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Ke'Bryan Hayes, left, and Bryan Reynolds hit home runs on Saturday against the Yankees at LECOM Park.
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Johan Oviedo shines; Bryan Reynolds, Ke'Bryan Hayes homer to help Pirates top Yankees

Post-Gazette

Johan Oviedo shines; Bryan Reynolds, Ke'Bryan Hayes homer to help Pirates top Yankees

BRADENTON, Fla. — Several Pirates seemingly got their groove back Saturday during a 3-0 victory against the New York Yankees at LECOM Park, including a pitcher fighting for a spot in the starting rotation and two middle-of-the-order bats who had been dealing with their own issues.

Johan Oviedo delivered three scoreless innings in what was unquestionably his best performance of the spring. Meanwhile, Ke’Bryan Hayes proved he’s healthy while flashing a new-and-improved swing. Bryan Reynolds snapped out of his preseason funk. Both hit homers during a three-run third.

"Really good swings out of both of those guys," Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. "Definitely positive."

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After allowing 27 runs in their past three games combined, the Pirates got some much better pitching in this one. Jose Hernandez, Colin Holderman and Carmen Mlodzinski followed Oviedo, and one looked better than the next.

Mike Burrows throws a bullpen during spring training workouts last month at Pirate City.
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Hernandez averaged 97 mph with his sinker and retired the side on nine pitches, striking out two. Holderman’s new slider looked sharp, and he averaged 98.1 mph with his sinker, an uptick of around 2 mph over where he sat last year.

Mlodzinski, who will start at Triple-A, has been outstanding this spring, consistently hitting 97 mph and throwing a tight slider. After notching four outs against the Yankees — allowing one hit and striking out two — Mlodzinski is up to 5 1/3 scoreless innings over his first four appearances. The hit he allowed was his first this spring.

Overall, the Pirates did an excellent job of what has been a big push from the coaching staff: filling up the strike zone and challenging hitters. They didn’t walk a hitter until Wei-Chieh Huang issued a free pass in the eighth inning. Pirates pitchers more than offset the walk total with 13 strikeouts.

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"I was just hunting for the ball up," Hayes said. "I was just able to get a good swing on it."

Taking nothing away from Reynolds, the swing was an encouraging one for Hayes. Not only because he was seemingly able to stave off any serious issues with his thumb -- he said he began to feel something earlier in the week and began to ease off for fear of making it worse -- but also the fact that he pulled the ball.

With plenty of authority, too. Hayes denied there being much behind it. It's more his bat path, driving his back hip and seeing the ball well. But whatever you want to call it, the Pirates undoubtedly need more of it from Hayes.

"When we see Ke’ on time, that’s what he does," Shelton said. "When you don’t see him on time, it’s on the ground or on the backside. It’s hard, but I think being on time is a very simple thing but a very important thing."

Austin Hedges, center, chats with Endy Rodrigues, left, and Henry Davis, right, during workouts at Pirate City.
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ON THE MOUND

It had been a rough start to spring training for Oviedo, who allowed five earned runs and four walks through his first 4 1/3 innings. What happened Saturday, though, was much different.

Oviedo scrapped the sinker with which he has been tinkering and threw 61% sliders. The combination worked. He gave the Pirates three scoreless innings, allowing two hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Of the 41 pitches Oviedo threw, 31 were strikes. Seventeen of them resulted in either a called strike or whiff.

“Definitely keep working on getting ahead,” Oviedo said. “Today we mixed fastballs, sliders and curveballs. Just try to keep working and doing what we’ve been doing.”

For Oviedo, a big part of that has been thinking less and trusting his stuff — two things he did against the Yankees. Adding a sinker has been smart and important for him. There will be times for his changeup, too. But as Oviedo looks to transition to full-time major league starter, he needs to do more of what he did on Saturday: Identify his best stuff on a given day and challenge hitters with that.

“Whatever pitch I throw, just try to be more in the zone,” Oviedo said. “Not thinking too much. Just try to get ahead and get outs. We want to be ready for the season.”

AT THE PLATE

Hayes’ left thumb looked just fine on the swing he took, as his two-run homer handed the Pirates a 2-0 lead. The third baseman had been slowed by some minor soreness, and this was only his fifth Grapefruit League game.

But against Yankees starter Ryan Weber, Hayes found an 0-1 changeup out over the plate and pulled it at 106 mph for a no-doubter, his second this spring.

"My thought still is just trying to hit it hard through center field, to the left of the batter’s eye," Hayes said. "It's kind of like what I was doing in 2020 — with my thought process and my body being in the right spot. Just happened to pull it."

Reynolds, who began Saturday’s game hitting just .067, went back-to-back with Hayes, delivering his loudest swing of the spring on an 0-1 changeup from Weber that was near the bottom of the zone. He cranked it 405 feet at 101.5 mph over the fence in right-center field.

Andrew McCutchen and Canaan Smith-Njigba also contributed two-hit games.

QUOTABLE

"No, we haven’t talked about it at all. As we get into the season, we’ll talk about different things, but it was really nice to see the execution of both breaking balls [Saturday]. ... A really strong outing for him." — Shelton discussing Oviedo and the possibility (or not) of using a six-man rotation.

UP NEXT

Mitch Keller will make his fourth start of the spring Sunday at home against the Braves. The Pirates enjoy their first off day of the spring on Monday.

Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.

First Published: March 11, 2023, 8:27 p.m.
Updated: March 11, 2023, 9:15 p.m.

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Ke'Bryan Hayes, left, and Bryan Reynolds hit home runs on Saturday against the Yankees at LECOM Park.  (Post-Gazette)
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