Colin Moran is a monster during home openers. Even if he forgets that it actually is the home opener.
"I didn’t realize it was opening day for a while," Moran said during a postgame Zoom call. "Just felt weird out there."
In case you need a reminder, in 2018, he introduced himself to PNC Park by hitting what would be a game-deciding grand slam. In 2019, he smacked a game-tying home run in the eighth.
And on Monday, he clobbered two home runs to right, the second of which gave them the lead late and reached the Allegheny River on the bounce.
And he did this after hitting that go-ahead homer:
Mr. Home Opener pic.twitter.com/VX54bpqI9f
— Pirates (@Pirates) July 28, 2020
Folks, that is a genuine Colin Moran bat flip.
"I think I surprised myself with hitting the ball, so I kind of blacked out," Moran said.
Statcast measured it at 438 feet, beating his previous career long by 16 feet. Or, in more practical, Pittsburgh terms, he put it in the river for the first time:
Moran put together some quality at-bats in the opening series against the Cardinals, going 4-for-11 in the three-game set with a home run Sunday. So it's safe to say his swing is in a good spot right now.
During summer camp, Moran acknowledged he needed to improve his approach at the plate, particularly against spin-in sliders. Well, his home run Sunday was against a hanging slider, as was his first one Monday:
He hit just two home runs against sliders last season, and only one in 2018. Between those two homers early and the double he hit off of lefty Kwang Hyun Kim's breaking ball in the opener, he has enjoyed more success against that pitch already than he did for most of 2019.
"I think just kind of putting my body in position to hit more pitches has been big, working with Rick," Moran said. "On the sliders, just trying to be able to put myself in position to hit all the balls."
Moran has been the big bat for the Pirates thus far. Josh Bell, Bryan Reynolds, Adam Fraizer and Kevin Newman have all had pretty slow starts coming out of the gate. Gregory Polanco was activated off the injured list Monday, but he might need some time to get going.
So can Moran keep this going? He might need to continue to carry the offense for a bit, and if the other big bats get going, a productive Moran extends the lineup.
“He's taking really good hard, aggressive swings," Derek Shelton said after the game when asked that very question. "That's something we challenged him on, to be aggressive, to swing the bat. ... He's staying with his plan, he's staying aggressive, and it's nice to see because when you spend that much time working on something like that, then you see the fruit.”
• I know the expectation is to tear the Pirates apart after a loss like that, but for the most part, they outplayed the Brewers for most of the night. There's a lot of good to take out of this one.
This team should be 3-1 instead of 1-3 right now, but I digress. Let's get all of the bullpen stuff out in this bullet.
Really, I don't have that much to say. Michael Feliz is the only one who had a truly bad night, and even he could have had his fat pulled out of the fire if Bell was able to turn a double-play in the ninth. Heck, even if he got just the out at second, the Pirates might have still clung on to the lead after Ryan Braun's double, assuming they went to a no-doubles defense.
Feliz didn't do himself any favors by failing to put away Eric Sogard or Keston Hiura with two strikes.
As for the rest of the relievers, Dovydas Neverauskas would have tossed two scoreless innings had it not been for Major League Baseball's new extra-innings rule that puts a runner on second to start the inning. He missed Jacob Stallings' glove a couple times, sometimes quite erratically, but overall, it was his best outing as a major-leaguer in quite some time.
Nik Turley was thrown into the deep side of the pool in the seventh inning and ended up surrendering a run but considering he had to get four outs, it was another decent appearance. Like Neverauskas, he was wild, but not to a point of detriment.
So really, Shelton's bullpen mismanagement was sticking with Feliz too long and Kyle Crick hanging a slider to Braun. In the at-bats that killed the Pirates that inning, they kept getting the Brewers' batters to two strikes. One more whiff would have won it in about five different instances.
So how much of that is on the manager, and how much is on the players for not finishing the job? I say it's more the latter.
• Look, if Nick Burdi was unavailable Monday, like Shelton said, he was unavailable. It's as simple as that. That right arm has been through hell and back these past four years, and the priority for him should be to get through the season healthy.
Yes, every win is more valuable in a 60-game season, but it's still early. Maybe if the Pirates were in the hunt for a playoff spot in September and they needed him to pitch they could push him a bit, but not now, after just a three week summer camp.
If you need to go to your best reliever to hold a four-run lead, you probably didn't deserve to win anyway.
• If there was one encouraging thing out of the bullpen Monday, it's that Richard Rodriguez's fastball velocity went up, averaging 92.6 mph. That still is a little lower than last year, which was about 93 mph, but it's a significant jump up from what he was offering during the exhibition games and against the Cardinals, where he was sitting 90-91 mph. He also elevated his four-seamer closer to where he does his best work: That top corner to the catcher's hand side:
Location and a drop in velocity had been serious problems for him early in 2020. Both still aren't quite where they were in 2018 or when he was rolling in 2019, but it's no coincidence that he put together a 1-2-3 inning Monday. This was a big step for him to show that the lost velocity wasn't permanent.
• Hey, piggybacking worked out pretty darn well. Steven Brault went just two innings because of the rain delay, and Chad Kuhl tossed 3.2 frames in his first game in over two years.
I'm just saying, if the Pirates had a new starter go 5.2 scoreless in their debut, people would be talking about it the next day.
• Kuhl said his slider, "ol' reliable" felt good. It looked good, too:
Right on the inside corner. Welcome back.
Kuhl threw his slider 23 times, resulting in a half-dozen whiffs and six called strikes. He threw his fastball 23 times, too, signaling that he is departing from the old fastball-heavy approach the old regime wanted from him. His slider and curve get really good movement. I think we're going to continue to see Kuhl evolve into more of a breaking ball pitcher as the year progresses.
• The Pirates pumped in artificial cheers when the grounds grew started to take off the tarp to restart the game. They also played the late-inning, pump up videos on the scoreboard. Cute little touches.
At the least the sound and video teams have returned to normalcy.
• It's weird to see Bryan Reynolds out of his element. He still drew a pair of walks Monday, but the swing just looks...off. In St. Louis he still drove a couple balls to the warning track and made some hard contact. Some of it was tough luck. Hits will come.
But to see him be beaten badly with the game in the balance by 33-year-old David Phelps Monday? That was weird.
I'm sure a lot of this will die down once he finally gets that first hit, but the Pirates really could have used that first one in the 11th.
• One more Brault thought: He was more reliant on the changeup than usual, throwing it nine time outs of 37 pitches, or roughly one-fourth of his pitch mix. That wasn't really too surprising considering the Brewers have plenty of big right-handed bats, including Lorenzo Cain, Hiura and Braun.
Seems safe to expect the same Tuesday from Derek Holland. He and Oscar Marin have been working on several mechanical and pitch selection changes, dating back to spring training 1.0. The changeup was a big part of that.
He's going to need that pitch to neutralize right-handed hitters, who had a .997 OPS against him last year.
"A weakness last year that hurt me, besides missing down the middle the plate, was the right-handed hitters," Holland said during a pregame Zoom call. "I wasn't getting them out a well [as before]. But I feel like I've made the adjustments. Working with Oscar, I’m getting back to where we need to be. That's the most important thing. We're right where we need to be going forward."
• Well, MLB did not inspire much confidence for playing this whole season Monday.
Not just because the Marlins were incredibly irresponsible for playing Sunday after it was clear that COVID-19 had spread amongst players in the locker room, but also because commisioner Rob Manfred didn't have many answers when he went on MLB Network to discuss the fallout:
Watch Commissioner Manfred's entire interview with Tom Verducci on MLB Tonight. pic.twitter.com/oAyJ1NoEyk
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) July 27, 2020
Before the game Monday, Holland had this to offer after being asked about the Marlins news: “If we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, I don’t think we have to worry. I’m not going to worry about the other teams. I’m going to worry about Pittsburgh.”
And that's the scary part. The Pirates have done a good job following protocols. Polanco didn't go to PNC Park after experiencing mild symptoms. That's why Shelton praised him for how he handled himself throughout the process. He took the necessary measures to make sure he didn't put his teammates in jeopardy.
But one team, or even a couple players, doing something reckless could put everything in jeopardy. Holland and the Pirates can only control what they can do, but look at the Phillies and Yankees. Both teams are guiltless in this debacle, and their game was still cancelled.
It was inevitable that there was going to be a spike like this at some point this year. It's not a good sign when it happens after the first series.
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