Prior to the start of their three-game series against the Brewers, the Pirates held a team meeting to discuss the current state of the club. Coming off of a sweep by the Indians and possessing the worst record in baseball at 4-17, the players gathered in hopes to regroup and turn things around.
The meeting worked. After earning back-to-back wins for the first time in the 2020 season, the Pirates completed a three-game series sweep on Sunday afternoon at PNC Park, beating the Brewers, 5-4.
"We really pumped each other up," Richard Rodriguez said of the meeting, this after earning the save with a 1-2-3 ninth. "We all recognized that we have plenty and enough to be able to do things like this, and we just reminded each other and we supported each other throughout the whole entire series."
While the wins on Friday and Saturday came with little doubt, Sunday's victory was different.
Originally ahead 2-0, the Pirates lost their lead in the top of fifth inning on a RBI double from Luis Urías. They then fell behind in the sixth when Brewers' first basemen Justin Smoak slapped a home run off left field foul pole with a runner on first base, making the score 4-2.
At that time, the two day vacation from the 2020 Pirates seemed to be over.
There were injuries, there were mistakes on the bases and runners were left in scoring position. It looked like the Pirates team that everyone saw in the first 21 games of the season had returned to the North Shore.
That all changed when Gregory Polanco, the poster child for the the Pirates' 2020 struggles, stepped up to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning. Brewers' righty David Phelps left a cutter over the plate. Polanco clobbered it 419 feet to center field for a two-run homer, plating the game's tying and winning runs:
Polanco hit the ball hard, with it exiting the yard at 107.3 mph. He revealed after the game that he knew his big hit was coming before he even stepped in the batter's box, and he shared as much with Jose Osuna.
"We needed to win this one," Polanco said. "We needed to fight. The opportunity came. I told Osuna in the on-deck circle like, ‘Hey, watch.’ Something to motivate yourself. That’s something that we do. ‘Hey, watch, I’m about to hit this ball really hard. I’m about to put a good swing on the ball.’ That’s why I was watching it. I looked back to Osuna and said like, ‘You see? I told you.’ Something you have to motivate, to just go in the box and fight and battle every pitch, no matter who’s pitching."
Entering this weekend series, an argument could've been made that Polanco was one of the coldest hitters in all of baseball. He had just three hits in his 40 at-bats. 21 of the 37 outs he recorded were strikeouts.
Things were different against the Brewers. Polanco went 5-for-10 against the Brewers, with a double, two home runs, three runs scored, four RBI's, a pair of walks and two stolen bases. He still has a far way to go, but in the past three games Polanco has shown versions of his old self, the player that many Pirates fans believe will never return.
Polanco says his successful weekend at the plate was a product of keeping things simple.
"My mindset is, less is more," Polanco said. "Just try not to use my body that much. Like I told you yesterday, my hands are good. Now I’m healthy. Just throw your hands to the ball, that’s my mindset right now. Not try to do too much. I’m catching the ball on the barrel.”
• The sweep marks not only the first series victory of the year for the Pirates but also the club's first winning-streak. Throughout all of the negative moments, there is finally a bit of positivity. At least that's how Derek Shelton sees it.
"We came into it knowing we were going to have to teach, we were going to have to try to get better, and our guys have been really good," Shelton said. "We've played a lot of close games even before this series. We just haven't done things to finish and get the win. We did a really nice job during this series."
• Rookie JT Brubaker showed strong command early on for the Pirates, striking out six batters in his first four innings of work. Brubaker used his slider to record all six of those punch-outs, pounding the zone low-and-away against right handed hitters.
"I was just more aggressive through the zone," Brubaker said of his success with the pitch. "Last time out I was a little too far off the edges. I was just more aggressive through the bottom of the zone."
• Polanco wasn't the only slumping Pirate who had a good weekend at the plate. Bryan Reynolds had perhaps an even better series than Polanco, hitting 6-for-13, with a double, triple, home run and six RBIs. Adam Frazier's bat also came alive against the Brewers, going 5-for-13 in the series with a double, home run and four RBIs.
• In a much smaller sample size, Jarrod Dyson also performed well offensively, going 3-for-3 with a walk, RBI and stolen base.
• While the Pirates' outfielders hit the ball well, Brewers' MVP outfielder Christian Yelich did not, going just 1-for-11 with three strikeouts in the series. The Pirates pitching staff has handled Yelich well in 2020, holding him to just one hit, a solo homer, in 24 plate appearances.
"I think a little bit we dodged the bullet," Shelton said when asked about his club's success against Yelich so far this season. "We played them early and I think he was still getting his timing. In this series, we did a really good job of executing pitching. This guy's an MVP, one of best players in the league. I think you have to execute pitches to him and we did during this series."
• As mentioned earlier, there were a few injuries in the Pirates win on Sunday. More on that here.
• With Keone Kela still out after being removed just five pitches into his outing on Friday, Rodriguez was asked to step-up and close the door, earning just his second career save in the major leagues.
As the new high-leverage guy in the Pirates beat-up bullpen, Rodriguez spoke highly of the job he and the young arms around him have done recently.
"It’s been tough to witness and be a part of so many guys going down with these injuries, especially some of the guys, like Kela, Kyle Crick, Clay Holmes, Michael Feliz, these are guys that are huge assets to the bullpen," Rodriguez said. ".. I’m really proud of the guys that we have right now, and we’re figuring it out, sticking together, pushing hard, we’re fighting hard."
• Speaking of bullpen arms, the Brewers' have one of the best in the game in Josh Hader, who didn't throw a single pitch against the Pirates this weekend. When asked if he was shocked to not see the All-Star lefty in the eighth inning on Sunday, Shelton said he was more focused on the strategy for his team.
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