PITTSBURGH ¨C Andrew Heaney thought he and Joey Bart had the right game plan going into Sunday¡¯s finale against the Yankees, but he didn¡¯t make good two-strike pitches in the first. The Yankees would capitalize with an early run in that first frame, which inspired Heaney to make a change.
Throw everything and the kitchen sink at ¡®em.
¡°Just kind of opened up the playbook a little bit,¡± Heaney said after the Pirates' 5-4, 11-inning win at PNC Park. ¡°Got into a good rhythm, and just kept it going.¡±
For a veteran southpaw who is nearing 10 years of service time in the Majors, that playbook can get pretty deep.
Heaney threw only one curveball in his first start this season against the Marlins. Let¡¯s lean on that more and get five strikeouts with it Sunday. He threw only 10 sinkers from 2020-24? Let¡¯s fire seven of them in one game. Sidearm delivery slots? If you¡¯re a left-handed hitter, it¡¯s on the menu, so watch out.
¡°That's what Andrew Heaney does. He mixes and matches,¡± manager Derek Shelton said. ¡°He keeps people off balance, and that was seven really strong innings.¡±
The result was a quality start this Pirates team sorely needed, seven innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts. Mix in a Tommy Pham walk-off single in the 11th, and the Pirates ended the series with an even more sorely needed win.
Bart learned before the game that Heaney can fire sidearm, so Bart was on his toes almost as much as those Yankees batters. Bart saw firsthand last year how difficult Heaney can be to square up, twice being a strikeout victim of his in a scoreless performance Heaney tossed against the Pirates last Aug. 21 while with the Rangers.
¡°The fastball is just different,¡± Bart said. ¡°You think it looks really good when you look at the scoreboard. You get in there and it feels like it's by you. Just a weird angle.¡±
Heaney might have thrown more four-seamers than anything, but it was his secondary stuff that stole the show, particularly the curveball. Sunday was the first time since 2020 that he punched out five batters with his curveball in a game, and he gave different looks with it, with velocities ranging from 81 to 69.9 mph.
¡°I think that's things that I'd like to do more of,¡± Heaney said about using his curveball. ¡°Sometimes it kind of comes later. It's not as many times as I'd like to, or it's maybe not the right hitter to do it to. And I thought this was a good team and some good guys to do it to.¡±
The curve wasn¡¯t Heaney¡¯s only putaway pitch, though, as he got strikeouts with a four-seamer, changeup and sinker, too. It was the first time he had gotten a strikeout with a sinker since 2019, according to Baseball Savant data.
After throwing just 10 sinkers in 2024 and none until ¡®19 before that, Heaney said the sinking fastball could be back in the arsenal moving forward, not just whenever the playbook is fully open.
¡°I think that it's not outlierish in the quality of it, but it's definitely just another look,¡± Heaney said. ¡°When you're a three-pitch guy, very rarely a fourth pitch in the curveball, I think that's something that just is a different look.
¡°The lefties that they have in there are good hitters. I don't think I can go in there and just be a two-pitch guy to them. If I am, I'm going to have to mix up arm slots, throw in some more changeups to those guys and really try and keep them off balance.¡±
Heaney gave the Yankees¡¯ lineup all it could handle, and the Pirates got a much-needed breather after a rough start to the season. It¡¯s just three series, but Pittsburgh sits at 3-7 with question marks in the bullpen and on offense, whether it¡¯s from injuries or players underperforming.
If nothing else, being on the right side of the walk-off is a change of pace. General manager Ben Cherington said on his 93.7 The Fan Radio Show Sunday that he thought the team needed to take a breath. This could potentially be one.
¡°The season started off, first three losses are walk-off losses, you're just kind of getting hit with a body blow right there three times to start the season,¡± Heaney said. ¡°I think he's [Cherington] probably right. Kind of need to get a breather, get back home, and kind of re-establish who we are as a team and how we're going to win games.¡±