Kovacevic: For all this fresh fun, let's not forget Hayes, Reynolds

For a few fleeting seconds after Ke'Bryan Hayes' headfirst slide into home plate that essentially routed through the Cubs' Willson Contreras, there was a safe call, smiles across PNC Park, the first of the fireworks flying over the Downtown skyline, and a celebration that ... fizzled almost as fast when Hayes wasn't moving, face down in the batter's box.

Followed by stone silence.

Look, listen and try to feel what it was like in here:

Notice how the in-game entertainment people smartly pounced on the music volume, too?

"It went from a walkoff enthusiasm to about as hushed a crowd as you can get for a walkoff," Derek Shelton would say of the 14,529 who saw Hayes score in the 10th inning on Michael Chavis' single to cap the Pirates' 8-7 comeback over the Cubs on this sparkling Thursday afternoon. "When you have a guy like Ke’ who slides in and stays down ... major-league wins are major-league wins, and that’s important and we won a series, but the concern at that point was just making sure he was OK.”

He was, by the way:

'Gucci' means good in the family lexicon, and the middle finger aimed at the Cubs ... well, I'll get to that below.

The upper part of Hayes' left shoulder appeared to collide with Contreras' leg, but all accounts afterward -- including a source to our Alex Stumpf -- affirmed it doesn't seem serious. And Shelton would say, "He’s OK. He’s being evaluated right now. The good thing is he walked off under his own power. I just walked upstairs with him, and he seemed like he was in a better spot.”

Wonderful. All of it. 

Including from the selfish standpoint of constructing this column, because I've got to confess I was leaning a certain way after seeing this rocket clear the Notch in the third:

And this from Bryan Reynolds to straightaway center in the first:

For all the fresh fun that's suddenly and somewhat startlingly associated with this team, given all the youthful arrivals of late: Jack Suwinski, Cal Mitchell, Tucupita Marcano, Travis Swaggerty, and, just this week, Bligh Madris and that superhuman 6-foot-7 shortstop who's got at least an RBI in each of his first six big-league games:

It's been a blast. And that goes a billion times over for Oneil Cruz. The kid's legit special in an era where that term tends to be terribly overused.

But let's not forget that the twin heartbeats of this franchise remain the same as when this season started. And last season started. And the season before that.

Hayes isn't exactly soaring so far -- .264/.340/.381 -- and the home run was just his third, accounting for a .721 OPS that ranks a modest 13th among all Major League Baseball third baseman. Not bad, but not nearly enough pop for a corner bat. But he's also in something of a slump, stuck at .200 so far in June, this after a .300 April that followed his franchise-record extension and made every penny seem worthwhile.

He'll be fine. The pop will come, unless the 2020 barrage was some wild outlier in his life. And in the interim, he'll produce consistently at the plate and, as ever, in the field. His 13 Defensive Runs Saved, an all-encompassing stat that tracks exactly what it sounds like it'd track, rank No. 1 in the majors at any position.

Oh, and there's this, too:

Any questioning this young man's will to win?

Hayes obviously wasn't around in the clubhouse afterward, but I asked David Bednar, who'd just whipped through a 1-2-3 ninth, about his emotion in seeing that scene from the dugout. Including once all stood still.

"It tells you everything you want to know, about him and about our team," Bednar told me. "You know what? Whenever you're playing hard, you can live with anything. I think we have a lot guys that play to win and play hard, I think. Good things happen with that."

Yeah. That.

Reynolds, by stark contrast, waited until June to get going -- his 1.030 OPS ranks ninth among all major-league players this month -- and he's raised his season figures to .259/.335/.462 with this home run being his 12th and that total leading all National League center fielders.

Dude's a ballplayer again, as if that was ever in doubt.

Going back to reporting day in Bradenton, I've invested more time communicating with Hayes and Reynolds than the rest of the roster combined, through streaks and slumps, wins and losses, contract uncertainties and mega-million extensions. And I've never been more convinced than these past few months that it's these two upon whom all this needs to be built.

Not that Cruz or Bednar or even Suwinski might not emerge as better overall performers. It's possible. I could probably toss Mitch Keller onto that pile, as well. But no matter who else follows into the foreseeable future, including all those awesome prospects with Class AA Altoona, it'll always be the case that Hayes and Reynolds were here first ... and for the worst. As such, they're respected by their peers almost as much as they're respected by those still in the minors. They're the gold standard where the 2022 edition of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's concerned, and that applies across all levels.

And let's not pretend either of them was a done deal until this year, either. They've matured, in all ways, exactly the way anyone would want. They've been punched, and they've punched back. They've been bounced about the lineup, almost always with as much protection as a toothpick-built bouncer. They've been part of a team that got emasculated, 21-0, by the Cubs, and the one that just rag-dolled them right back for much of this week.

As foundations go, that's a lot like Contreras' leg.

• On that subject: Contreras' leg had no business being planted the way it was, given the Buster Posey rule against blocking the plate. Adding into the mix his rather erratic history, it looked that much shakier.

I asked Shelton if he took issue with it, and he replied, "That’s a borderline play. I don’t think there’s anything dirty there. It was an aggressive baseball play. It was an aggressive slide by Ke’. I don’t think there was any intent at all on that play.”

Eh. I guess I'm still waiting in Shelton's third year for the first time he gets a little ruffled about something like that.

• What a day for Chavis. What character he'd bring to this team for years if he can keep it up. Chris Halicke has that.

• Jose Quintana bounced back from a 6.50 ERA through four June starts to go six strong in this one -- two runs, six hits, six Ks, a walk -- and even the two runs, both in the second, came on soft contact.

"It feels really good," he'd say. "I want to get back to outings like this one. I feel today I was more comfortable with my pitches. My changeup was way better than the last couple starts."

• Not bouncing back was Wil Crowe, who was tagged for four runs in Chicago's five-run eighth -- three hits, two walks over 1 2/3 innings -- and now has a 1.67 WHIP for the month after having been borderline dominant for the first two.

It's about the control: Only 25 of his 42 pitches were strikes, the monthly walk total is six over 9 2/3 innings, and he's missing within the zone, as well, allowing hitters to square up at a .256 clip.

• It's never enough to say Cruz had an RBI double. The proper way is to say Cruz reached out for an 0-2 sinker that was elegantly placed in the lower-far quadrant of the strike zone, and he seemingly poked the thing 393 feet off the base of the center-field fence ... at 106.2 mph.

Because he's absurd. 

• I saw Yu Chang get a hit. Came around to score, too, on that Cruz double.

Steve Blass used to call these 'four-loss wins,' meaning a lousy starter would win one and, thus, keep his spot in the rotation for another month.

• Good to see Marcano back in the clubhouse, back among the living after his COVID bout. He's still on that specific IL, but that'll obviously end soon.

Here's hoping he sticks. Don't be keeping any of these older guys at his expense.

• Heck, the same applies for half the roster now, right?

• That was a scary six-minute delay in the first inning when Chris Young, the Cubs' bullpen coach -- not the former Pirates pitcher of the same name -- was feeling lightheaded out there, according to Chicago team officials, and needed immediate medical attention. An athletic trainer sprinted out of the visiting dugout, soon to be joined by help from the home dugout.

Young was taken to Allegheny General hospital, checked out and deemed fine, manager David Ross said afterward.

“As a player, coach, it kinda stops everything," Ross told reporters on the other side. "You see the worry on people’s faces and trying to gather information, and there’s just a lot going on down there. The medical staff was on top of it. Appreciate the umpires’ patience. The Pirates were extremely patient, sent their medical staff, got him to the hospital, got him checked out and he’s gonna be all right.”

First-pitch temp was 80 degrees with not a cloud in the sky.

• One among those 14,529 in attendance was a certain special man in my life:

The entire class of Marko's Downtown school, City High, walked over the Seventh Street Bridge on a field trip to catch this game. So cool. A memory forever.

• Thanks for reading my baseball stuff.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 10-day injured list: OF Ben Gamel (hamstring), OF Jake Marisnick (thumb), 1B Yoshi Tsutsugo (lumbar muscle strain), Josh VanMeter (finger)

• 15-day injured list: RHP Zach Thompson (forearm), LHP Dillon Peters (back)

• 60-day injured list: SS Kevin Newman (groin), OF Canaan Njigba-Smith (wrist), OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery), Roberto Pérez (hamstring, out for season)

• COVID injured list: INF/OF Tucupita Marcano, RHP Duane Underwood Jr.

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Diego Castillo, 2B
4. Michael Chavis, 1B
5. Jack Suwinski, LF
6. Yu Chang, DH
7. Oneil Cruz, SS
8. Tyler Heineman, C
9. Bligh Madris, RF

And for Ross' Cubs:

1. Christopher Morel, CF
2. Willson Contreras, C
3. Ian Happ, LF
4. Patrick Wisdom, 3B
5. Yan Gomes, DH
6. Jonathan Villar, 2B
7. Nico Hoerner, SS
8. Nelson Velázquez, RF
9. P.J. Higgins, 1B

THE SCHEDULE

Here comes a six-game trip through St. Petersburg, Fla., and Washington, beginning Friday night with the Rays, a 7:05 p.m. first pitch between Mitch Keller (2-5, 4.72) and lefty Jeffrey Springs (3-2, 2.00). Alex Stumpf and Chris will split the trip. 

THE CONTENT

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