Relying on instinct and driven by opportunity, Bae standing out early

BOSTON -- Ji Hwan Bae admitted that he surprised even himself with that catch.

With the Pirates hanging onto a 4-1 lead in the eighth inning Tuesday, Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers put a charge on a ball to left-center, towards Fenway Park's infamous Green Monster.

Bae -- still relatively new to the position with less than 300 innings in his professional career there -- was able to track it while being mindful of the wall, and with one leap made what will surely go down as one of the finest defensive plays of the Pirates' season:

"The Green Monster, it's a huge wall," Bae said via interpreter Daniel Park. "I saw it coming, but I just had to leave it to my instinct and I caught it."

Waiting there were Bryan Reynolds and Andrew McCutchen, both ready to play the rebound in case it bounced off the wall at a weird angle. Instead, they were there to give Bae high fives before Colin Holderman could finish the inning and the Pirates' 4-1 win over the Red Sox.

“It was unbelievable," Holderman told me. "… I went crazy. I was fired up. And that definitely gave us the momentum to finish that ball game.”

"Just saw him levitate up and snag it and suck it out of the wall," Reynolds said. "It was really impressive."

It's the type of play that shows why Bae has been the go-to guy to play center field late in games. It's a premium defensive position, and he's shown he can handle the job. As he would put it, "I'm as comfortable [in center] as I am when I'm at second base," referencing his original position.

So while Bae may have surprised himself with that catch, the Pirates' staff knew he had the range to do something incredible like that.

“We had talked about how well he moves out there," Derek Shelton said. "I think our guys in player development had talked about that, which is really important. They had a lot of faith in him and that’s really important. We’ve talked a lot organizationally about how important it is for our collaboration and communication and our guys felt strong about that. When our guys feel strong about something, it permeates up here.”

It was such an impressive catch, that it almost overshadowed this line drive over the Monster in the second inning, the first home run of his major-league career:

"When I saw the left fielder running towards it, I thought he was going to catch it," Bae said. "But in my mind, I was hoping it was going to go over the wall."

Bae would say afterwards the home run was better because "I don't hit too [many]." And he even lucked out that the ball got to bounce back into play so he can send it back home to South Korea where it's safe.

His roster spot also is looking pretty safe at the moment. The Pirates came into spring training wanting to have an open competition for the second base job, and since nobody really stood out during camp, Bae and Rodolfo Castro were going to split time there. But Bae has gotten the majority of the reps there because of a quick start, which included stealing a couple bases opening day, while Castro is working on his swing, especially in the lower part of his stance.

Factor in that Bae can make catches like that in center, and it's easy to see why he's getting a chance in the majors.

"Whether its been my at-bats, stealing bases or whatever, that's all the opportunities I'm going to get," Bae said. "So I'm going to try my best to do everything I can."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• The Pirates just might not be able to get Reynolds onto the team plane.

Three more hits Tuesday including another homer keeps up his white hot start to the season. 

"We need to move some of our games over here," Reynolds said. "Some home-away games."

• That was a very fun, very loose clubhouse. They're having fun.

• Before the game, the Pirates placed Austin Hedges on the 7-day concussion injured list and selected the contract of Tyler Heineman. Hedges was clipped by a Kevin Newman foul tip Sunday against the Reds, and while the Pirates are hoping it won't keep him out for long, they wanted to be careful with the catcher's health.

Hence, up comes Heineman, not Endy Rodriguez. The Pirates aren't going to rush their top prospect, especially as he gets more reps behind the plate.

"I think it's a good question. I think it's a fair question," Shelton said on why Heineman over Rodriguez. "[The] response would be that over the last three years, he's caught 120 games and we need this guy to catch. Even last year, he caught like 70, 75 games. He needs the experience behind the plate, especially to come up here and handle the pitching staff. That's not to say he's not going to be able to do it, but we need to see the reps for him to do it. So we just felt in the short-term, it's not fair to him to do that. It's why he's catching primarily in Indianapolis this year and bouncing around as much as he has."

To make room for Heineman, Edwin Uceta (who had been claimed off waivers Sunday) was designated for assignment. Additionally, Ryan Vilade, who was designated for assignment opening day, cleared waivers and remains with Class AAA Indianapolis.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
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• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: RHP Robert Stephenson (elbow)

• 60-day injured list: RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Oneil Cruz, SS
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Andrew McCutchen, RF
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Ji-Man Choi, DH
6. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
7. Canaan Smith-Njigba, LF
8. Ji Hwan Bae, 2B
9. Tyler Heineman, C

And for Alex Cora's Red Sox:

1. Alex Verdugo, RF
2. Rafael Devers, 3B
3. Justin Turner, DH
4. Masataka Yoshida, LF
5. Adam Duvall, CF
6. Triston Casas, 1B
7. Kiké Hernández, SS
8. Reese McGuire, C
9. Yu Chang, 2B

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates will go for the sweep Wednesday afternoon. Mitch Keller (0-0, 7.71) will take the bump against Corey Kluber (0-1, 13.50), with first pitch coming at 1:35 p.m. I'll have you covered.

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