Rodriguez gets an assist from Davis for first big-league homer

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- "You see the bat flip?"

"Oh yeah," I say back to Liover Peguero as the shortstop was finishing getting dressed.

"The best!" Peguero said with Endy Rodríguez back at his locker and within ear shot, cracking a smile.

During a recent chat with Rodríguez at the Futures Game in Seattle during the All-Star week, the Pirates' rookie said he couldn't wait for that first big-league home run. But actions speak louder than words, and considering his first major-league home run...

... resulted in a bat flip like this...

You can tell he's been waiting for that moment for some time. That shot, plus his first shutout behind the plate, helped lead the way to a 3-0 Pirates win over the Angels Saturday.

Hey, if you're gonna bat flip it like that, you have to know it is gone, and there was no doubt in Rodríguez's mind.

“For sure," Rodríguez answered. "Launch angle, the barrel, the sound..."

Now was that the launch angle of the bat off the ball or the bat leaving his hands?

"Both," Rodríguez said, still beaming. 

That's just a taste of the energy that Rodríguez brings every day. Another taste of it was seen just before the game's final pitch. David Bednar was uncharacteristically wild, walking two and hitting another batter to load the bases in the ninth. He didn't retain much during a mound visit, as he was trying to lock in again.

Rodríguez instead went with a physical cue, emphatically smacking his glove as Bednar was getting ready to deliver the pitch:

The crisis would be averted as Bednar snagged a comebacker and tossed it onto Rodríguez, who in turn threw down to Carlos Santana for the game-ending double-play.

"I think that's half the battle, you guys being on the same page and being confident in what's thrown," Bednar was telling me. "Can't ask for much more than that."

"That emotion he has is obviously infectious," Henry Davis said.

Davis was on the railing to greet Rodríguez after that home run. It was fitting, because Davis played a small part in making it happen because of a conversation the two had earlier that day. Davis had noticed Rodríguez's timing was off and that he was late getting to his load. He only had a handful of at-bats in his first week in the majors, but it stood out to his teammate that he came up through the minors with.

"He's gone through these stretches where he seems like he's Barry Bonds," Davis said. "It just seems like he can never get out, and when it's like that, he's completed his load when the pitcher's barely moved. It feels like he could throw 130 miles an hour and you couldn't get it by him."

To visualize, here's Rodríguez getting set up sooner on his home run compared to missing a slider from this past homestand that was in the same spot:

"If you're still moving back when the pitcher's released the ball, it's not necessarily about being able to swing, but you need to have that load completed in time to read the pitch," Davis elaborated. "One of Endy's strengths, if not his best strength as a hitter, is command of the strike zone, and obviously staying in the strike zone is his strength, but he had some really quality at-bats going after pitches he didn't normally do. I talked with Peggy about it to make sure he was seeing [what I was seeing]. We all had the same thought."

Rodríguez and Davis talked about it again about 20 minutes before the home run, where Rodríguez claimed he then called his shot.

“I put it into practice," Rodríguez said. "That helped me."

Consider it Rodríguez returning the favor. At the end of the last minor-league season, Davis did not have the same muscle memory with his swing because he had missed significant time with his wrist injury. Rodríguez was one of the first to point out that Davis' swing wasn't the same as it was when they were in Class High-A Greensboro earlier in the year.

"That's the blessing of coming up together," Davis said. "You see each other when you're going right, you see each other when things are in between. You can have those conversations because sometimes when you're in it yourself, you can't [see it]."

"He's a good listener," Peguero said about Rodríguez. "I feel like he's going to be getting better and better since he's always listening."

Rodríguez has talked recently about not trying to press at the plate or do too much. That the key to his surge in the minors that earned his promotion was to wait for his pitch rather than going after the pitcher's best pitch. That's part of the equation for future success, but so is the timing with his load.

“As long as he gets ready to hit, I think that’s the biggest thing," Derek Shelton said. "I think his first six or seven at-bats up here, he was kind of chasing the ball out of the pitcher’s hand. It looks like now he’s back to his normal load.”

And once Rodríguez fully adjusts to that major-league pitching, well, there's a reason why he entered the year the team's top ranked prospect.

“He’s gonna hit," Shelton said. "I don’t think there’s any doubt from the first time we saw him in spring training two years ago that this guy is going to hit. The big leagues is hard. He’s making adjustments and he did a nice job tonight.”

 MORE: The big 4-6 double play in our Pirates Feed

GETTY

Liover Peguero reacts after retiring the Angels' Taylor Ward on a 4-6 lineout double play to end the fourth inning Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif.

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THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 10-day injured list: 2B Ji Hwan Bae (ankle), 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes (lower back)

• 60-day injured list: SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), RHP Wil Crowe (shoulder), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Connor Joe, LF
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Henry Davis, RF
6. Jared Triolo, 3B
7. Endy Rodríguez, C
8. Nick Gonzales, 2B
9. Liover Peguero, SS

And for Phil Nevin's Angels:

1. Luis Rengifo, 2B
2. Shohei Ohtani, DH
3. Mickey Moniak, CF
4. Taylor Ward, LF
5. Mike Moustakas, 3B
6. Matt Thaiss, C
7. Hunter Renfroe, RF
8. Trey Cabbage, 1B
9. Andrew Velasquez, SS

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates will wrap up the first leg of their west coast trip Sunday afternoon when Mitch Keller (9-5, 3.73) takes on former Pirate Tyler Anderson (4-2, 5.17). First pitch is set for 4:05 p.m. Eastern. I'll have you covered.

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