MILWAUKEE -- Ke'Bryan Hayes had the day off Wednesday, at least at the outset of the Pirates' 4-2 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field, and that felt just about right.
He's hitless in 17 at-bats since back-to-back doubles last weekend against the Phillies, and he's batted .202 since June 28.
I've got two points to make here:
1. I'm told that Ben Cherington and his staff believe Hayes' wrist injury, which knocked him out of April and May, will require more time to regain full strength. It's healthy, but the wrist is a lot like the hamate injuries to the hand that are common in baseball in that full strength isn't achieved for several months, even once the hand's healed.
2. He's dealing with it.
I had a good talk with Hayes here, just as I did in San Francisco a couple weeks back, and there's no trace of panic or lost confidence.
"I've been through things before in the minors," he told me. "Some good, some bad. You adjust, you learn and you just keep working hard. That's the thing I learned a long time ago. It's not always going to go the way you want."
Look, on the Pirates' list of problems, this kid doesn't crack the top quintillion.
That said, it's not quite optimal, either. Because when one sees a talent take off at a Ted Williams pace immediately upon arrival, the expectations rise accordingly. As they should. As Clint Hurdle used to say, "If it's in there, it's in there."
It's in there, all right. But, in addition to the hand issue, there's refining that needs to be done.
Check this out:
BASEBALL SAVANT
Take a good look up there. Hayes doesn't have a solitary hit to left field. All season. For real.
The reason: He isn't turning on fastballs. According to research by our Alex Stumpf, he's slashing .217/.286/.333 against fastballs through this slump, and he didn't produce a solitary extra-base hit off a fastball in all of June. He's timing well against offspeed stuff, for the most part, but against the fastball, even though he's hitting it just as hard -- 93.9 mph this year vs. 93.2 mph last year -- he isn't elevating, evidenced by a 67% ground ball rate. His whiff rate's risen, too, from 10.7% to 16%.
This isn't coincidence. Hayes loves to go opposite field. He opens his batting practice sessions with endless rounds of strokes toward right field, which he explained to me this way: "It's just the way I've always used all fields. If that works for you, everything works for you."
But it isn't working. This was Hayes' first at-bat, as a pinch-hitter in the seventh:
That's a 2-2 fastball that goes the other way for an out. Now the prototype.
This was way worse, in the ninth:
Four straight changeups. The third of those brought an awkward check-swing, and the last one -- right down the bleeping boulevard -- brought no swing at all.
I asked Derek Shelton after this game what he's seeing, good or bad.
"He looks like he's in-between," came the answer. "I think that's the biggest thing. And when you're a young player in the big leagues and people start to adjust to you, you have to pick one side or another, and I think we have to get him back on one side. He looks like he's in-between."
Makes more sense than anything. To elaborate, Rick Eckstein, the hitting coach, prefers his hitters to pinpoint a quadrant or side of the strike zone and lay off anything that isn't there. That can lead to more Ks, obviously, but the contact rises, and the confidence follows. And in this instance, here's betting the focus turns more toward the inner half of the plate and finally pulling.
Oh, also, here's betting on Hayes. He won't complain about health -- "I'm feeling great," he'll say -- and he'll beam through every step of the day. Infinitely more important, those reflexes, that pitch recognition, those eyes ... they're all still intact.
"It's coming," as he told me. "I'm sure of it."
GETTY
Steven Brault pitches Wednesday afternoon in Milwaukee.
• Steven Brault's season debut, delayed four months by a lat injury, went about as well as could be expected. His four-inning line saw three hits, a walk and two Ks. He went 75 pitches, which was longer than I'd thought they'd allow, and threw 46 of those for strikes.
The Brewers stung the ball off him early, not so much late.
"I think after the first inning, he settled down," Shelton replied when I brought that up. "The one thing you can never replicate is big-league pitching and big-league hitting. Some of the pitches he executed that might've been swung at in Triple-A were not swung at today. I think he made an adjustment the last three innings and executed pitches. It was good to see him healthy. Good to see him executing pitches."
Brault, naturally, had his own way of wording it when I brought up the same: "It's nice to face a good team and not get absolutely shellacked in my first game back."
• Brault's sunny disposition hasn't changed.
He sat down for his Zoom call afterward, stared into the cyber-camera and said, "Hi! I'm Steven!"
On meeting his new teammates: "It's funny because I'm going around introducing myself to these guys, even though, I'm, like, 'Hey I've been here longer ... than most of these guys!' "
On how he hopes to help this inexperienced rotation: "I hope to foster a spirit of competition among the young'uns."
As Jacob Stallings put it, "It's just nice to have Steven back. He's obviously a big personality around here."
• The Pirates had squeaked out a 2-1 lead on Stallings' RBI double in the fourth and John Nogowski's sac fly in the sixth, but what happened next might be instructive toward what's to come. Meaning that the back end of the bullpen, albeit a bit worn from the first couple games here, blew it.
Cody Ponce was terrific for two innings, but Kyle Keller came on for the seventh and walked Luis Urias after getting ahead, 0-2, Manny Pina reached on an infield single, Chasen Shreve relieved, and pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez did this very bad thing to a baseball:
"Just saw a pitch I liked," Tellez said of that dead-red 91.8-mph meatball. "Tried to drive it."
This is how it's going to be, barring surprise reinforcements from Indianapolis.
"One of the points of that is we've talked about opportunity, and it's not only opportunity with guys coming to the big leagues," Shelton said. "It's opportunistic in terms of the role you pitch in. And one of the things that we have to find out about people is what roles they can pitch in. Because we've taken some people out of our bullpen, guys are going to get opportunities in different roles than they had."
Translation: A closer and setup guy will be needed ... uh, right now.
There's a back-and-forth between David Bednar and Chris Stratton so far. Bednar wasn't available for this one because he pitched two innings Tuesday night, and Stratton would've had the save opportunity here, Shelton confirmed. But a bunch more available arms will be needed back there.
• That said, spectacular story Shea Spitzbarth was sent back to Indy right after the game even though he'd pitched well in both appearances, including a scoreless ninth in this one. Dude's only about a billion times better than Keller, but hey.
• Tip of the cyber-cap to Bryan Reynolds for going 2 for 2 with two walks, a triple and a run. Because that's what this guy's line will have to look like the rest of the way. No opposing manager who hasn't been lobotomized will want to pitch to him over whoever's on deck.
• I'm told that Gregory Polanco's mindblowing catch Tuesday rated as ESPN's No. 2 play on 'SportsCenter.' I don't even want to know what carbon-copy NBA dunk might've topped it.
By the way, if anyone missed my column from that game with the quick turnaround, it's right here. I had a blast putting it together and wouldn't want it to get buried under this relative dud of an event.
• For a minor-league system that's being legit flooded with talent, it's funny that there's been so little movement on the various ladders.
I could cite several examples, with the latest being Nick Gonzales. The team's 2020 first-round pick is on a .369 tear for Greensboro over the past three weeks -- 24 for 65 with two home runs and 11 RBIs -- that includes this two-run shot yesterday against Hickory:
Nick Gonzales and Aaron Shackelford's home runs from today's game. pic.twitter.com/C5XNyRkS70
— Greensboro Grasshoppers (@GSOHoppers) August 4, 2021
That's got his season slashes at .269/.342/.467 with seven home runs. Not spectacular, obviously, but it's reasonable to wonder if he wouldn't benefit more from a month in Altoona than another in Class A.
My point: It's felt slow on a lot of fronts.
• Major League Baseball announced its 2022 schedule yesterday. And I swear, my reflexive reaction was to hope that season never gets played. This sport's economic structure is broken beyond repair, and only a shutdown will bring about a salary cap -- the same system used by the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLS and everyone else -- and real fairness. And there's no way it happens through negotiation.
• That said, full credit to the Crew here for overcoming the odds in a market two-thirds the size of Pittsburgh. But if and when the Brewers win a World Series to match the NBA title this city just celebrated, to remind, it'll be their very first.
• Flying home! Thanks for reading, as always!
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Hoy Park, RF
2. Rodolfo Castro, 3B
3. Bryan Reynolds, CF
4. Ben Gamel, LF
5. John Nogowski, 1B
6. Jacob Stallings, C
7. Wilmer Difo, 2B
8. Kevin Newman, SS
9. Steven Brault, LHP
And for Craig Counsell's Brewers:
1. Kolten Wong, 2B
2. Willy Adames, SS
3. Eduardo Escobar, 1B
4. Avisail Garcia, RF
5. Tyrone Taylor, LF
6. Lorenzo Cain, CF
7. Luis Urias, 3B
8. Manny Pina, C
9. Freddy Peralta, RHP
THE SCHEDULE
That's it here, and it's off to Cincinnati. Alex Stumpf will cover that series.
IN THE SYSTEM
• Indianapolis
• Altoona
• Greensboro
• Bradenton
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
