Kovacevic: On their positives alone, these Pirates are worth a fight

I spotted Oneil Cruz before the game Friday. First time I'd laid eyes on him in what's felt like forever. Awesome to see him. He's out of the boot, though still using a walking aid, still stepping gingerly on that sliced-up ankle, still striking the most imposing figure of anyone in PNC Park's home clubhouse.

I asked if he's keeping his chin up. He nodded. 

I asked if he expects to be back this summer. Another nod, along with an acknowledgement of hope.

I asked how he feels about his fellow Pirates performing as they have these past two months.

Well, now ... that did it. Out came that broad, beaming smile, brighter than the searing sun that'd been scorching outside.

None of us can know if Cruz, our city's most naturally blessed baseball player since the original Andrew McCutchen run, will return in 2023. Not me. Not you. Not Cruz himself. Not even Todd Tomczyk, the team's medical director, will declare it definitively. It's simply reiterated that, if it happens, it'll be in August ... or later ... or not at all. All the assessments are about hope, like the one Cruz offered me here.

But the mere notion that he could come back into a pennant race, providing a performance/psychological boost that'd be the envy of every team in Major League Baseball right when it's needed most ...

Is that worth a fight?

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Making this clear: I've got no idea where this group's going, let alone whether or not they'll sustain any semblance of contention. Transforming from back-to-back 100-loss catastrophes into a playoff spot, or a division title, or more ... come on. It's beyond implausible. And it's only multiplied by not being able to gauge who/what these Pirates really are, from month to month, week to week -- my goodness, even half-a-game to the next half-a-game, as witnessed in the wild 7-5 flipping of the Cardinals that'd follow here Friday night.

Are they the team that fell behind by five when their most prized young pitcher gave up a couple bombs while their offense put forth little more than blank stares at called third strikes? Or are they the team that rallied for the next seven, including six runs in the seventh inning alone on back-to-back monster home runs by Ke'Bryan Hayes and Josh Palacios?

Are they the 20-8 start? Are they the 11 losses in the next dozen games, none of which saw them top three runs? Or are they the 8-8 equilibrium that's unfolded since?

All that's known is two over .500, a half-game back on the second of June:

MLB.COM

Worth a fight?

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Tony Watson once told me, well after those 2013-15 playoff appearances had faded, that his greatest regret was that those teams never added to those flags flapping out beyond PNC Park's center field above the upper riverwalk, the ones that denote division crowns and league pennants. They made the playoffs, they beat the Reds in the Blackout game, but they never won anything that came with a title, that could be sewn onto a flag. And as such, anytime they'll visit Pittsburgh, they'll see nothing commemorating their time.

Think about that for a moment.

No one will taste that, in fact, from any team after 1992, the year that Sid slid.

I ran into Watson this spring in Bradenton, Fla., when he stopped up into the press box at a Grapefruit exhibition. I reminded him of that sentiment. He recalled it well.

"With what's going on down there," he'd respond, motioning toward the field, "it won't be much longer."

Worth a fight?

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A week ago in Seattle, Hayes was fresh off one of the ugliest offensive showings of his career -- 0 for 5, four Ks, bases left loaded in the 10th -- and I was the only reporter to approach his stall afterward. He saw me coming from the corner of his eye. I might as well have been an ax-wielding dentist.

Not that it'd result in much.

"Just ... missing the ball," he'd reply to my lone question on the obvious. "Swinging at pitches that I can't really do anything with. Kinda one of those things. Gotta swing at better pitches."

Flash forward to the next afternoon in San Francisco. He and Andy Haines, the hitting coach, invested extra hours in a video study, then in a cage session, both of which were aimed at steadying his footwork and, in turn, at buying more time to sit back and wait on pitches he can pull.

"I kinda went to a toe-tap," Hayes would tell after this game. "Just to feel a little more balanced whenever I go to load. And from there, mainly trying to be more aggressive early in the count."

Like this, one might imagine:

Seventh inning. Pirates down two. Two aboard. Ji Hwan Bae had just whiffed. And the first-pitch slider to Hayes from St. Louis' Giovanny Gallegos, up and in -- more on that in a moment -- was launched so far into the left-field bleachers that everyone in the place could tell right away that the Pirates were about to lead, 6-5 ... except for poor Gallegos, who briefly deluded himself into informing his fielders that a popup was at hand:

That's tremendous.

And oh, by the way, this also saw a vital and to-date underperforming piece of the franchise's future experience what he'd call "the best swing of my life."

Watch his expressions when I asked him a couple questions about it:

"It felt great," he'd say. "Probably one of my best hits, home runs in my career so far. So, yeah it felt really good. I went up there after Bae struck out and wanted to pick my teammate up and wanted to get something early in the count. Really, first pitch, I was looking for hanging breaking ball first pitch and backed up." 

That's as far from what I saw or heard in Seattle as Seattle itself.

That matters. A ton. Regardless of how anyone views Bob Nutting's spending, the Pirates will never be in a position to have eight-year, $70 million investments go poof. Having Hayes succeed isn't optional.

Same with Cruz. Same with Bryan Reynolds. Mitch Keller. David Bednar. Probably Jack Suwinski at this point. More to come, for sure.

And if those players can succeed individually, in part because of success that's collective ...

Worth a fight?

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No one seemed more excited by Hayes' home run than Rodolfo Castro, bounding up and down in the dugout and then out onto the field -- he didn't even enter the game until the eighth -- and no one seemed more excited about it afterward, either.

"Everybody pitching Ke' inside, you see?" he'd ask me. And I definitely saw. "They think he can't go for that, that he's going to try to take it the other way. Where was this?"

Pulled it. Hard.

"Pulled it. Hard. ... I'm so happy for him. He works so hard."

I love Castro. I love a lot of the interactions in this room, but he's worth a fight unto himself.

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Two pitches after Hayes' home run, Josh Palacios belted his first:

It's not easy extrapolating this component. Palacios is 27. In prospect years, that makes him Dick Van Dyke.

Wonderful reaction of his own, though:

"As soon as it went off the bat, I think I kind of just blacked out," he'd tell me. "I was like, 'Oh, shoot, I finally did it.' I knew as soon as I hit that thing."

Congrats to him. And to Drew Maggi and anyone else who's got both the work ethic and faith to pull these off. I mean that.

But the minor-league arrivals will soon morph into those that bring up foundational types such as Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez and another top-tier prospect who doesn't get mentioned nearly often enough but who had himself another A-plus start on this same night in Indianapolis:

Those are some filthy swings, even for Mud Hens.

The sooner this chapter opens, the better. But it's coming, and it's unquestionably got to be weighed when asking ...

Worth a fight?

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If everyone can agree there's a storm brewing, everyone can also likely agree it isn't a perfect one. Cruz's injury, the convergence of the prospects being a better fit for 2024, learning curves on the current roster ... those make for potholes that could become craters.

But when is such a scene ever perfect?

How about when Keller's a bona fide Cy Young candidate? Or when Johan Oviedo and Luis Ortiz are rounding out as rotation mainstays? Or when Bednar and Colin Holderman are dominating the back of the bullpen? Or when Reynolds is about to embark on his typically hottest months? Or when Bae and now Tucupita Marcano are rising up?

Or hey, how about just when the Central's down and these very Cardinals, of all teams, are even downer, now 25-33 and dead last?

I've got another one: How about Cutch?

My friends, we're in some mega-bonus territory here with this living Pittsburgh baseball legend. He's 36 going on 26, now slashing .278/.375/.455 with eight home runs and 21 RBI and, more impressive, he's putting together plate appearances of consistent quality game after game after game. In this one, he'd go 2 for 4 with a walk and a steal, and it's so common that it felt like an afterthought.

Current OPS: .830

Career OPS: .838

Last time he had one this high: 2019, when it was .835 as a member of the Phillies at hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park

Last time he had one this high in Pittsburgh: 2017, when it was .849

I mentioned some of this to him after this game, and he just kept emphatically nodding throughout. When I further recalled a talk we had on the morning of the season opener in Cincinnati, about how returning to the Pirates might raise his own bar because the fans here would expect to see the prime version of Cutch and not whatever age might've taken away, he nodded all the more.

"Yep. Exactly," he'd finally say. "I don't ever change expectations for myself. But one thing I believed was that, by coming back, I wouldn't have to try to do anything to impress people here. I could just be myself, be the best version of myself, not try to do too much."

Uh, peak Cutch into his golden years?

Worth a fight?

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I know, I know ... what fight? What the heck am I talking about with all this?

I'll keep it simple: This should be everyone's fight.

As Watson's story should instruct, milestones matter. And they matter more than mileposts. If these Pirates win something, anything in 2023, it'll matter so much more than Ben Cherington and even Derek Shelton, right down there at field level, seem to be willing to cede. All the talk's still about improvement here, patience there, trying out this player, awaiting more from that player, and it comes across as if this summer's just another steppingstone toward whatever they perceive as their optimal outcome.

Why?

What's so flawed with this act of the play?

I genuinely don't get it.

This scene, with 24,388 on their feet and roaring, is worth a fight:

And this scene's worth all-out war:

The fire's there at field level, from Cutch to Carlos Santana on down.

"We kept grinding," Shelton would say of this effort. "I think that's the one thing we've seen about this team, that, regardless of what happens, they continue to play hard. And they did. And they got rewarded for it."

"Yeah, that's what we do when we're good," Reynolds would tell me on the same topic. "That's what we were doing the first month. And I know we've got a lot left in us, too."

Say it loud enough to be heard at 115 Federal. Maybe they'll be motivated to match that fight.

THE ESSENTIALS

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

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow)

• 60-day injured list: 1B Ji-Man Choi (Achilles), RHP Wil Crowe (shoulder), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Tucupita Marcano, SS
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Jack Suwinski, CF
5. Carlos Santana, 1B
6. Ji Hwan Bae, 2B
7. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
8. Josh Palacios, RF
9. Austin Hedges, C

And for Oli Marmol's Cardinals:

1. Brendan Donovan, LF
2. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
3. Nolan Gorman, 2B
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Willson Contreras, C
6. Alec Burleson, DH
7. Paul DeJong, SS
8. Jordan Walker, RF
9. Tommy Edman, CF

THE SCHEDULE

Middle match of the series is Saturday, 4:05 p.m., with Cruz bobbleheads, the Three Rivers Arts Festival in full swing and just a great big party in the Golden Triangle. Alex Stumpf will cover.

THE CONTENT

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