Pillar's perseverance pays off with vintage 2-HR night

PITTSBURGH -- It’s nights like Tuesday night that keep Kevin Pillar going. Even when other teams have passed on him. Even when teams who haven’t passed on him have limited his at-bats.

As important as the two homers and career-high six RBIs in the Angels’ 9-0 victory over the Pirates on Tuesday night at PNC Park were to the 12-year MLB veteran, even more important was the call Pillar got after the game from his wife and his two kids.

“There’s nothing like it for them to call and say they’re proud of their dad and to be excited,” Pillar said. “It means more now than it would have probably six years ago.”

Pillar has built a reputation as a reliable outfield bat since his days as a regular center fielder in Toronto, where he made highlight-reel play after highlight-reel play with his glove over parts of seven seasons. Since then, he’s been through the carousel; when he signed with the Angels on April 30, it was his eighth team since 2019.

The decision to sign with the Angels has proved to be just what Pillar needed. With the White Sox, he began the season in an interesting back-and-forth roster move approaching Opening Day. He only saw 25 at-bats before he was designated for assignment.

With the Angels, Pillar has not yet been assured of consistent playing time, either. But he found a few familiar faces that were huge influences on him a few years earlier: manager Ron Washington and third-base coach Eric Young Sr. That comfortability helped him open up to them and the coaching staff about how he didn’t feel like himself at the plate.

“I think it’s important sometimes that if you don’t have the answers, you go ask for them,” Pillar said. “I couldn’t ask for two better guys, and I’m very fortunate that I have history with both of those guys. It makes the conversations a little bit easier, to be a little more vulnerable when you don’t feel at your best, to ask them questions and lean on them.”

Given how much Pillar has had to grind to get back to a moment like it, his first blast of the night against the Pirates on Tuesday was cathartic. In the fourth inning, Pillar took two pitches inside to pressure Pittsburgh starter Quinn Priester to throw one over the plate. He did, once again trying to catch the inside part of the zone, and the veteran slugger pulled it a Statcast-projected 403 feet to left field.

“Any time you come into a new clubhouse -- I’ve been traded twice in my career -- you’re always looking for that moment or moments to say, ‘I’m an Angel. I belong here,’” Pillar said. “I felt like I had that in that first home run.”

It wasn’t just a huge homer for Pillar but for the team, which had not scored more than a run in each of its three prior games. The Angels put three on the board quickly, and things snowballed from there. Pillar drove in another run in the fifth on a fielder’s choice, then he slugged a leadoff home run in the seventh inning to mark his seventh career multi-homer game and his first since Aug. 28, 2021. He capped his night with an RBI double in the eighth.

“It’s always important that you have one of those guys around, because they end up doing what he did for us tonight,” Washington said. “He jumpstarted us, and it got contagious after that. We’ve been needing that, and it was Pillar that gave it to us.”

Pillar will be back in the lineup for Wednesday afternoon’s finale, Washington said, with the Angels looking for their first series win in more than a month (April 1-3 vs. the Marlins). This is the part of his situation he’s come to expect: He knows when there’s a lefty starter, there’s a great chance he’ll be in the lineup, even if his chances otherwise may be a little more sporadic.

But as Pillar works to prove that he can still be a valuable player at the highest level, he has some good advice to fall back on. Now a father himself of two kids who stay up to watch him play and call in with his wife for touching moments of celebration, Pillar has used a piece of wisdom from his dad to keep him going, even when part of him feels like he should be there with his family.

“Just continue to work,” Pillar said. “You don’t know when it’s going to pay off. You just keep your head down and keep working.”