Ke'Bryan Hayes provided the only form of run support with a solo home run in the seventh inning of the Pirates' 2-1 loss at the hands of the Reds Tuesday at PNC Park. It was this 2-2 curveball on the inner half from Nick Lodolo that Hayes connected on and sent out over the left-field fence and over the outstretched glove of Spencer Steer for his third long ball of the season:
KE'BRYAN HAYES#VotePirates ➡️ https://t.co/F8oWS9eJaw pic.twitter.com/5RvGFtNXOk
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 19, 2024
"I thought we took some pretty good swings. We drove some balls, they just ran them down," Derek Shelton said. "But it was good to see (Hayes) get a ball up and get it out, and give us a chance to win a game.”
It was Hayes' first home run since June 1 in Toronto and just his second in nearly two months. It extended his modest hitting streak to five games, but he's still in the midst of a stretch in which he's only hitting .172 over his last seven games.
"I mean I'll take it, but I'm just not where I want to be at the plate, obviously," Hayes said. "I mean, it feels good to hit a home run, but I feel like my game, whenever I'm at my best, I'm hitting line drives and then the home runs come. It was good. I will take them whenever I can, but just still not happy with where I am at the plate."
When analyzing recent at-bats, Hayes has noticed his struggles have primarily stemmed from his contact point. He said he's catching way too many balls too deep and, at times, he's feeling in between while taking pitches he should be swinging at.
"I feel like today, kinda like my thought process was, I just wanted to be more aggressive early in the count," Hayes said. "If I was gonna go to 0-1 or whatever, it was going to be swinging and not taking it. That was kinda my thought process today. I think I just gotta find a way to get the ball on contact point out front."
