Pirates Insider Podcast, Episode 22 (6/16 vs. Athletics)

Bryan Reynolds' red-hot June continued with four hits and two home runs during the Pirates' 6-5 victory over the Athletics at Sutter Health Park. What has fueled his recent run? Also, Mitch Keller steadied himself and gave the Pirates a chance, while the bullpen enjoyed a strong performance. Jason Mackey breaks all of that down here.

Transcript

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Good morning, Pirates fans, and welcome into the Pirates Insider podcast. I'm your host, Jason Mackey, talking to you from my hotel room in Sacramento. After a 6-5 Pirates victory over the Athletics at Sutter Health Park, certainly an entertaining game, and Brian Reynolds was the big story in this one, as well as the Pirates comeback overall. But Brian Reynolds, four hits, two home runs, three RBIs, three runs scored. It continued his incredible month of June. Brian Reynolds does this all the time. We've become accustomed to it, right? Right now in June, Brian Reynolds with a 296 average and 980 OPS. For his career, he's a 319 hitter this month, a 934 OPS. Those numbers trounce what he does in every other month. Kind of a funny gag with a got a lot of guys post-game and what Brian Reynolds has been able to do. I asked Mitch Keller, I said, You surprised that Reynolds is doing this right? And he said, Not at all. We always joke that June's his month. He just seems to turn it on. He gets a lot more comfortable. Um and Keller went on to say a bunch of different things, but he said it's fun to see him locked in like this. So we'll talk about Brian Reynolds in a little bit, but as far as this game and sort of how it went down, it didn't look like it was going to be a very good night for the Pirates early on. Mitch Keller started and gave up four runs in the first inning. Uh he walked three of the first four hitters. They all scored. And a really goofy play that you saw. Zach Geloff singled. Spencer Horwitz made a fantastic play to grab it, but throws wildly to first. That's an error. Um, and then a play at third base where Jacob Wilson was obstructed by Nick Gonzalez. Uh, he winds up scoring. Wasn't sure if Brandon Lau got the tag down, but after some confusion, uh, we learned that obstruction was called, and so Jacob Wilson was granted home. Uh Lawrence Butler follows with a double, and what do you know? It looks kind of ugly for the Pirates. But to his credit, Mitch Keller, who threw 38 pitches in that first inning, really gathered himself well. And that was an interesting story. I didn't get it into it too much in what I wrote, but Keller over the next three innings, seven, seven, and nine pitches. Uh, when Keller talked to us after, we were asking him, you know, what kind of got you through that? Um how were you able to sort of pull it back together and deliver a halfway decent outing? And Mitch said he just felt kind of more comfortable with what he was doing. Uh started throwing more sinkers and four seamers, some curveballs and cutters mixed in there as well. And this is something I've never heard from Mitch. He said he was using the pitch com and basically just calling his own pitches. And it was nothing against anything Andy Rodriguez was doing, but just Mitch knew in his brain what he wanted to throw. And he said he didn't want to waste time with the pitchcom or, you know, going back and forth with signs. He was just telling Andy what he was convicted in and throwing it. But either way, Mitch Keller uh deserves a lot of credit. I wrote about him yesterday and the Pirates needing more for him. And if you look at the line score, it wasn't great. Five and a third, gave up five runs, four earned on five hits. He walked four, he struck out seven, threw 96 pitches, 61 strikes. I do think it was a step forward for Mitch Keller. And he said, you can't really make up confidence. So he kind of got into a rhythm from that second inning on. It made him feel a little bit better with what he was doing. Uh he's gonna try to take that good feeling and kind of roll with it. But wasn't the only thing, but it was a thing that Mitch Keller was able to stay in the fight and give the Pirates a chance because they did kind of claw back. In the fourth inning, Nick Gonzalez scored a run with a ground ball to first base. Brian Reynolds hit his first home run in the sixth inning. That brought it within four to two. Uh that came on a first pitch fastball, kind of middle in. Reynolds hit it 4.08 to center field. Um, and then Andy Rodriguez brought the Pirates to within one in the sixth with a single. That was on a 3-1 cutter, kind of middle away. That was a lime drive to center field, went 108 off the bat. Zach Geloff again, he homered on a sweeper. Um, and that one went just barely a Sutter Health Park special 360 feet. Reynolds followed with the home run in the seventh inning. That was on an 0-1 change-up, kind of left up in the zone. An even more special Sutter Health Park uh homer with a 350-foot distance there. And then Brandon Lau put the nail in the coffin, as Brian Reynolds said, uh with the home run, a solo home run there. 104.6 off the bat, goes 371, a line drive to right field. It gets out. And credit to Lau. He's been kind of scuffling at the plate and was able to uh stick around and have a pretty good at bat there and finally get some results. But let's spend a few minutes talking about Brian Reynolds because I think what he's been doing this month is fascinating. It's fun, um, and it's just been downright dominant, honestly. He's become the story of this team with O'Neill Cruz and Connor Griffin out. Brian Reynolds and how he's been able to carry this offense has been really, really impressive. So he extended his on-base streak to 23 games. That's the second longest active one in Major League Baseball. During that time, Reynolds is hitting 357, the average ranking fourth among all hitters in Major League Baseball. His OPS of 1.128 ranks seventh, and he has 56 total bases, has him in a tie for fifth. Don Kelly said the way he's been swinging at the bat, swinging the bat lately, he's basically barreling everything up in their line drives. It's not like he's trying to hit home runs. Um I covered the home runs that he hit, but just what this stretch has done for Reynolds, I mean, this is circa 2021 for him. His OPS right now on the season, it's up to 870. That's 11th in the National League. That's not small. He was walking a ton early. Um, he's translated that into power. His on-base percentage right now is 400, which ranks third in the National League. He's got a career high 15.3% walk rate. He's slugging 470. That's the best slugging percentage for Reynolds since his sixth uh war season, according to baseball reference, in 2021. Fun quote from Jake Mangum postgame. He said, Chipper Jones is probably my favorite player of all time, but B-Ray is sneaky, sneaky, about to eclipse that. I think it's number number 10 as a switch hitter, man. It's just something about it. Uh so Reynolds Homer from both sides of the plate in this one. It's the fourth time he's done that in his career, and it just continued a really, really good stretch. So I I started out yesterday. I wanted to write about Reynolds at some point on this trip because of how good he's been. Had a good conversation with him yesterday, was kind of sitting on it, so decided to use the bulk of that conversation and what I've been kind of building toward. Uh, and this actually goes back to Houston. When the Pirates were in Houston, I talked to Matt Haig about, hey, what's going on with Reynolds? You know, trying to trying to get something here on Reynolds, and he said he's been doing some old school drills. And so I took that to Reynolds yesterday and asked him, you know, what are old school drills? What does this mean? Uh and Reynolds explained it sort of like that this drill he's been doing, that's almost like front toss where the ball's thrown at him, and if it doesn't, if he doesn't swing at it or he doesn't hit it, it's gonna hit him in the chest. Uh and it's not that he's going back and like reworking his swing or doing anything mechanically, but it's more to sort of spur an aggressive mindset. And I think there's been a little bit of that going on with swing decisions too. Reynolds has walked a lot, like I mentioned, but he's really been able to find the power, and I think that's knowing how guys are pitching him, knowing when to let loose on the swing, and sort of situationally just knowing when to pull the trigger. Again, a Matt Hay quote about Reynolds, he's very aware of situations and how pitchers are trying to attack him, and it's trying to turn that into maximizing himself in those moments. So I think the drill has had a little bit to do with it, but I think it's also just mentality and kind of letting it go and knowing what the team needs of him. And this is how far Reynolds has come. I mentioned his OPS going all the way up to 870, uh, but on May 22nd, that's the day before this on-base streak started. Reynolds was hitting 243, slugging 376, and he had a 746 OPS. Those numbers have really shot up in a hurry. Uh and he's just he he's been one of Major League Baseball's best hitters this month during the stretch, and he's carried the Pirates offense during a really key time. So uh fun to see that one tonight. Fun to see what is next for Brian Reynolds. Another sneaky important part of this game, the Pirates bullpen. That group has obviously been much beleaguered. Um, we've talked a lot about what the bullpen needs to improve all this stuff, but they really held the fort here after Mitch Keller steadied himself. Evan Sis came in, he threw a scoreless inning. Johan Ramirez extricated the Pirates for some stuff from some stuff, two-thirds of an inning for him. He walked one. Mason Montgomery threw a scoreless inning, walked one, struck out two. And then Gregory Soto came on to nail down the save and was really good in the ninth inning. He struck out two. So hopefully a confidence builder for the Pirates. Um they need to claw back. Things have not been good for them lately. They're now at 37 and 37. In June, they are five and nine. This one very much looked like a loss, but hey, thanks to Brian Reynolds, Mitch Keller figuring it out, the Brandon Lau home run in the ninth inning. They're able to get out of here with a win and then set up an opportunity with Braxton Ashcraft on the mounts. Maybe take the series on Wednesday. We'll see before the off day, and then we head to Colorado on the weekend. But my biggest takeaway was Brian Reynolds. Check that story out at mlb.com and inside the pirates. This has been the Pirates Insider Podcast. I'm Jason Mackey, and we'll talk to you tomorrow.