After tossing six innings of two-run ball in what at that juncture had become a lopsided contest, Rich Hill was very much still in attack mode.
The Pirates’ veteran left-hander had already tossed 97 pitches against the Mets, yielding his only runs on a pair of hanging curveballs, one of which Mark Vientos spun for an RBI single and the other that Francisco Lindor smashed for a solo shot. Though the Pirates were leading 12-2 and Hill was well on his way to his sixth victory of the season, the 43-year-old was oblivious to the ever-increasing number of offerings he was firing toward home plate.
“I’m not really aware of the pitch count,” Hill said. “You are pitching until the manager takes the ball from your hands.”
The comment should come as no surprise from the fierce competitor, who manager Derek Shelton let trot back out to the mound for his seventh and final inning of work in the Pirates’ 14-7 victory Friday night. It was a decision Hill, who threw 22 more pitches in his final frame, said he was thankful for.
In Shelton’s mind, there wasn’t much of a debate. The Mets’ eight, nine and leadoff hitters were due up in what had become a laugher of a contest. Not to mention, the Pirates’ staff currently features just 12 pitchers, since the team called up outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba prior to Friday’s game while reliever Chase De Jong was designated for assignment. Another off day looms on Monday, too.
"The fact is, we knew we had an off day coming up and the fact that we’re a guy short in the bullpen and he felt good,” Shelton said of keeping Hill in the game. “We were at a spot in the order where we felt like we could get him through it and he threw the ball well, in the fifth and the sixth.”
Hill only allowed a Starling Marte single in the sixth inning, otherwise retiring each batter he faced that frame and in the previous one as well. By the time the seventh inning, one in which Hill produced his fifth and sixth strikeouts, came to a close, his pitch count had ballooned to 119 pitches–his highest total since throwing 120 nearly 17 years ago on Sept. 11, 2006 against the Atlanta Braves.
At that point, Hill was in just his second MLB season and only 26-years-old. Frequently throwing north of 100 pitches was much more common for pitchers then, and Hill did so nine times that season.
Hill’s 119 pitches was not only the most thrown by a pitcher his age or older since Tim Wakefield did so over a decade ago during his knuckleball years, but the most by any MLB pitcher this season. An accomplishment rightfully deserving of admiration drew just that from his manager.
“It was very impressive,” Shelton said. “He was in tune the entire game.”
The process-oriented Hill, who’s happy discuss such in detail, draws the admiration of much younger teammates like Ke’Bryan Hayes who see how much attention he gives to taking care of his body
“He’s a worker,” Hayes said of Hill. “He’s been doing it for 15, 20 years, so he knows what it looks like to be able to do that at that age.”
Hill also certainly knows how to stay in the moment, as his lack of awareness for his Friday evening pitch count showed. The product he produces on the mound, what with his grunting and variations of arm slots, isn’t just entertaining for those in attendance each start day at PNC Park, but for his fellow Pirates as well.
“Sometimes, we laugh at him because he gets a little amped up out there,” Hayes said. “But, I mean, it's just what he is, it’s just what fires him and gets him going. We're back there behind him ready to make the plays for him.”
Hill’s teammates certainly did their respective jobs behind him, but it took more than some exemplary defense to produce the longest start by a National League pitcher 43 years or older since Jamie Moyer in 2007. It takes a commitment behind the scenes, one that Hill is more than happy to discuss in place of his own accomplishment, no matter how impressive his most recent one was.
“You put the work in, the effort in. It’s the mundane that becomes monotonous,” Hill said. “The work that you do day-in and day-out, that fifth day when you come in to pitch is a culmination of that. You put yourself in position to succeed because of the work.”
Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndrewDestin1.
First Published: June 10, 2023, 3:40 a.m.