Kovacevic: The Pirates' best players are exactly that now, and it matters

"THREE HUNDRED! YES! ONE MORE!"

Liover Peguero can bring a loud boom with his bat, but his voice can be that much louder. He'd just burst into the clubhouse and, minutes after Andrew McCutchen's 299th career home run had carried the Pirates past the Cardinals, 6-3, on this Tuesday night at PNC Park, he was reminding everyone within earshot of the slice of history that'll now be at hand.

To which Cutch stepped from his stall and, without speaking a syllable, gave the kid a warm embrace.

Not everything's gone right for this edition of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club, to put it kindly. They're a dozen games under .500, at 57-69, after they'd ended April a dozen games over. The hitting's tanked. The pitching's tanked. Heck, even the tanking's tanked, in that a No. 1 overall draft pick's no longer sitting behind the curtain as some consolation.

But there's also this: The shape of what's to come is already here, for the most part. Meaning that, aside from the soon-ish arrivals of Paul Skenes, Termarr Johnson and a couple other prospects, this is it. This is the group. And this is the window. At least within what'd be considered a reasonable timespan for a front office that's now four years into its tenure without having won a damned thing.

And what I like best amid the current atmosphere is that these players, at either end of the age extremes, clearly grasp that. The more experienced, established players grasp that they still won't win a damned thing unless the younger players catch up in a hurry. And the younger players very much want -- no, need -- those veterans to lead the way. If not always in personality, then absolutely in performance.

Put another way, all involved need the best players to be the best players. And that label, in my estimation and for various reasons, points to the following five:

• Cutch ... still
• Bryan Reynolds
• Mitch Keller
• David Bednar 
• Ke'Bryan Hayes

All of whom have been, not coincidentally, the chief contributors within a modest-but-hey-still-something 16-15 span since July 19.

Put yet another way ...

"Just seeing these guys doing those things, that makes me want to do it, too," was how Peguero described it for me after this game. "It gives me a pushing-forward energy because I want to be like them. I want to contribute like them. And I'm here now, I feel it's such a ... privilege, and I just want to take care of it and take advantage of it as much as I can."

I followed up by asking, while he, Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez and others had success on their collective way up, what it'd be like if they all showed up here, and the experienced players weren't still the best players.

"I'm happy I don't think I gotta think about it that way," he replied smoothly. "But, you know, I just have such a respect for everybody, they're all playing so well, and all I'm trying to do right now is my best. If I do that, I can help them and we can win together."

No need to imagine that on this night:

That's Reynolds' two-run double, banged off the Clemente Wall off Adam Wainwright, that grew the Pirates' lead to 4-1.

Say what one will about his awful eight-week span within May-July, but he's undeniably the team's best player -- singular -- once again: Over the past 30 games, he's slashing .302/.353/.571 with half of his season's 18 home runs. And for the season, he's at .268/.331/.468 with 18 home runs and a team-high 62 RBIs, a team-high 440 at-bats, a team-high 112 games played ... one gets the picture.

Guess who was up next:

That made it 6-1, and it marked Cutch's 12th home run of the season, his second in four games after dragging a month and a half without one. Even so, he's at .252/.373/.392 with 38 RBIs and 10 steals, and his .765 OPS ranks fifth among qualified National League designated hitters, figures anyone would've gleefully accepted in advance for his age 36 season. 

Another of the aforementioned five best players finished it off:

Bednar blew two saves earlier this month, but he's rebounding with four consecutive saves while allowing one run. His season totals remain staggering with 27 saves in 30 opportunities, a 2.02 ERA, a 1.12 WHIP, and 61 strikeouts against 16 walks.

Neither Keller nor Hayes played in this game, but Keller's fresh off a 12-strikeout win in Minneapolis that's part of his own ongoing rebounding, along with his fellow All-Star, and even the mercurial Hayes is having maybe his most encouraging month in a while at .279/.315/500 with three home runs, eight extra-base hits and his usual golden glovework.

I brought all this up with Reynolds, about best players needing to be best players. He isn't the most outspoken sort but, like Cutch, he's displayed a legit urge to lead through action.

"I think that just going out there and playing every game and playing hard is kinda how I'm gonna do it, mostly" he'd tell me after ths game. "When I need to say something, I'm going to say something to somebody, even if it's just one-on-one or something like that. And I'm not going to re-wire myself. I don't think any of us needs to re-wire ourselves. Do the job. Get the job done. Every day."

As we concluded and I moved on to other targets, Reynolds called out to get my attention once more and added, "Hey, you're right about this."

Nice to hear, but I took it to Keller, too. And he was that much more emphatic.

"Oh, it applies here, for sure. And right now," he'd reply. "Like yeah, it's cool that we've got a lot of guys who are rookies and have talent. But you look right now at B-Rey, at Cutch, at Key -- I mean, like, this is the Key I know from the minor leagues -- and that's what's needed. They're expected to perform, and they're performing. And then you sprinkle in some young guys who don't have that experience yet and they start performing, too ... and it's just really cool."

But if these five don't perform?

"Nothing else will matter all that much."

It's a foundation. And one that's being embraced:

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY

Liover Peguero signs a young fan's Bryan Reynolds jersey before the game Tuesday at PNC Park.

THE ESSENTIALS

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

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 10-day injured list: RF Henry Davis (thumb)

• 15-day injured list: RHP Carmen Mlodzinski (elbow), LHP Angel Perdomo (elbow)

• 60-day injured list: SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), INF Tucupita Marcano (knee), RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ji Hwan Bae, 2B
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Connor Joe, 1B
5. Endy Rodríguez, C
6. Josh Palacios, CF
7. Vinny Capra, 3B
8. Alfonso Rivas, 1B
9. Alika Williams, SS

And for Oli Marmol's Cardinals:

1. Tommy Edman, CF
2. Alec Burleson, DH
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Willson Contreras, C
6. Tyler O'Neill, LF
7. Richie Palacios, CF
8. Jordan Walker, RF
9. Masyn Winn, SS

THE SCHEDULE

The series finale's Wednesday, 12:35 p.m., pitting just-recalled Luis Ortiz (2-3, 4.86) against lefty Zack Thompson (2-5, 3.90). Alex Stump will cover. I'll be flying down to Atlanta for football.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

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