The blunt, dry wit of Thursday night’s starter Tyler Anderson perfectly encapsulated a new energy that surrounds the Pirates upon the return of Ke’Bryan Hayes.
“I think we’re 2-0 when he’s played nine innings, so it’s good to have him back,” the taciturn southpaw joked after a 5-3 victory against the Marlins at PNC Park.
The point was made before the game that after two inconsistent months, this team never revealed its true identity without its best player. While they’re stuck at the bottom of the Central Division standings at 21-34, they’ve been without Hayes for almost all of it.
Hayes immediately showed how he can impact a game, but he wasn’t the hero Thursday night. That was Jacob Stallings, who shied away from the idea that his three-run, go-ahead double in the eighth inning truly stole the spotlight.
"I don't know if I did that. He made like three highlight defensive plays and got two hits,” Stallings said with a laugh. “He's a heck of a player, and it's fun to be out there with him, so I'm really glad he's back."
As wonderful as Stallings has been in clutch moments, particularly with the bases loaded, and at PNC Park, it was truly Hayes that took the leading role in Thursday night’s performance.
“I was out for what seemed like half a year,” Hayes joked. “Just to be back out there with the guys and to be back out there with the fans cheering us on, it was great, and it was also great to get the win tonight.”
Hayes went 2 for 4 with a triple and a run scored while, as Stallings said, making a couple highlight-reel plays in the field. He’s now 3 for 9 on the season while batting .372/.443/.702 through his first 27 major-league games.
It doesn’t take long to recognize Hayes’ offensive approach. He’s not just looking to go up the middle and to the opposite field, but, in his own words, he’s trying to drive the ball through the center of the batter’s eye. Which is why there was oh so much to be impressed about with his sixth-inning triple off Marlins’ southpaw Ross Detwiler.
“I feel like a lot of guys are trying to stay out over the plate, kind of nibble on the outside corner, so a lot of guys, they just like to show in, so I just like to look out over the plate and drive the ball,” Hayes said.
Calling upon a lefty to face Hayes is itself a bold move. Hayes has just 23 at-bats against southpaws in his brief major-league career, but he’s got hits in 12 of those -- six of which have gone for extra bases.
Before Thursday night’s game, Hayes talked about being so anxious that he jumped on the first pitch he saw in his first rehab game two weeks ago. He even took a hack at the first strike he saw from Elieser Hernandez.
All that nervous energy bundled together would be more than enough to shake a 24-year-old out of their approach. Hayes seems polished -- and there’s a good chance the initial assessments are plenty accurate. But he came into the opener against the Marlins with just 90 at-bats in the big leagues.
So when Detwiler left a looping changeup over the heart of the plate, it would have been understandable if Hayes had tried to swing from his toes and yank it 500 feet off the scoreboard. Instead, he waited back on the 86-mph offering, stayed within his approach and drove it off the Roberto Clemente wall.
“Staying middle helps me stay on the offspeed,” Hayes explained. “That's the thing that I've worked on [for the] last year and a half, two years, so that seems to work for me, so it's kind of the approach I like to be with.”
The bat-to-ball skills have continued to impress at this level. But Hayes’ speed and athleticism elevate his game to another, more dynamic level.
According to Statcast, his sprint speed on both the triple (28.4 ft/sec) and his first-inning infield single (29.9 ft/sec), approached what’s considered elite league-wide (30 ft/sec).
The vigor with which he’s capable of playing shows itself in all facets of the game. He ranged well to his left and made a semi-sliding play on a seventh-inning grounder by Jazz Chisholm Jr., then got up and made the throw to first as the Marlins’ shortstop was chugging it down the line with better than elite speed at 30.3 ft/sec.
Starling Marte couldn’t help but laugh when his 100.6 mph liner was no match for Hayes’ lightning-quick reflexes during a play that presented a serious momentum shift in the eighth inning.
Simply put, he’s a ridiculous athlete. But for Hayes it all truly starts with the glove.
“I wasn't worried about the at-bats. I'm always worried about that first ground ball, and then once I get my first ground ball out of the way, I kind of settle in,” Hayes said.
Erik Gonzalez, who has mostly filled in at the hot corner during Hayes’ absence, has had his share of web gems while being an overall admirable stop gap defensively. But the game just seems different when Hayes gets involved.
“This isn't to downplay what [Erik's] done at all, but when Ke'Bryan's over there, it's really amazing,” Stallings said. “The half-sliding play he made to his left was unbelievable and was a huge play for us. The guy, he's just an unbelievable player.”
This is what makes him a cornerstone for this franchise, and the most attractive extension candidate on the roster at this point in time. There shouldn’t be any expectation that he alone will bring this team kicking and screaming out of the basement. But as long as he’s flanked in the lineup by the MLB leader in hits, Adam Frazier, and a sudden bruiser in Bryan Reynolds, the Pirates will not be anyone’s pushover.
MORE FROM THIS GAME
• In the past week, Reynolds tapped into his power as much as he has all season. He bashed a fourth-inning solo shot for his fourth long ball in his past seven games.
“Early in the year, he was hitting those balls that were doubles,” Derek Shelton said. “Now he’s getting them elevated a little bit, and they’re getting out of the ballpark.”
Reynolds and Hayes accounted for all four of the Pirates’ hits through the first six innings. Reynolds followed Hayes’ triple with an absolute scorcher of a 112.1 mph grounder that was ruled an error that did not deprive of the RBI.
"He told me before the game that he feels he's getting right now are home runs, and I was like, 'What's wrong with that?' " Stallings said. "He's like, 'well, I guess nothing.' ... It's been really good to see him get back to who he is. All he's done his whole life is hit."
Reynolds is back up to .289 on the season and leads the team with eight homers and 26 RBIs.
• Anderson ran into trouble at the end of what was otherwise a bounce-back outing.
The veteran left-hander limited the Marlins to a run on three hits over the first five innings, but gave up a lead-off single to the opposing pitcher, Hernandez, before leaving a changeup out over the plate to Marte that the former Pirate cranked off the wall at PNC Park that he patrolled for eight years prior.
“I think he was kind of looking out that way, kind of sitting on that and it was just a mistake pitch,” Anderson said.
Both Hernandez and Marte scored as runners inherited by Clay Holmes, who made his 24th appearance of the season. Anderson has given up at least two runs in six consecutive starts, but he kept the ball in the park for the first time in three outings, a span in which he’d given up seven homers.
“I thought he did a good job. He executed pitches. I thought the changeup was better than it’s been,” Shelton said. “He only missed with one. That was the ball that Marte hit off the wall. Other than that I thought his execution was good. He was in the zone. He was efficient. He did a nice job.”
• With Hayes and Chad Kuhl back, the once lengthy list of key Pirates that are laid up on the injured list is shrinking. But there are two important names that are still just on the cusp of returning: Colin Moran and Phillip Evans.
That duo played in a rehab game with Class AAA Indianapolis on Thursday night. In the fourth inning, Moran, who has been out with a groin injury since May 9, blasted a two-run homer that followed a single by Evans, who was placed on the IL on May 13 with a hamstring strain. They both finished with a hit in three at-bats.
• Holmes hasn’t been as sharp recently, but when he required a bail out in the seventh inning, Sam Howard, as he’s done all year, answered the call. The Marlins put runners in scoring position against Holmes on a dropped third strike punchout, a walk and a sacrifice bunt.
Howard came in and prevented both runners from advancing, which is still an MLB best with none of his 13 inherited runners scoring against him. But this time, it was very much with the help of his defense.
First, Frazier made an excellent stop on a 104.1 mph grounder by another ex-Pirate, Corey Dickerson. And the inning ended on the aforementioned Hayes play on Chisholm.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
Adam Frazier, 2B
Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
Bryan Reynolds, CF
Gregory Polanco, RF
Jacob Stallings, C
Ben Gamel, LF
Erik Gonzalez, 1B
Kevin Newman, SS
Tyler Anderson, P
And for Don Mattingly's Marlins:
Jazz Chisholm Jr., SS
Starling Marte, CF
Jesus Aguilar, 1B
Garrett Cooper, RF
Adam Duvall, LF
Jorge Alfaro, C
Isan Diaz, 3B
Jon Berti, 2B
Elieser Hernandez, P
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates continue their four-game set with the Marlins on Friday night. Mitch Keller gets the nod against right-hander Cody Poteet with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm. It's worth noting that those family-friendly 6:35 p.m. starts will not reappear on the schedule until September.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.