During their dismal offensive showing this past weekend in Cincinnati, Bryan Reynolds told our José Negron that the Pirates need to be "less timid" and more aggressive at the plate. Which, given the team's early results has been almost obvious.
The Pirates own the worst batting average (.184), slugging percentage (.290) and OPS (.563) in all of Major League Baseball and they also own the fourth-worst OBP (.273). Their 97 hits trail only the White Sox and they have scored the third-lowest amount of runs (50).
Heading into their four-game set against the Nationals, starting tonight at PNC Park, Ke'Bryan Hayes, one of five Pirates hitters hitting over .200, echoed Reynolds' sentiments when asked what the Pirates have to do to stop the bleeding of their 5-11 start.
"I think if you go back to last year whenever we started out real hot and in 2023, it wasn’t home runs, it wasn’t necessarily balls hit to the wall, it was one through nine taking what they give us, being aggressive, hitting line drives, and then the home runs came from getting on base and putting pressure on pitchers," Hayes said. "So, I think kind of looking at the last series, we just weren’t really being aggressive on the fastball. We were taking pitches when we should’ve been swinging, some were balls. All in all, I think the aggressiveness. We were a little too passive early in the count. So, I think one of the emphases going into this series is just being a lot more aggressive, not trying to do too much, but be aggressive and hit line drives."
But, from a hitter's perspective, what does that entail? Hayes said it starts with not getting away from their gameplan and "just sticking with your approach."
"You gotta take chances. We’re not going to be perfect, but you have more of a chance if you’re being aggressive and you make mistakes versus being timid and not even attempting," Hayes said. "So, I think if we just collectively try to stick with our approach and if we need to adjust in the game from what we’re seeing then we have to make that adjustment. But, for one, we just have to be a lot more aggressive."
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THE ASYLUM
Greg Macafee
10:36 pm - 04.14.2025NORTH SHOREHayes echoes call to be 'more aggressive'
During their dismal offensive showing this past weekend in Cincinnati, Bryan Reynolds told our José Negron that the Pirates need to be "less timid" and more aggressive at the plate. Which, given the team's early results has been almost obvious.
The Pirates own the worst batting average (.184), slugging percentage (.290) and OPS (.563) in all of Major League Baseball and they also own the fourth-worst OBP (.273). Their 97 hits trail only the White Sox and they have scored the third-lowest amount of runs (50).
Heading into their four-game set against the Nationals, starting tonight at PNC Park, Ke'Bryan Hayes, one of five Pirates hitters hitting over .200, echoed Reynolds' sentiments when asked what the Pirates have to do to stop the bleeding of their 5-11 start.
"I think if you go back to last year whenever we started out real hot and in 2023, it wasn’t home runs, it wasn’t necessarily balls hit to the wall, it was one through nine taking what they give us, being aggressive, hitting line drives, and then the home runs came from getting on base and putting pressure on pitchers," Hayes said. "So, I think kind of looking at the last series, we just weren’t really being aggressive on the fastball. We were taking pitches when we should’ve been swinging, some were balls. All in all, I think the aggressiveness. We were a little too passive early in the count. So, I think one of the emphases going into this series is just being a lot more aggressive, not trying to do too much, but be aggressive and hit line drives."
But, from a hitter's perspective, what does that entail? Hayes said it starts with not getting away from their gameplan and "just sticking with your approach."
"You gotta take chances. We’re not going to be perfect, but you have more of a chance if you’re being aggressive and you make mistakes versus being timid and not even attempting," Hayes said. "So, I think if we just collectively try to stick with our approach and if we need to adjust in the game from what we’re seeing then we have to make that adjustment. But, for one, we just have to be a lot more aggressive."
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