After an off-day Sunday, Ke’Bryan Hayes was one of the first on the field Monday afternoon, getting in some extra batting practice.
“Just wanted to get out on the field and do basically what I do in the cage,” Hayes was telling me on the field at PNC Park before the game. “More of a relaxed environment. Just see the ball fly a little bit.”
It had been a while since Hayes had seen some balls fly off his bat in a game setting. The Pirates’ prized rookie entered the day in his first real funk in the majors. He was 1-for-22 over his last six starts, and over his last 20 games, he was hitting just .206, with a .545 OPS.
I pointed out that Hayes had some hard-hit balls that didn’t fall in for hits. There were some good at-bats in that stretch. He agreed, but added that, “I’ve had, in my opinion, some terrible ones” as well.
It’s uncharted waters for Hayes. Last year, everything looked so easy. He was named the rookie of the month in September, finished fifth in baseball in fWAR that month (1.6) and hit .376 with power.
He hadn’t been hitting for average or power of late, so he and hitting coach Rick Eckstein were looking through video and doing work to try to figure things out. That included the early batting practice Monday.
“He's handling it great,” Derek Shelton said before the game. “Like anything that comes at him, both positive or with adversity, he handles in stride and continues to move forward.”
Hayes and Eckstein found a couple things to focus on. Hayes is trying to get his swing started a little sooner to get the ball out in front of the plate more. He’s also trying to slow everything down so the at-bats don’t blur together.
And he’s trying to lay off a certain pitch he’s seeing more often.
In recent weeks, pitchers have been attacking Hayes high and inside more often. Hayes does his best hitting when he’s able to drive the ball out to center or to right. When the pitch is inside like that, it will lead to more jams and soft contact.
“For the most part, that’s a pitch I’m don’t want to offer at, and I’ve been offering at it,” Hayes said. “When I came back inside and looked at video, a good percentage of them aren’t even strikes.”
Since June 28, the start of his recent cold spell, Hayes had been seeing more fastballs high and inside than anywhere else in the zone:
He couldn’t lay off one of those pitches in the third innings, and while he hit it in the right direction and with a good launch angle, he couldn’t make hard contact and it resulted in a fly out to right.
The good news is that wasn’t the story of Hayes night. He had his best night at the plate in some time, recording a pair of hits, recording three hard-hit balls and going deep to right in the Pirates’ 11-1 win over the Braves:
That was on a fastball outside, the type of pitch Hayes can normally drive to the other field more effectively.
For someone looking to get out of a funk, that’s a good sign, and immediate gratification for the pregame work he did.
“I can tell you being an ex-hitting coach, that’s a good feeling for Key,” Shelton said. “That’s a good feeling for Rick and [assistant hitting coach] Christian [Marrero], because you’re grinding with a guy, you go out and do some work with him. Then it pays off. Those are the days that really kinda make your work worthwhile.”