Three hitters who need to perform in September for a spot in 2022

CHICAGO -- Another day, another comeback that fell just short, another 6-5 loss to the Cubs.

Anthony Alford hit a pair of monster home runs for the Pirates on this Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, one of which reached Waveland Avenue, showing a sign of promise for a young hitter who's entered September playing for a job in 2022.

“The key for everybody is to just put their head down and focus on playing the game and just finishing on a positive note,” Alford said. “When you do that, you feel a little bit better going into the offseason.”

Alford is going to be one of the players who gets plenty of looks in this, the month in which management's emphasizing giving different players opportunities. The Pirates’ 2022 outfield plans are very fluid. Alford could finish on a high note and go into next spring with a chance to earn playing time. If he doesn’t perform, well, the Pirates have already designated him for assignment once this year, and there is a 40-man roster crunch coming this winter.

He’s not alone in this regard. Let’s take a look at a trio of Pirates hitters who need to perform this month:

ANTHONY ALFORD

Continuing with Alford, whose potential, for at least one afternoon, was fully realized. 

In the fifth, he put the Pirates on the board with a 461-foot shot to left. In the sixth, he tied the game at five with a 435-footer to center field.

“Yeah, Anthony's got some crazy, stupid pop,” Steven Brault said.

“This guy's really strong. When he hits it, it goes a long way,” Derek Shelton said. “I think comfort and confidence plays a part in that.”

That isn’t up for debate. He can hit a ball a mile. His batting practice sessions are a sight to behold. On Friday, some pedestrians on Waveland picked up a couple free souvenirs, courtesy of him.

But he also is prone to doing this:

That was in a high leverage moment in the top of the ninth, taking an ugly swing. Granted, that moment was only a high leverage because of his contributions earlier, but the whiffs and strikeouts have been a recurring problem. Entering the game, Alford had struck out in 36 of his 72 plate appearances in the majors this season, half the time. Even at Class AAA Indianapolis, where he hit .307 with a 1.013 OPS, he struck out in over one-third of his trips to the plate.

It’s obviously tough to be a consistent performer doing that. He’s tried to make some adjustments with his body position to use his legs more and get better separation. He’s also made a change in approach.

"I think I made a swing decision,” Alford said. “Over the last week, week and a half, I haven't gotten much to hit, but I would kind of put myself in a mode sometimes where I'll get overly aggressive and kind of chasing because, obviously, everyone wants to finish the season strong. But I want to get back to where I was in the middle of the summer... Eventually, I’m going to get hot. The biggest thing is just swing decision and not missing the pitches that’s in the zone. Obviously, at this level you’re not going to get too many of those. So when you get them, you can’t miss them.”

Alford has shown he can crush Class AAA pitching. He’s struggled to put together consistent at-bats in the majors. He’s playing more confident in this most recent stint, and his three home runs this road trip are a fine way to start the final month of the season. This team could obviously use some pop, and he has it, assuming he gets the bat to the ball.

PHILLIP EVANS

Back in spring training, Evans edged out Todd Frazier for the final bench spot because he was more defensively versatile. At the time, he was the guy for that role. Since then, the Pirates have added Hoy Park, rebooted the Cole Tucker outfield experiment and just gotten a much more defensively varied bench. 

“I don’t know if it has really changed,” Shelton said when I asked if those new bench players impact Evans’ position with the team. “You know how big of a fan I am with versatility and guys being able to play multiple positions.”

That’s true, but Shelton is a bigger fan of consistent at-bats and aggressive swings. Evans hasn’t done that. He got off to a hot start, but fell into a rut and then suffered a hamstring injury and a concussion. Now, his season slash line is .204/.309/.299.

“With all the injuries, and this season being really choppy for me, not getting in a groove and when I was healthy, coming off the bench more, it was a mixture of things,” Evans said on the field before Thursday’s game with the Cubs. “Working on some approach things and getting some pitching and just getting back to driving the ball.”

That second concussion in a year -- the first coming when he and Gregory Polanco collided in 2020 -- had a bigger impact on Evans’ game than he knew at the time. Obviously he wanted to get back to playing, but his head wasn’t totally in the game yet.

“Until you're actually healthy, you realize how messed up you actually were,” Evans said. “I think getting a little refresh down there, getting in a little rhythm is definitely going to help me out.”

Evans was used as a pinch-hitter Friday and is 0 for 4 in his return to the majors.

The Pirates are a defensively versatile bunch now, and Evans’ ability to play the corners and second base isn’t enough anymore. He needs to hit too, preferably like he did in 2020 or in April.

COLE TUCKER

This could just as easily be Kevin Newman, too, but that case has been well examined (including in this week’s Friday Insider). Tucker is basically in the same boat, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see at least one of these two be let go this winter.

Now that Erik González is off the roster, that leaves the third party of that trio of shortstops who went into this year looking for that starting job in Tucker.

For someone who had a chance to be the starter coming into this year, he has gotten very little playing time in the majors. He wasn’t included in the alternate training site camp, staying down in Bradenton, Fla. for offensive development and to work on his swing. I chronicled some of those changes in a Mound Visit earlier this year.

“It's been a long year for me,” Tucker said Wednesday. “If you look back to the end of spring training, getting optioned and staying down in Florida and working on stuff with Nuns [Indianapolis hitting coach Jon Nunnally] and those guys, it's been a long work in progress.”

The results haven’t been there, though. Batting leadoff Friday, Tucker went 1 for 4 with an infield single and a stolen base. On Thursday, he went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts and a double play.

Even with Indianapolis, while he walked 15% of the time, he hit just .223 with an average 100 wRC+.

But there have been sparks, like an opposite-field double off the wall against the White Sox Wednesday.

“To have moments like that and to have the gratification pop up is really cool, and that's what keeps you going and keeps you hungry,” Tucker said.

Swings like that can’t just be once a week or in a while for him. He needs to string them together so he can create runs on the bases, not to mention justify keeping his glove in the field.

MORE FROM THE GAME

• For the second time in a row, Brault was hit hard, allowing five runs on seven hits and four walks over his four innings of work.

"It just seemed like I was falling into my backside a little bit too much, so keeping that back leg strong, which is a problem I've run into before, and I probably will run into again," Brault said. "It's just kind of one of those things that I just need to consistently keep up with and work on, and I wasn't able to get it done today, and because of that, there's a lot of armside misses, and there was a good amount of not fully getting behind the ball and not getting my velo and stuff like that, so it contributes to a lot of things."

• That put the Pirates down early, but back-to-back homers by Alford and Hoy Park in the fifth made it a game again.

Park's was tattooed as well. Alford's first homer traveled 469 feet, and Park's went 451 feet:

In the Statcast era (since 2015), the only other time the Pirates hit back-to-back home runs that both traveled at least 450 feet was April 22, 2016, when Sean Rodriguez and Gregory Polanco did so in the second inning against Patrick Corbin in Arizona.

• Alford's second homer against Mills tied the game up in the sixth, but newcomer and fellow September auditioner Shelby Miller fell behind 3-0 on Frank Schwindel in the home half of the inning, and he hit the deciding home run on a get me over fastball.

"You can't leave it there, especially in this ballpark," Shelton said. "He didn't miss it."

• With the loss, the Pirates fall to 48-87. They will need to go at least 15-12 down the stretch to avoid a 100-loss season.

The last time they won at least 15 of 27 was from August 16, 2019 to Sept. 12, 2019.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Cole Tucker, SS
2. Ben Gamel, RF
3. Bryan Reynolds, CF
4. Colin Moran, 1B
5. Kevin Newman, 2B
6. Michael Pérez, C
7. Anthony Alford, LF
8. Hoy Park, 3B
9. Steven Brault, LHP

And for David Ross' Cubs:

1. Michael Hermosillo, LF
2. Frank Schwindel, 1B
3. Patrick Wisdom, 3B
4. Matt Duffy, 2B
5. Ian Happ, RF
6. Austin Romine, C
7. Alfonso Rivas, LF
8. Sergio Alcántara, SS
9. Alec Mills, RHP

THE SYSTEM

• Indianapolis
• Altoona
• Greensboro
• Bradenton

THE SCHEDULE

There will be more daytime baseball in Chicago Saturday, with first pitch coming at 2:20 p.m. Eastern. The Pirates have yet to announce a starter, and the Cubs will pitch Kyle Hendricks (14-6, 4.43).

THE CONTENT

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