Bucs' 1-2-3 punch shows its potential in rout

PITTSBURGH -- One game removed from getting star rookie Ke'Bryan Hayes back from the injured list, the Pirates put up a season-high nine runs against the Marlins for a 9-2 victory at PNC Park on Friday.

The key ingredient? A 1-2-3 punch the Pirates finally have back at full strength: The MLB hits leader at No. 1, a National League Rookie of the Year candidate at No. 2 and a guy with 17 doubles and a homer tear over the past week at No. 3.

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Here’s how they contributed in great effect in the nine-run affair and how their everyday presence could impact the team moving forward.

No. 1: Frazier without fail

No matter the lineup construction, the Pirates know what they’re going to get out of the leadoff spot this season.

Adam Frazier has been on a tear all season long. He goes on streaks, snaps them with an off-game or two, then goes right back on a streak. Frazier extended his current one to eight games with a two-hit night that began with two walks on the first nine pitches he saw, which set him up to score three of the Pirates’ nine runs.

Two-hit affairs are largely the norm for Frazier, who has twice as many games of two or more hits (22) as he does games without a hit (11).

The only out he made on Friday was against Sandy León, the Marlins’ starting catcher, though he had a ball land inches foul of being an easy double.

“I mean it's probably more nerve-wracking doing that than facing a normal guy, because I'm just up there trying not to strike out,” Frazier said.

No. 2: Major Key

Hayes is checking off box after box after he was activated from the 60-day injured list on Thursday.

Hayes singled and tripled in Thursday’s 5-3 win, then checked off a big box with a two-run blast to center field off Marlins starter Cody Poteet in the first inning, a guy he remembered facing in the Minors and knew what his game plan would likely be against him. Poteet left a 2-2 slider too close to the heart of the plate, and Hayes feasts on those pitches.

“A lot of the heat maps from guys that we face, they're trying to live out over the plate,” Hayes said. “So I just try to stick with [my] approach, see something up out over the plate and try to put a good swing on it.”

Few things are surprising about Hayes’ ability to impact a ballgame, even at this early a stage. One thing that sets him apart and will make him a big contributor to this Pirates’ offense, though, is his ability to study and prepare like a student of the game.

“I felt good in the box even that first day,” Hayes said, “so I mean a lot of it is just you just got to be confident in your prep … before the game. Just got to stick with your approach every day and just go up there with confidence.”

No. 3: Reynolds’ surge

Before Bryan Reynolds hit a home run in Thursday’s 5-3 win over the Marlins, he had a conversation with Jacob Stallings about how he’d been hitting over the past week.

"He told me before the game that he feels all he's hitting right now are home runs,” Stallings said, “and I was like, 'What's wrong with that?' He's like, 'Well, I guess nothing.'”

The Pirates will certainly take the production, and so will Reynolds. But what he meant, he said, was that he doesn’t hit enough homers for that to be sustainable; the most he’s hit in a Major League season is 16 in 2019, when he played 134 games. Nevertheless, he’s hitting the ball very hard this year, and it’s helping him rebound from a tough '20 season.

Reynolds had the hardest hit of the night, ripping a 107.8 mph single in the fifth inning. Then, he cranked a double to the Clemente Wall in right field to score a run in the five-run sixth -- a 104.8 mph rocketed ball that, with a degree or two more on the launch angle, may have cleared the wall.

“He's going to hit the ball hard and have extra-base hits,” manager Derek Shelton said, “but I think at times, we're going to see those numbers fluctuate just on the [launch angle] of the ball or the ballpark he's playing in. But he does have the ability to drive the ball.”