SAN DIEGO -- "Attaboy!"
In another circumstance, in another setting, Erik Gonzalez wouldn't have heard anything remotely resembling that sentiment upon returning to Petco Park's visiting dugout in the sixth inning Tuesday night. But that's exactly what came his way from Kevin Newman while passing the on-deck circle, punctuated by a swift pat on the posterior.
As it wound up, he'd just delivered the decisive run of the Pirates' 2-1 putdown of the Padres. And he'd done so despite running the reddest of red lights en route to a sequence that was reckless, irresponsible and ... and ...
"Unbelievable," was Derek Shelton's description when I brought it up.
And trust me, he meant that in the positive sense.
This was the circumstance: The good guys had the game's only run through five innings, Mitch Keller had suddenly transformed from deer-in-the-headlights to lights-out, and the offense was ... uh, fresh off its first run in three days. And this amid Shelton having admonished his group earlier in the afternoon to begin "forcing the issue" on the basepaths, as he and his staff had preached all through the spring, only to see it mostly evaporate in-season.
And this was the setting: The bad guys had old friend Keone Kela on the rubber, and Gonzalez was sizing him up from second base after his one-out single and steal.
Jacob Stallings dug an 0-2 hole, then defensively lunged a mile out of the zone to send this blah bouncer to San Diego's Jake Cronenworth:
Big whoop, right?
Ha!
Now, let's pan back for the full picture while focusing only on Gonzalez:
For real, he broke off the bag. With the batter at 0-2 and not much to gain from the extra 90 feet.
But that wasn't it. Once he spied from the corner of his left eye that Cronenworth was ... dude, what was he doing waiting for that ball to crawl to him rather than charging it, and then with the crazy-casual flick to first? ... Gonzalez made the hard turn around third, even though Joey Cora had emphatically pointed at the bag to instruct him to go no further, then erupted for home.
Why?
I asked Gonzalez to walk me through the whole thing.
“I know Kela pretty well," he replied through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez. "I’ve been watching him play for some time, and I know that he hangs his leg up a little bit longer than other pitchers. I had him already evaluated and studied."
Makes sense. Teammates and all.
"And when I noticed that the ground ball got hit and the second baseman was directing himself toward first, I was like, ‘OK, I have a shot at going home.’ The primary goal was to go to third, but when I saw that situation happen, I took a really good read on it and said, ‘OK, this is my shot to go home.’ ”
Gonzalez is among the nicest humans around, so it's predictable he'd go easy on Cronenworth. But the explanation's still appreciated.
As was the approach, by his manager.
"That was was all on him," Shelton said of Gonzalez. "It's just instinct. I think being aware of where their middle guys were and who was on the mound, and he got a really good jump and didn't stop. Just a really good instinctual play."
But wasn't done, as Shelton then stressed, "I think the backside of that play is Stallings is getting down the line hard, because if he doesn't go hard on that ball, Hosmer has the time to stay on the bag, catch it and then make the throw. And we're talking about a Gold Glove-caliber first baseman."
True. Eric Hosmer, undoubtedly hearing from everyone around him that Gonzalez was taking off, burst off the bag before the throw’s arrival and was charged with a rare E3 for that, then was unsettled enough that he threw way off line to Austin Nola at the plate.
Gonzalez dusted himself off, then might as well have been dancing on air as he dashed to the dugout.
Forcing the issue, right?
Look, even the men running the Pirates freely speak of their collective lack of power, still stuck at 20 home runs, second-fewest in Major League Baseball. On this afternoon, even Christian Marrero, the assistant hitting coach, acknowledged, "This is a team where we’ve got to do the little things. We’ve got to create the run-scoring opportunities."
Which seems OK, by the way, among those being tasked with the small-balling.
“Obviously, the game of baseball is not everything about hitting," Gonzalez said. "We ballplayers, when we see that right now at the plate it’s not going so much in our favor, we’ve got to create situations. I already have a mindset of being aggressive. In every game, I try to create a situation. Specifically in this one, I knew I had an opportunity to create a really good situation for us to get that run in and get home.”
I'll take it. After 22 innings of nothing -- Bryan Reynolds drilled an RBI double in the third to snap that slump -- I'm willing to overlook 50 innings now without a home run.
On top of that, man, let's not pretend the Pirates shouldn't always think long-term with such stuff. This can set an example up and down the system. It can become part of the brand, as I've gotten the sense both Shelton and Ben Cherington would love to have happen. And it fits, too: Regardless of whatever roster they might be fortunate enough to build someday, with baseball's gross economic imbalance, they'll always, always have to try a little harder.
Might as well get moving and keep moving.
GETTY
The Padres' Manny Machado strikes out against Mitch Keller in the first inning.
• Speaking of aggressive: Keller was terrific, and I didn't mean to give him short-shrift in the lede: 5 2/3 innings, zero runs, two hits, five Ks, two walks and -- get this -- 83 pitches, 48 strikes to get that far.
It was as if he'd finally subscribed to the plan that'd been put forth by ... everyone.
"Well, I think the benefit of the plan was we've got to command the fastball first with him," Shelton said. "For everything else to be effective, we thought going after them with fastballs and commanding that would attribute everything else to being a little sharper, and he did a really nice job of executing."
Yep. And that's about as far as I'll go on this subject. Because he needs to do it again. Attack the zone every time out. Every batter. Every pitch.
Like this 96 mph blazer -- with bonus downward bite -- to get a groundout from Nola in the fifth:
See Stallings' mitt up there?
Like that.
I asked Keller about that pitch specifically, and he smiled and responded, "Yeah. I didn’t shake him one time. We had a game plan. It was to establish the fastball and to use it in and out, and he did exactly that, and I just followed along. Whatever he was throwing down, I was just going for it. Whenever we get into something like that, it’s really special, because there’s just no questioning what he’s putting down."
Loved this, too: "The whole mentality is just, ‘Screw it, next pitch.’ I didn’t worry about the last one. Just kept moving forward."
• Shelton took the ball from Keller's hand with runners at the corners and two outs in the sixth so that Sam Howard could bring the left-on-left heat to Hosmer. One groundout later, and Howard had kept his inherited-runners-eaten rate perfect at 10 for 10.
Not that Keller had any say in the matter, but I asked about handing his game over to someone of that proficiency.
"Oh man, yeah," Keller replied. "When I saw Shelty coming out, I knew I was done, and I knew Hosmer was coming up. I didn’t know who was hot in the pen, but I knew it'd be Howie because, left on left, he’s Just standing on the top shelf, watching him do his thing ... that was a great feeling."
• There can't be a better reliever in baseball at the moment than Richard Rodriguez.
With his 1-2-3 ninth, he's now retired 28 batters in a row. Or the equivalent of a perfect game with one extra out. And believe it or not, there's a baseball term for this called the 'reliever perfect game.' The Pirates have had none of those since at least 1974, per overnight research from STATS.
The last batter to reach on Rodriguez?
Why, it was Hosmer with a two-out single ... but all the way back on April 12 at PNC Park. And in fact, that's the only hit he's given up all season, with opponents now 1 for 38 against him.
"He goes right after people," Shelton said. "Command of the fastball, execution, he just does it. We've talked about guys with no heartbeat. He may be the captain of the no-heartbeat team, because he really doesn't let much affect him."
• So, in that spirit, I probably should omit this having represented the game's final out:
Nola put a charge into that, and Ka'ai Tom did well to keep it from the fence, but he also was two steps onto the track, and it was no threat to leave. Certainly not in San Diego's famous late-night atmospheric pressure that buries baseballs after 8 p.m. local time.
Still, it was a mistake pitch, bending back over the heart of the plate.
And still, it was a fine catch. Any plus from this team's DFA Patrol on outfield corners is worthy of mention.
• Speaking of DFAs -- we were, right? -- Todd Frazier flied out to right as a pinch-hitter in the ninth and is now 1 for 22. That's worse than any of the DFA Patrol Honor Guard of Anthony Alford, Dustin Fowler and others I've already forgotten.
• Whatever suddenly put Gregory Polanco on the Injured List before this game, he sure isn't injured.
For one, as I noted after the game Monday, he looked as nimble and athletic as I'd seen him in two years.
For another, this was my dialogue with the manager on the subject:
Shelton: "He's on the IL."
Me: "All we got?"
Shelton: "All we got."
Once Shelton added that he's not allowed to comment further, it couldn't have been clearer that it's COVID-related. Polanco's either got it again -- had it last July -- or he's connected to it.
• It'd be hilarious, after all that's befallen the DFA patrol, if Hunter Owen, the 27-year-old promoted in Polanco's place before this game, had declined the invitation.
• It's beautiful having sentient beings back in ballparks.
Fernando Tatis Jr., maybe the sport's brightest young star, had been given the night off until summoned to pinch-hit with a man at second in the seventh. That brought the sellout crowd of 15,250 to its collective feet, with a big accompanying roar, and they stayed standing all through his at-bat against David Bednar ... right through a popup to shallow right.
Best fan-based, post-pandemic experience I've witnessed yet.
• Remember that Bednar's a rookie, for as good as he's been, and that this was a sweet growth moment, it'll also be worth noting that Shelton had a base open and still wanted his guy to go at The Guy.
• Ke'Bryan Hayes keeps getting closer. The kid took another round of soft-toss batting practice on this day, but also for the first time took took 10 overhands from a coach. Shelton called it "an encouraging day for Key."
Encouraging on a bunch of fronts, actually.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
Adam Frazier, 2B
Bryan Reynolds, CF
Phillip Evans, RF
Colin Moran, 1B
Erik Gonzalez, 3B
Jacob Stallings, C
Ka'ai Tom, LF
Kevin Newman, SS
Mitch Keller, P
And for Jayce Tingler's Padres:
Trent Grisham, CF
Jurickson Profar, LF
Manny Machado, 3B
Eric Hosmer, 1B
Wil Myers, RF
Jake Cronenworth, 2B
Austin Nola, C
Ha-Seong Kim, SS
Dinelson Lamet, P
THE SCHEDULE
Series finale's Wednesday at 8:10 p.m. Eastern first pitch, with JT Brubaker facing Yu Darvish, after which the team flies to Chicago for a weekend set with the Cubs. Shelton's expected to speak with media at 6 p.m.
If the Pirates take this, by the way, they'll break a 3-3 tie and take the season series from one of the National League's strongest teams.
THE CONTENT
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