Kovacevic: What, no love for hitting coach?

Ray Searage deserves all the praise, multiplied many times over, and even then he deserves a cherry wrapped in a bright red bow on top.

Hey, let's set off a whole barge of Zambelli fireworks up there, because there might not be any individual at any level of the Pirates who's had more of a direct hand in this franchise's ascent since he took over as pitching coach late in the 105-loss 2010 season.

As Neal Huntington mentioned to me recently, "Honestly, people don't even know everything that Ray's done for us, what he's meant. I can't even put it into words."

No, but at least everyone's always trying.

Not so with Jeff Branson.

"I'm not sure why more people don't talk about the job he's done," Josh Harrison was saying after going 4 for 4 in the Pirates' latest prodigious output, a 10-2 trouncing of the non-Miller-Park Brewers Saturday night at PNC Park. "It means so much to us as hitters to have someone like Jeff who we can trust, who can prepare us, work with us ... you name it."



Harrison paused and looked around the clubhouse.

"Show me somebody in here who hasn't gotten better over the season."

Hm. Can't say I'll pull that off, but let's first look from the team perspective:



Those are significant leaps, right down the line.

And narrowing the view to the nine games since the Pirates left Miller Park -- where nothing makes a difference, anyway -- they've pounded out 50 runs, gone 6-3 and, yes, gotten right back into the race for first place. With the Cardinals losing twice Saturday, their gap is down to just 2 1/2 games with a game in hand.

If Searage had orchestrated such a surge, the clouds would part and the angels would play their harps. With sparklers on top, of course.

So why barely a syllable anywhere about Branson?

I strongly suspect it's a case of what I like to call Brian Boehringer Syndrome, a seriously dated/vague/pointless reference to a reliever who, more than a decade ago, got off to an awful April for the Pirates but was terrific after that ... and all anyone would remember was the awful April.

That, if you ask me, is Branson.

These Pirates batted .227 through May 6, buried not just by Andrew McCutchen and J-Hay toothpicking well below the Mendoza Line -- that's another syndrome named for a former Pirates, only that one's used by more than one person -- but pretty much everyone. I called the offense Stink-o-de-Mayo, and I'd imagine many called it much worse.

Coincidentallly, May 6 marked the afternoon I went to Branson for answers ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYsmRiFqhaE

... as well as the night Cutch publicly lost it on himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9WE0LzGlSo

Ugly stuff all-around, right?

But that also was it. The very next day, Cutch rapped three hits, the Pirates tagged a touchdown on the Reds and, but for the Boehringer Syndrome, there would be a line stretching across all Three Sisters over the Allegheny to praise Branson for it.

But there's no such line, even though, as J-Hay emphasized above, the improvement has been astonishingly across the board among those here all season.

Let's go individually now, including all I've been able to gather in recent weeks about how Branson has been able to help each:

• Cutch burst out of that April and kept right on rocketing upward, being named National League player of the month for August. An MVP doesn't need much help, but he's the first to credit Branson for identifying faulty timing in his torso for all that went wrong with his swing in April. Basically, his upper body was turning before the lower body. He had no rhythm, no drive on the ball.

• J-Hay never had a chance to replicate his 2014 after his April, then the hand injury. But he's now a .327 hitter -- 81 for 247 -- in his past 66 games, and this despite largely dragging since coming off the disabled list. Branson brought him out of his early slump by resetting his hands further back in the swing and refocusing his sights on the opposite field.

• Pedro Alvarez is what he is at this point, but he's a .254 hitter since the All-Star break -- including a stunning 11 for 23 against left-handers -- and he's got 22 total home runs. Branson's push here: Lay off the outside changeups. He has.

• Jung Ho Kang had every excuse to start slowly and did, but he's now in the running for Rookie of the Year. Branson played this one cautiously, not wishing to remove any of what made him a star in South Korea even though North American hitting coaches generally loathe any type of leg kick. So instead, Branson offered what he most felt Kang needed, and that was extensive, extra information about opposing pitchers.

Don't underestimate this approach. I've covered hitting coaches who couldn't handle overseeing anyone with a leg kick.

• Starling Marte has gotten it done all season, the Pirates' most consistent offensive performer, but he's also become a visibly more patient hitter. More disciplined, too, if you can recall those ridiculous flails at sliders 6 feet outside the zone.

• Francisco Cervelli has been almost as consistent, and he's enjoying "the summer of my life," as he described it to me on a recent road trip. He certainly never hit for the Yankees the way he has under Branson.

• OK, so there is one: Neil Walker is the only regular to have stepped back from the first half, dipping from .278 to .240, but his power numbers and run production have stayed solid.

• Jordy Mercer had two miserable months, but he's a .292 hitter dating back to late June, and this despite a nasty knee injury in the interim.

Here's Mercer after this game on Branson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7yiujaHu5A

• Gregory Polanco was such a mess at the midpoint that real questions were being asked -- internally and externally -- about whether he should return to the minors.

Wow, right?

You know how that's played out, I'll assume, without statistical support.

I asked Polanco after this game how much Branson has meant to him, and he replied without hesitation: "Everything. Just everything. He worked with me so hard, showed me what I was doing wrong ... but he believed in me, too."

Polanco recited the specifics of the change, how Branson worked to shorten his trademark long swing by limiting his strike zone to the outer half of the plate. Polanco would playfully repeat "outer half, outer half," as he'd go daily to the cages.

I followed up by asking Polanco if he ever feared Branson might change him too much. Altering the swing of a young player with so much potential, even slightly, is risky business for the athlete and the coach. It can be a career-killer, actually.

"No, I trusted Branny, and he trusted me," Polanco said. "I knew I needed help, and I knew he was trying to help me."

That trust and specific attention was what Walker cited above all.

"He respects who you are, the thoughts you have and, even though he wants all of us to have that team approach where we're wearing down opposing pitchers, he looks at each case separately and stays open-minded," Walker said. "That means so much if you're a hitter, to know that you can go to the coach without worrying what might happen. We know that with Branny. He believes in us, and we believe in him."

I couldn't interview Branson, as he missed this game for personal reasons, but I'm guessing all these testimonials -- oh, and the 10 runs -- spoke volumes for the man.