As Thomas Hatch told the story, the conversation happened every time he sat down in the Pirates dugout.
“Hey,” Hatch said Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin would seemingly saddle up and ask him, “you got another one?”
Marin kept asking, and Hatch kept providing during the Pirates’ 7-5 victory against the Atlanta Braves on Thursday at PNC Park, the relief appearance equal parts necessary and dominant. Talk about making a good first impression.
Pirates starters this series had gone four, five and four innings, and Bailey Falter suffered the same fate in the series finale. Manager Derek Shelton turned to Hatch, claimed off waivers Sunday from the Toronto Blue Jays, after Falter gave up four runs over four innings.
“The plan was for him to give us whatever he had because we had very little in our bullpen today,” Shelton said.
The plan was smart, but it also changed because of how well Hatch, a 28-year-old tweener type from Tulsa, Okla., pitched. Relying primarily on his cutter but also mixing in some sinkers and changeups, Hatch allowed two hits and no runs or walks over four innings.
A double play in the fifth and some other impressive defense from the Pirates certainly helped. At the same time, Hatch showed how simple pitching can be sometimes: throw the ball over the plate while using your best stuff and dare the opposing team to hit it.
“It's nice to have the team show confidence in me to put me in a situation like that,” Hatch said. “I just tried to stay within myself, not do too much, and the product was good.”
The cutter was an interesting pitch for Hatch, who throttled it up and down. It was also noticeable that Hatch notched three whiffs on the eight changeups he threw.
His arsenal honestly isn’t terribly dissimilar from that of Andre Jackson, who tossed three scoreless innings in Milwaukee and another really good one Tuesday — enough that some wanted him to stay in the game instead of turning things over to David Bednar.
The Pirates claimed Hatch because they have some familiarity with the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder who made his MLB debut in 2020. That year, Hatch found success, pitching to a 2.73 ERA in 17 games (one start). But he hasn’t been able to recapture that level over the past 2½ seasons.
In fact, he had an 8.85 ERA in 20⅓ big league innings since that strong start to his career.
We’ll see where this goes for Hatch. Maybe he becomes a reliable contributor in the bullpen or makes some starts. Shelton said a couple days ago that the Pirates will have to get nontraditional down the stretch, with perhaps the use of three-inning piggybacks or trying to hold guys to one time through the order.
It’s something they’ve done to various degrees of success throughout Shelton’s tenure, and it looks like Hatch, Jackson and Osvaldo Bido might be candidates for this sort of thing.
Bido was outstanding Monday, running his fastball up to 98 and going nine up, nine down through three innings before the Braves adjusted in a big way in the fourth inning of that game, scoring four runs.
Jackson debuted with three scoreless innings — no hits or walks, too — and three strikeouts this past Saturday at American Family Field.
“It's something that we've talked about over the past few years,” Shelton said. “Right now, with having some starters who are not as traditional, we could definitely see things like that."
Against the Braves, Hatch gave the Pirates exactly what they needed when they needed it: length. Falter walked two and allowed a pair of home runs. He wasn’t missing many bats. Hatch entered and threw strikes and kept the ball on the ground.
Facing a really good lineup, no less. The MLB leader in home runs by a wide margin.
“It's just taking each scouting report one at a time, one pitch at a time and putting a good pitch in the right spot,” Hatch said. “The result was good. Just one at a time, though. Don't try and get eight guys out at the same time.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: August 11, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: August 11, 2023, 1:05 p.m.
