In standing! Reynolds' inside-the-parker Bucs' 1st at PNC since 2013

PITTSBURGH -- It wasn’t the typical trip around the bases. Bryan Reynolds will take it nonetheless.

Even on a night where the Pirates lost to the Cardinals, 5-4, Reynolds gave a healthy Saturday night PNC Park crowd of 24,644 something to cheer about, hitting a rare inside-the-park home run that electrified the greater downtown Pittsburgh area.

“As soon as I saw Corey [Dickerson] chasing it, you knew it was going to be an inside-the-park homer because you knew Bryan was going to go hard,” manager Derek Shelton said.

The inside-the-parker was the Pirates’ first since Starling Marte on May 4, 2018, and the first one by a Pirate at PNC Park since Pedro Alvarez on Sept. 13, 2013. As is often the case, Reynolds got the help of a very generous bounce.

Reynolds’ high drive into left field was mere inches away from being a home run, instead bouncing off the lip of the wall and rolling toward left-center field. Reynolds wasn’t initially running hard, but once the ball skedaddled away, he turned on the jets. With his speed, he was able to score standing up.

“Once it hit -- from that spot in our dugout, it’s a blind spot -- that was when the possible rain was coming, and it was howling, so as soon as he hit it, I thought it was going to just blow out,” Shelton said. “Then, I saw Corey start to run after it. I mean, I don’t know how that happened because it stayed along the fence and went a long way.”

Reynolds’ production has not been up to par, by his standards, but he’s starting to cook. With the home run and double tonight, Reynolds has now had three straight two-hit games. The last time Reynolds had at least three consecutive multi-hit games was a four-game stretch from July 21-25 last season. His wRC+ this season has crept back up to 107. Suffice it to say, this is the version of Reynolds with whom the Pirates are most familiar.

Reynolds has generated a higher quality of contact during this three-game stretch as well. With the small sample size caveat in mind, Reynolds’ average exit velocity is 88.6 mph. Entering play, Reynolds’ average exit velocity, for comparison, was 86.1 mph. Hard contact isn’t everything, but it sure helps.

“He had good at-bats today,” Shelton said. “He had the double, he had the inside-the-park, which I don’t know how that didn’t get out with the way the wind was blowing at that time. It’s very encouraging. I think all along we’ve thought that Bryan Reynolds was going to hit, and he just started off the year slow. It’s really encouraging to see his at-bats.”

José Quintana records shortest outing of season
Quintana has been rock solid for the Pirates over the past couple weeks, but the southpaw turned in his shortest outing of the season against the Cardinals, being pulled from the game after just 3 2/3 innings.

Quintana allowed a season-high five runs, but only two were earned. With runners on first and second and no outs in the second, Ke’Bryan Hayes misplayed a routine grounder; instead of a potential double play that might have helped Quintana to get out of the inning unscathed, St. Louis threw four runs on the board, contributing to Quintana’s early exit.

“I think anytime you have a play like that where you don’t make it, it’s hard to look at it hypothetically,” Shelton said. “But, yeah, we had a double-play ball with [Yadier Molina] hitting, we didn’t turn it and, all of a sudden, it turned into something else.”