'Trust the process': Polanco, Bucs romp Crew

PITTSBURGH -- When Gregory Polanco stepped up to the plate in the second inning Saturday afternoon at PNC Park, his strikeout total this season was six times greater than his hit total. He had walked back to the dugout after a K in 45 percent of his plate appearances to that point. His batting average began with a zero after the decimal point.

But Polanco had the full backing of his team, something general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton forcefully expressed on Friday afternoon. They believed in the rest of Pittsburgh’s struggling lineup, too. About 28 hours after that show of support, Polanco and the Pirates finalized their first winning streak of the season in a 12-5 victory over the Brewers.

“Every day, I appreciate all the support that they give me,” Polanco said. “They come in, like, ‘Hey, you’re going to hit. You’re going to hit. You are going to hit. Just trust it.’ That’s our mentality, not for me but for everybody.

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“They encourage everybody, like, ‘We got this. We’re going to be good. We’re going to be good. Just trust it.’ We’re going to keep it like that, man, and trust the process.”

The Pirates have been the Majors’ worst offensive team to this point, and Polanco has been statistically one of baseball’s least productive everyday players at the plate, entering Saturday with a .085/.170/.234 slash line and 24 strikeouts in 53 plate appearances. Polanco tried to stay positive through it all, but he admitted it had been a tough month.

Cherington and Shelton stood behind their right fielder, Pittsburgh’s longest-tenured player. They pointed to Polanco’s encouraging underlying metrics: the 97th-percentile exit velocity and the 95th-percentile hard-hit rate. While working before games to keep Polanco’s swing short and simple, hitting coach Rick Eckstein told him, “Think like an MVP. Think like a winner. Think like you’re the best.”

“Polanco is coming. It’s going to be there,” Shelton said Friday. “This kid is way too talented. He’s healthy, which is way more important than anything else. … I understand the strikeouts are there. But if you're asking me, I'm taking Gregory Polanco every day and I'm taking the way he is in our clubhouse every day.”

As if on cue, Polanco crushed a cutter to right field to lead off the second for a 105.8 mph double in his first at-bat against Josh Lindblom, then blasted a curveball to right-center for a tiebreaking two-run homer in the fourth inning.

"I think he's been hitting the ball really hard. When he gets going, it's awesome,” Colin Moran said. “He's obviously super talented, and he's done it plenty of years. Nobody ever questions the fact that he's going to hit. It's always good to see that big smile that he gets.”

Polanco’s breakthrough sparked an offensive outburst for the rest of the Pirates’ lineup, as they slugged a season-high five doubles and matched their high mark with three homers.

The Pirates began to break out on Friday night, when they piled up seven runs on 14 hits, but even then, Bryan Reynolds was the only source of power in their lineup. Everyone played a part this time, though, with five Bucs recording multiple hits and six players driving in at least one run.

With that in mind, starter Derek Holland had a fitting idea for the lineup card he’s keeping to commemorate his first win as a Pirate: He wants everyone on the team to sign it.

“I'm not trying to jinx any of this. I'm not trying to make this bigger than what it is,” Holland said. “We got two wins in a row, but it just feels good to see those guys and how happy they are, how good they feel after a nice team win like today. … This really is a great group of guys.”

Moran hit three doubles for the first time in his career. Adam Frazier hit his fourth home run of the season, and the third of his career off a left-handed pitcher, as part of a three-hit day. Jacob Stallings, quietly batting .313, slugged his first homer of the season. Reynolds doubled in a run in the fifth inning. Erik González hit a two-run single in the seventh.

“It’s not the way anybody’s drawn it up. But it’s where we’re at,” Frazier said. “Hopefully we can build off the last two days. We have a lot of good hitters in the lineup. It's going to come at some point.”

Before the game, Shelton said the coaching staff identified one issue plaguing most of their hitters amid a collective early-season slump: timing. As in, they weren’t on time for opposing pitchers’ fastballs, especially after playing only two games in eight days before this homestand. So they’ve focused most of their recent work around that, hitting off a high-velocity pitching machine in the batting cage.

Their preparation seemed to pay off the past two days.

"Big league [pitchers] will speed up on you pretty fast when you get days off like that. So a lot of guys have been on that heater machine, and a lot of guys like it,” Moran said. “Just keeping things simple, getting the timing for the heater. Let things go from there."

Up next
Right-hander JT Brubaker will start for the Pirates as they return to PNC Park on Sunday to finish a three-game series against the Brewers. Brubaker has given up six runs in six innings over two starts, with five walks and only three strikeouts, since moving out of the bullpen and into the rotation. Right-hander Corbin Burnes will start for Milwaukee. First pitch is set for 1:35 p.m. ET, live on MLB.TV.