With mom in attendance, Bell has career day

ST. LOUIS -- Before Sunday’s series finale, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle learned that Josh Bell's family would be in attendance at Busch Stadium. Since it was Mother’s Day, Hurdle jokingly asked his slugging first baseman if he was going to do something special for his mom, Myrtle.

“Yeah,” Bell answered, “I got this.”

As Hurdle said afterward, “It turned out that he had it.”

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Bell tied a career high with four hits, set a new career-best mark with five RBIs and clubbed a game-tying homer in the Pirates’ five-run seventh inning as they stormed back to beat the Cardinals, 10-6. That qualifies as something special, right?

“It was awesome. It’s one of those scenarios where I know my mom would be just as excited to watch me play if I go 0-for-4 right there,” Bell said. “To be able to perform and celebrate the win with them watching, it’s unbelievable."

The Bucs clinched a series victory over the Cards with their highest-scoring game of the season, and it should come as no shock that Bell was right in the middle of the offensive outburst. After challenging himself over the offseason to be the kind of complete hitter Pittsburgh needs, Bell is batting .319 with a 1.048 OPS and 34 RBIs in 37 games.

“It’s pretty ridiculous. We all knew he could do it. It’s not a huge surprise to us,” said left-hander Steven Brault, who allowed six runs in 3 2/3 innings. “He’s just so confident. The swings he’s taking are just gorgeous. He’s not afraid to swing and miss. He’s attacking baseballs, and it’s cool to see. Dude’s got a lot of pop.”

The sound of Bell crushing baseballs backs up that statement, as do the numbers. His hitting streak reached 12 games on Sunday. In his first four plate appearances, he produced four hard-hit balls with exit velocities of 99.7, 108.8, 103.6 and 111.8 mph.

A year ago, that would have been out of the ordinary. Not this season. Bell has consistently hit the ball harder and farther than nearly everyone else in the Majors. His average exit velocity and hard-hit rate, according to Statcast, rank among the top 3% of hitters in the Majors.

“That’s where I want to be,” Bell said. “If I’m barreling the ball as much as I can, the ball’s going to find outfield grass.”

That, or it’ll clear the fence.

Bell helped give Brault an early lead, bashing a two-run double to right off Dakota Hudson in the first inning and coming around to score on a groundout by Kevin Newman. But Brault immediately gave up the lead by allowing four runs in a 33-pitch first inning. Jose Martinez homered off Brault in the second, putting the Pirates down by three.

And it was Bell who dug the Bucs out of that hole.

Reliever Tyler Webb walked Bryan Reynolds and plunked Gregory Polanco to begin the seventh inning, then Cardinals manager Mike Shildt summoned right-hander John Brebbia from the bullpen. Bell had been preparing to face a lefty, but he had no trouble with the right-handed reliever.

Bell blasted the third pitch he saw, a 93 mph fastball, over the right-field fence to tie the game. The three-run shot was Bell’s 10th home run of the season, a mark he did not reach until Sept. 8 last season.

“When you make bad pitches to guys who are taking good swings,” Brebbia said, “it’s not going to be good for the pitcher.”

But the Pirates’ rally did not end with Bell. Francisco Cervelli, who entered the game batting .170, knocked a bloop double to right field with one out -- his third hit of the game. Hurdle then made quick use of his four-man bench. Melky Cabrera walked as a pinch-hitter, then Adam Frazier lined a two-run, pinch-hit double to right center off Brebbia to put the Pirates on top.

“I felt like I needed to come through one time,” Frazier said. “I haven’t really been successful at that lately, so it felt good to do that today.”

When Bell got ahead of reliever Giovanny Gallegos, 3-1, with first base open in the eighth inning, the Cardinals decided to intentionally walk him. The decision backfired when Colin Moran launched a two-run double off the right-field wall, but really, can you blame them?

“What Bell’s been doing has been significant now for six weeks,” Hurdle said.