MILWAUKEE -- The Pirates were dead last in Major League Baseball with 124 home runs last season.
On this July 10, they hit four more in their 8-6 victory over the Brewers at American Family Field, three of which converted a 4-3 deficit to an 8-4 lead.
Now, the Pirates rank 13th in the majors with 95 home runs.
In an era where the long ball is highly valued, the Pirates are doing something right. Of course, there's a lot left where they need to improve. The Pirates rank 28th in MLB in on-base percentage and OPS, 27th in slugging percentage and -- the stat that counts most of all -- 28th in runs scored.
But days like Sunday show when the Pirates have a good game plan and execute it, they can do damage.
"When you're patient and you swing at the pitches you want -- sometimes you go on streaks where you don't get that pitch," Daniel Vogelbach explained. "I always say homer's aren't hit, they're thrown and they come in bunches. Sometimes you go on a streak when you're not really hitting any but if you stay with your approach like tonight ... If you stay with yourself and trust your abilities, good things happen."
Good things happened Sunday.
The Pirates and Brewers exchanged two-out rallies over the first three innings and entered the fifth inning with a 2-2 tie. Ke'Bryan Hayes stepped up to the plate with two outs and two hits already in the game, including a hard-hit double to the opposite field.
Hayes pounced on an elevated 1-1 fastball and stuck with the approach of driving it to the opposite field. Only this time, it cleared the wall, giving Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead:
Hitting the ball hard has not been a problem for Hayes. Hitting it in the air has been the struggle since his breakout campaign in 2020. I asked him after the game what worked for him in this one, which might help unlock the secret moving forward.
"The two balls I hit to right, they were both up in the zone and out over the plate," Hayes said. "I feel like whenever I’m at my best is whenever I’m driving fastballs to center and right-center, over right field."
The Pirates' power surge continued after the Brewers took a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning. Riding with the same fight displayed in Saturday's 4-3 win, Michael Chavis answered immediately in the sixth, hammering a 2-2 fastball on the outside corner over the wall in right field to tie the game:
It's not really considered a power surge until Oneil Cruz gets involved, and his might have been the most impressive long ball of the day.
Cruz came up later in the sixth with two outs. After taking a pitch out of the zone for a called strike and falling behind 1-2, Cruz reacted late to a changeup off the plate, flicked his bat it and ... I can't even explain it:
Derek Shelton tried to help explain the phenomenon of hitting a ball like that 416 feet with an exit velocity of 104.5 mph.
"The ability to extend," Shelton said. "This kid as an unbelievable wingspan. He hit it and you think it's gonna get out but to get up on the deck like it did, it's pretty impressive."
While the bullpen was preserving the 5-4 lead provided by Cruz's homer, Vogelbach made sure the game wasn't going to get away from them.
As he does so well, Vogelbach worked a long at-bat and got the count full with runners on the corners and two outs. Chi Chi Gonzalez threw a changeup that caught too much of the zone and Vogelbach made him pay:
It might have been a day where the ball was flying for either team. But Vogelbach pointed out a key fact that explained perfectly why Sunday was the Pirates' day.
"We both played in the same park. We each got the same opportunities . We put good wings on balls and had some that went out of the park. We get some days at home when we hammer some balls but they don't go out. You have to stay with it, keep having good at-bats and keep hitting the ball hard."
GETTY
Jose Quintana pitches in the first inning Sunday in Milwaukee.
• Yes, the dateline's correct. This game really was in Milwaukee, where the Pirates are now 62-120 since the opening of old Miller Park, and 7-21 since 2019.
• For the second day in a row, the bullpen had to come in for the starter early in the game. José Quintana had success in the first two innings, but the Brewers rallied with two outs in the third inning to tie the game, 2-2. Quintana got into trouble again in the fifth, and his day was over after 4 1/3 innings when Willy Adames tied the game once again with an RBI double in the fifth.
That paved the way for the bullpen to once again try to shut down the Brewers lineup, which they did successfully. Chris Stratton allowed the Brewers to take a 4-3 lead on a sacrifice (the run was charged to Quintana). Manny Bañuelos relieved Stratton after a leadoff double by Victor Caratini in the sixth, and stranded him there with three straight outs.
In a repeat of Saturday's win, Duane Underwood Jr., Wil Crowe and David Bednar handled the final three innings, respectively. This time around, Underwood Jr. dominated the top of the Brewers lineup with a perfect seventh. Crowe worked around a two-out walk and kept Milwaukee off the board in the eighth. After the Pirates took an 8-4 lead in the ninth, Bednar's only mistake was a hanging curveball to Andrew McCutchen, which was blasted for a two-run homer -- the only long ball hit by Milwaukee in the game.
• Speaking of Bednar, he will represent the Pirates at the All-Star Game in Los Angeles. He's a Pittsburgh kid who grew up watching the likes of Joel Hanrahan, Jason Grilli and Mark Melancon. Now, he joins that group of All-Star closers in franchise history.
What was Shelton's celebratory gift? A case of IC Light.
The biggest yinzer we know is headed to the All-Star Game! pic.twitter.com/RxtDbFBvq0
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 10, 2022
"He knew the way to my heart," Bednar said.
"I normally get a bottle of champagne for everybody," Shelton said. "But I was sure Bednar would never drink that bottle of champagne unless his fiancée tells him they're going to so I had the 30-rack waiting for him."
Here's much more on Bednar's All-Star selection.
• Bryan Reynolds came out of the game in the seventh inning, with a runner on first and the Pirates nursing a 5-4 lead. Trade speculation immediately ran rampant on social media, but Reynolds was pulled from the game with right side discomfort. The Pirates announced his status as day-to-day.
"He felt it a little bit," Shelton said. "Obviously with who Bryan is and what he means to us, we weren't going to risk it. He was able to play defense unrestricted but we just didn't want to test it in an at-bat."
THE ESSENTIALS
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 15-day injured list: LHP Dillon Peters (back)
• 60-day injured list: OF Jake Marisnick (thumb) OF Canaan Njigba-Smith (wrist), OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery) RHP Max Kranick (elbow), C Roberto Pérez (hamstring)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Kevin Newman, 2B
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
5. Michael Chavis, 1B
6. Diego Castillo, RF
7. Ben Gamel, LF
8. Oneil Cruz, SS
9. Jason Delay, C
And for Craig Counsell's Brewers:
1. Andrew McCutchen, RF
2. Willy Adames, SS
3. Mike Brosseau, 3B
4. Luis Urías, 2B
5. Keston Hiura, LF
6. Victor Caratini, DH
7. Rowdy Tellez, 1B
8. Pedro Severino, C
9. Jonathan Davis, CF
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates head to Miami to begin a four-game series on Monday, with first pitch scheduled for 6:40 p.m. Righty Mitch Keller (2-6, 5.21) lefty Trevor Rogers (4-7, 5.57) are set to face off. Alex Stumpf will have you covered from loanDepot park.
THE CONTENT
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