was scheduled to hit fourth. That was until the veteran catcher came down with flu-like symptoms.
Stallings was notified around two hours before the first pitch that he would make the start even though Hurdle had just said earlier that Elias Diaz, out since Aug. 31 with a leg injury, would be available.
Hurdle made the right call, though, as Stallings made his seventh start behind the plate this season and his first with Joe Musgrove on the mound.
The 28-year-old son of the former Pitt basketball coach has staked his reputation as a defensive catcher and that didn't change Monday.
"He's really aware and really alert back there," Musgrove said. "He pays close attention to what's going well for you when you're doing things right. He's able to see the things that are off when they happen throughout the course of a game and make adjustments quick with a few verbal keys. He takes time to invest in all his pitchers and tries to know their ins and outs."
But Stallings is also developing a bit of a reputation as a clutch hitter. Monday's walkoff winner was the second of his well-traveled career, following his first two years earlier vs. Washington in what was also his last three-hit game.
On a 1-2 pitch from Lively, and Cervelli standing on-deck as a pinch-hitter, Stallings drilled a line drive into left field that scored Kramer easily:
Not bad for a third-string catcher making an emergency start.
"I had done a little bit of homework on their hitters and was planning on doing more when I got here and did," he said. "And then we had the pitcher-catcher meeting and I talked with Joe twice. It was good. I was up to speed, ready to go. We've got a lot of people here to make sure I was ready."
2. The big inning doomed Joe Musgrove.
Through his first four innings, Musgrove didn't have his best stuff and struggled a bit with his velocity. With two more starts on tap, he says he's feeling the effects of a long season. Still, he had been largely unscathed, giving up one run on two hits on 56 pitches.
And then came the fifth inning:
Musgrove surrendered a leadoff single to Kansas City counterpart Brad Keller, the first hit of Keller's career. That set in motion an inning in which the Royals battered Musgrove, scoring four runs on five hits, including Ryan O'Hearn's two-run double which gave the Royals, the team with the second-worst record in baseball, a 4-3 lead.
"Just some poorly executed pitches that ended up bleeding," Musgrove said. "It wasn't very many hard-hit balls, a couple bleeders, a couple balls through the infield. I feel good about how I threw the ball. I would have liked to execute a little better with runners in scoring position. Aside from that, I thought I was in the right direction."
To his credit, Musgrove battled though and got a 1-2-3 sixth inning and was able to go out on a high note.
"Would have loved to go back out for the seventh," he said. "I didn't feel I lost much in that fifth. Just some poor execution. It felt good. I thought my pitch count (82) was in a good spot to be able to go back out in the seventh, but with my spot (in the batting order) coming up and us being down, it was a different situation. We've got to try and get the runs there."
His final line read six innings with five runs allowed (all earned) on eight hits while striking out four. Though he didn't get the loss, thanks to Stallings' heroics, he hasn't pitched into the seventh inning since Aug. 18 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, a span of six starts.
3. Down goes Adam Frazier.
For how long remains to be seen.
Frazier was seen walking through the clubhouse with an ice pack wrapped around his right knee but told me that it's "just bruised, I'll be all right."
Frazier exited the game in the fourth inning after hitting a two-run double over the head of Royals right fielder Jorge Bonifacio, scoring Newman and Stallings, who had each hit one-out singles.
Two pitches earlier Frazier fouled Keller's 94.7 mph four-seamer off his right knee and was down momentarily before struggling to get to his feet. Hurdle and trainer Thomas Tribyl came out of the dugout but Frazier stayed in. Good thing, too.
Despite the pain, he somehow managed to hit it 354 feet off the wall in right:
After limping to second, he pulled himself from the game and was replaced by Pablo Reyes.
"Thought (Bonifacio) caught it at first," Frazier said. "So kind of slowed up and saw it bounce and said 'I guess I got to get there now.' It was not easy getting there."
Frazier reached base in all three of his plate appearances Monday, including a single and a walk. Though he'd been scuffling of late, slashing .160/.192/.200, he didn't want to take himself out of the game but thought the better of it.
"I never like coming out of a game no matter what," he said. "At that point, I couldn't really run. Going side-to-side on defense wasn't really a possibility."
That was all right because Reyes led off the seventh with a single and has shown intriguing potential as a future utility player. The 25-year-old is now 6-for-16 with a .375 average and 1.099 OPS.