Hayes has 'unbelievable, outstanding' debut

PITTSBURGH -- Ke'Bryan Hayes had just finished working out at Peoples Natural Gas Field in Altoona on Sunday when he left the ballpark to grab some Chipotle. About 20 minutes later, he got a call from Brian Esposito, the Triple-A Indianapolis manager who’s running the club’s alternate training site camp.

Esposito told Hayes he would be reporting to PNC Park on Monday so that he could get some at-bats against rehabbing pitcher Mitch Keller. “And then,” Esposito told Hayes, “you’re going to stay.”

Hayes officially arrived in the Majors on Tuesday night, and he sure looked ready to stay.

The Pirates recalled their No. 2 prospect, put him in their starting lineup and watched him shine in every aspect of the game during their 8-7 loss to the Cubs in 11 innings at PNC Park. The 23-year-old went 2-for-5 with three runs scored, a game-tying homer and some attention-grabbing plays at third base.

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“That was unbelievable. It was outstanding,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He did things well in all three facets of the game.”

In the sixth inning, Hayes collected his first Major League hit and RBI with a double off the wall against Jon Lester that kick-started a four-run rally. Hayes admitted he was nervous in his first two at-bats against Lester, whose debut came in 2006, when Hayes was 9 years old. But that hit, which flew off his bat at 108.5 mph, helped settle him down.

After a one-hour and 11-minute rain delay, Hayes came to the plate in the eighth inning with the Pirates trailing by one run. He took two pitches from Cubs reliever Dan Winkler then unloaded on a cutter left over the plate, launching his first big league homer a Statcast-projected 410 feet to center field to tie the game.

“Since Day 1, whenever I came to Pittsburgh, whenever I got signed,” Hayes said, “I’ve always dreamed about hitting a home run there.”

Standing at third base with the Pirates down a run and one out in the 10th, Hayes raced home on an Anthony Alford chopper tapped back to reliever Josh Osich. The lefty flipped the ball to catcher Willson Contreras, but Hayes deftly slid under the tag to score the tying run. Shelton called it “as good a contact read as you can make,” a pure display of Hayes’ baseball instincts.

Hayes became the fourth Pirates player since 1901, and the first since Walter Mueller in 1922, to record two extra-base hits in his Major League debut. He was also the eighth player in the Majors since 1901 to debut with at least three runs scored and two extra-base hits; the last National League player to have a debut like his was Willie McCovey in 1959. He’s also the seventh Pirates player to homer in his debut, with teammate and friend Cole Tucker (2019) and Starling Marte (2012) the last two to go deep in Game 1.

Hey, wasn’t this guy known for his glove?

That’s still true, of course. Many evaluators think Hayes is already one of the best defensive third basemen in baseball. Even when he makes the wrong decision, like when he seemingly lost track of how many outs there were and threw home with two outs and a runner on third in the ninth, it turns out just fine.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Shelton, who had been ejected by that point for arguing balls and strikes. “But as long as we get outs, then I’m OK with it.”

The Pirates weren’t surprised to see Hayes thrive under the lights. They didn’t promote him to watch him sit on the bench. He’s going to play regularly over the final month of the season, Shelton said, although the coaching staff will monitor him after an unusual two months leading up to his highly anticipated callup.

Hayes was invited to the Pirates’ Summer Camp at PNC Park, but he was unable to participate after testing positive for COVID-19 upon his arrival in Pittsburgh. They eased him back into action at their alternate training site over the last month. Finally, the word came down Sunday that Hayes -- the 32nd overall pick in the 2015 Draft -- was getting called up.

“Once he told me, I was ecstatic. I got chills in my body,” Hayes said. “I mean, it's what I worked for my whole life. And you can ask anyone back home, I put 100 percent effort into getting where I am today."

Hayes’ first call wasn’t to his father, longtime big leaguer Charlie Hayes. He broke the news to his mother, Gelinda. Hayes said his mother couldn’t believe it. And his father couldn’t stop himself from crying. Charlie probably had a similar reaction, Hayes said later, when his first home run landed.

"Even when I was in the Minor Leagues and I hit a home run, my mom said he would cry,” Hayes said, smiling. “I thank him for everything.”

The Pirates hope to see Hayes in black and gold for years to come, and he’ll quickly cement himself as part of their young core if he continues to hit the way he did Tuesday night. Hayes didn’t show a ton of home run power in the Minors, in part because he hit the ball hard on the ground. But he opened up his stance late last season to unlock some of his pull-side power, a change hitting coach Rick Eckstein encouraged him to embrace this Spring Training.

Hayes’ defensive reputation precedes him, as Shelton acknowledged Tuesday afternoon that the rookie is “going to be one of the best third basemen when he steps on the field, defensively.” But Shelton was hesitant to put too much pressure on him, something he reinforced after Hayes’ dynamic debut.

“He’s somebody that was highly touted to come up, but I think we have to make sure that we don’t put expectations on him,” Shelton said. “We don’t have to look at him like he’s the guy who’s going to take us to the promised land. There’s going to be a lot of people that are going to help us move forward, and he’s going to be one of them.”

Hayes’ first chance to prove himself in the Majors went smoothly. With two outs and the bases loaded in the second inning, Kris Bryant hit a hard chopper, and Hayes ranged to his left before making a strong throw to first baseman Josh Bell for the final out of the inning.

Gold Gloves in the Minors were never the goal for Hayes.

“I only want to get better,” Hayes said. “I want to win one up here.”