Ke'Bryan Hayes came up with a chance to play the hero and cap a potential ninth inning Pirates rally. Instead, he made the turn at first and jogged back to the third base dugout as the Phillies lined up to celebrated their 8-7 win Thursday night at PNC Park.
In a somber Pirates locker room postgame after falling just short of erasing a six-run ninth inning deficit, Hayes had to shower after an 0-for-5 performance and being the only member of either team's lineup that did not reach base safely in the game.
With the regular season nearly four months old, Hayes' campaign can be divided into two very different halves. In April and May, he slashed .293/.378/.384, and that slugging percentage could have been a lot higher had he caught a couple breaks with some balls he barreled up.
"If you go back and look at April and May, I think Key probably expected that he would have had four or five homers on balls that just didn't get out of the ballpark," Derek Shelton said before the game.
Talking with Hayes around that time, he told me he wasn't satisfied with the results he had posted to that point. He was hoping for more slugging. He was certainly hitting the ball hard enough for it, but a lot of that hard contact was still on the ground. But he was taking steps in the right direction and was a plus hitter.
The last two months have told a different story. With that 0-for-5 Thursday, Hayes has slashed just .201/.256/.307 since the start of June. July has also seen a decline in some of the peripherals that had been so good all season. His hard hit rate has gone from about 51.5% in both May and June to 40.3%, according to Baseball Savant, one of the worst months of his career. His ground ball rate has jumped from 41.9% in May to 55.2% this month. And after hitting 10 barrels in the first two months of the season -- or a batted ball that's hit hard with ideal launch angle for a potential extra-base hit or home run -- he hit just two in June and none in July.
Talking with him on Thursday, Hayes once again said he is not satisfied with his offensive output, but this time, the context has changed.
"I'm not really where I want to be," Hayes told me. "Started out really well. I was working my walks, hitting the ball, spraying it everywhere. Things of that nature. I'm working, trying to clean up that posture... Trying to get lined up back to what I was doing earlier."
There are other factors that can be contributing to Hayes' slump, stemming from him playing more this year and a head first collision with Cubs catcher Willson Contreras in June, but it's the posture change that Hayes is zeroing in right now. It's something hitting coach Andy Haines and the Pirates' hitting team identified, and something he had been feeling while in the box.
"I'm trying not to crouch as much," Hayes told me, mimicking his swing motion. In doing so, his front shoulder was dipped down and when his hands would seem to be nearing a contact point, he'd lean like he was going to the left-handed batter's box. "Trying to give myself space for my barrel to get out."
Shelton complimented Hayes' lower-half mechanics during the Pirates' trip to Wrigley Field earlier this week. In that two-game series, Hayes had three line drive hits to the outfield, including one into the right-center gap for a double. When he's clicking at the plate, most of his hard contact turns into elevated line drives and fly balls to the opposite field. It was something he hadn't don't much in July.
"It's making that pitch over the middle of the plate seem like it's inside," Hayes said about what his poor posture was doing to him at the plate. The inner-third is the one part of the plate, Hayes learned last year, that he can't consistently drive the other way.
Thursday was the first time since Hayes had been working on his posture that he did not get a hit. His only hard-hit ball of the day was on the ground and resulted in a double play. The next step after a game like that is sticking with the plan.
"With any young player, and I think at times we forget that Key is a young player because he's so good, is they have to be reminded of that," Shelton said. "Stay with your process and sometimes you stay with your process and you don't get the results, but in the long run, you're going to get those results. It's just making sure we continue to encourage that, especially in his case."
It's even more important for Hayes, the team's No. 3 hitter, and really, one of the few hitters that can jump start the offense.
"There's no one player that can do it themselves," Hayes said. "It takes the whole team."
That's true, but when Bryan Reynolds is out of the lineup, like he was Thursday, Hayes becomes the de facto heart of the offense. That lineup could take another hit this week if Ben Gamel is traded before the August 2 deadline. Hayes is in just his sophomore season, but in a few weeks, he could also be one of the most senior members of the lineup.
"I can't go outside what I do best," Hayes said. "That wouldn't be good for the team. I want to be better at situational hitting. Getting on base."
The Pirates could use all of that on offense, especially from a cornerstone player like Hayes. His Gold Glove caliber defense ensures he can contribute to the team just about every night, but he needs to hit as well. Games like Thursday are the reason why.
"It won't happen overnight," Hayes said about growing as a hitter. "But..."
That's why you play 162? I ask after a moment's pause.
He smiles. "For sure."
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Kyle Schwarber watches his sixth inning home run fly Thursday night.
• The Pirates rallied valiantly in the ninth to try to pull off one of the more unlikely comebacks of the year, but Zach Thompson dug too deep of a hole for them.
Thompson has allowed seven runs in both of his post All-Star break starts, surrendering three in the first frame and three with two outs in the sixth on a Kyle Schwarber homer to end his night.
A towering Schwarbomb! pic.twitter.com/6zgfk3rfje
— MLB (@MLB) July 29, 2022
Thompson's sinker and cutter had been a reliable pitch for him most of the year, but after falling out of sync a bit with his delivery this week, Phillies hitters went 7-for-14 against those pitches.
"I’m not really a strikeout pitcher," Thompson said. "I like to get contact. Sometimes you make good pitches that get hit. I made a few that were good. I don’t know where the one to Schwarber was. Sometimes things happen. You miss some spots where they start jumping on pitches."
Trailing late, the Pirates finally started to do some damage once Zack Wheeler was taken out of the game. The included a five-run ninth inning that featured a bases loaded bloop by Tyler Heineman and a two-run triple by Kevin Newman. The Pirates were able to send the tying run to the plate in the ninth twice, but Seranthony Dominguez got Oneil Cruz to roll a ball for an RBI groundout and Hayes lifted a lazy fly ball to end it.
"There's a lot of positives," Shelton said about the late rally. "We faced one of the best pitchers in the National League to start the game, and I thought Wheeler was really good. Our guys continued to grind through at-bats, and their closer had to come in the game to finish it and we gave ourselves a chance to win the game, so I give our guys a ton of credit. The one thing we've talked a lot about with this group is these guys continue to play, regardless of the score, regardless of the game."
"Fighting out of that at the end definitely some confidence, some reassurance to a clubhouse that we can come back from tough games," Cal Mitchell said.
• Mitchell's second call up to the majors got off to a rocky start, going 5-for-24 (.208) with no extra-base hits, but a 3-for-4 performance with a homer helps not only his OPS, but his confidence.
"Confidence is everything in sports, not just for hitting," Mitchell said. "I'm happy to have that. I've had some tough games recently, and happy to come out of that a little bit tonight, put some runs on the board and get on base a few times."
"Just something to build off of," Shelton described the performance.
• Before the game, the Pirates placed Reynolds on the paternity list and recalled Bligh Madris.
Madris got the start in right field Thursday, but most of his playing time recently has come at first base, making six consecutive starts there for Class AAA Indianapolis. It's an experiment that began in spring training, but has been explored more thoroughly recently.
Madris played some first base back at Colorado Mesa University, giving him some foundation at the position while working with Indianapolis bench coach Gary Green and Pirates bench coach Don Kelly.
“Just learning the position all over again, a higher level game,” Madris said. “It speeds up it a little bit at this level, so just getting back to it. Putting in work every day, trying to do whatever I can to help help my career in the future.”
Shelton said Madris will probably get some playing time at first base while he is with the team.
• Some injury news to go through from director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk:
Right-hander Blake Cederlind is scheduled to see Dr. Neal ElAttrache in coming days for his recurrent right elbow pain. Dr. ElAttrache was the one who performed his Tommy John surgery, but Tomczyk said a second surgery isn't being considered at this juncture.
Right-hander Chase De Jong (knee) should throw a simulated game in the coming days and might be on the injured list the 15 day minimum.
Catcher Henry Davis (wrist) has resumed gripping and dry swinging activities. Right-hander Brennan Malone (shoulder) met with doctors in Pittsburgh this week, but no rehab plan is in place yet. Nick Gonzales (foot) should get in game situations in Florida at some point over the next 7-10 days, though it wouldn't necessarily be a rehab assignment. Utilityman Ji-hwan Bae was placed on Indianapolis' seven-day injured list with a strained left oblique.
• One more piece of news: It looks like first-round pick Termarr Johnson is close to signing. More on that here.
• File this under "too weird to put in a game story but I'm putting it in anyway:" If the Pirates would have pulled the comeback off, it would have been exactly 21 years from another time when they overcame an 8-2 ninth inning deficit:
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 10-day injured list: OF Jake Marisnick (great toe)
• 15-day injured list: RHP Chase De Jong (knee)
• 60-day injured list: OF Canaan Njigba-Smith (wrist), 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. Oneil Cruz, SS
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Ben Gamel, LF
5. Bligh Madris, RF
6. Greg Allen, CF
7. Cal Mitchel, DH
8. Josh VanMeter, 1B
9. Tyler Heineman, C
And for Rob Thomson's Phillies:
1. Kyle Schwarber, LF
2. Rhys Hoskins, 1B
3. Alec Bohm, 3B
4. Darick Hall, DH
5. Nick Castellanos, RF
6. Bryson Stott, 2B
7. Didi Gregorious, SS
8. Matt Verling, CF
9. Garrett Stubbs, C
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates and Phillies are back Friday at 7:05 p.m. José Quintana (3-5, 3.70) is scheduled to take the bump against Bailey Falter (0-3, 5.18). I'll have you covered.
THE CONTENT
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