CINCINNATI — Josh Bell is nowhere near OK with the results.
But the Pirates first baseman also believes they’ll improve.
Through 16 games, the Pirates (3-13) had the second-lowest batting average (.209) and the worst OPS (.601) in the National League, with four members of Thursday’s starting lineup hitting .189 or worse.
Individually, Bell has also had a quiet start, slashing .213/.246/.328 with two home runs, three extra-base hits and five RBIs. For context, Bell was slashing .310/.382/.586 through 16 games of 2019, with three home runs, nine extra-base hits and 13 RBIs.
Are the Pirates in trouble? Bell doesn’t think so.
“We’re not going to have guys swinging soft here, hitting one-something,” Bell said Thursday before the start of a four-game series against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. “That’s just not going to happen from us. So I’m excited to see what happens next.”
Aside from the decrease in his power numbers, Bell has seen his whiff rate jump from 25.3% in 2019 to 38.6% this season. His percentage of strikeouts has gone from 19.2% to 30.8%, while his walk rate has dropped from 12.1% to 4.6%.
All of it revolves around what Bell described as a timing issue, one that starts with him being ready to hit fastballs and adjusting off of that.
“When things were going really well for me last year, I felt like I was really on the fastball,” Bell said. “As the season went on, I saw fewer fastballs and made adjustments. Those adjustments were the beginning of my downfall.
“I’m trying to get back to fastball timing, fastball approach and fastball stride, and everything else will take care of itself.”
Bell doesn’t believe he’s being pitched differently, even though he lacks protection while hitting No. 3 in the Pirates lineup. He’s right, too: no pitch carries more than a 2% difference either way.
The problem for Bell has been identifying bad pitches and letting them go while also swinging at good ones and driving them, a process that includes Bell looking to use all fields and not simply focus on pulling the ball for power.
“It’s all approach,” Bell said. “When you’re trying to hit the ball to left-center field [as a lefty], you have just a little more time to make swing decisions. When you’re trying to pull the ball, you have to go a little bit earlier.”
There’s something else that might be affecting Bell, although neither he nor Pirates manager Derek Shelton wanted to cite this as an excuse: the inability this season to rely on in-game video.
Previously, hitters could return to the clubhouse and watch video of their at-bats. That’s no longer possible because of the Astros/Red Sox cheating scandal and also wanting to avoid a group of people in a small room hovering around a screen.
As a result, Bell said any adjustments must be made game-to-game instead of between at-bats.
“I was one of the guys last year who would go in after virtually every at-bat and check my timing, check my landing point and try to make adjustments off that,” Bell said.
“But this is the game of baseball that we grew up playing. It’s not foreign. It’s just something that we haven’t done for a few years. Some people are probably playing better not thinking too much. Trying to take care of two swings, it would have been nice to be able to see where I was at based off release point and what the pitcher was trying to do to me. But I can still do that at home.”
Kela activated
The Pirates activated Keone Kela (COVID-19) from the injured list on Thursday. To make room on their 40-man roster, they designated Miguel Del Pozo for assignment. In five MLB games this season, Del Pozo allowed seven earned runs over 3⅔ innings, walking eight and striking out two.
Taxi squad
Outfielders Guillermo Heredia and Jared Oliva are in Cincinnati on the Pirates’ taxi squad, along with catcher Andrew Susac. Heredia started the season with the big club and went 3-for-16 (.188) with two RBIs in eight games. A seventh-round pick in 2017, Oliva is one of the Pirates’ top outfield prospects and enjoyed a terrific year with Class AA Altoona in 2019.
“We wanted Guillermo to be with us and be part of the group,” Shelton said. “For Oliva, it was more the fact that the group in Altoona thought the way he was going about things and going about his business was really good, and it was a reward for him. He's working his butt off down there. He's doing a lot of good things.”
Gonzalez stays hot
Erik Gonzalez has found a groove and was in the lineup again Thursday. He began the game hitting .458 (11-for-24) with three doubles, a home run and eight RBIs over his past six games.
Gonzalez is hitting .500 (7-for-14) with runners on base. He leads the National League with a .636 (7-for-11) average with runners in scoring position.
Shelton said he’s been impressed by the consistency Gonzalez has displayed, saying it’s a carryover from what happened in September 2019, when Gonzalez hit .322 in 20 games (16 starts).
“The fact he's continued to hit the ball hard, I think it's a credit to ‘Gonzo’ and to our hitting guys because I think [hitting coach] Rick [Eckstein] found something last year in September, and ‘Gonzo’ got away from it a little bit.
“I think they re-found it, and I think we're seeing the fruits of the work that they did last year and the adjustment. But his at-bats have been extremely consistent."
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: August 13, 2020, 7:42 p.m.