PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - Pirates First Baseman Josh Bell started the month of July the same way he ended the month of May, with a bang. Bell hit three home runs and seven runs batted in Monday night, joining Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente, Dick Stuart and Ralph Kiner as the only Pirates to achieve that feat.
Monday night's performance by Bell was a nice preview for not only the fans at PNC Park, the one's watching or listening locally, but also for the national audience as we are a week out from the Home Run Derby in Cleveland.
Prior to the game Monday night, Bell spoke with reporters about what he is expecting next Monday and Tuesday will be like in Cleveland.
"For the most part, I just talked to Melky (Cabrera) about it he said it's non-stop, a lot of interviews, a lot of signing baseball's, it feels like you don't have a lot of time for yourself," said Bell pregame Monday. "I'm excited for it, I'm looking forward to it. I don't think it will be too much of a grind, I think we're all going to be on a cloud out there, so definitely excited."
The fan's got a nice preview of what it might look like in Cleveland during the home run derby next Monday with his three home run's in the victory Monday night.
"Hopefully, that starts something, turns the corner for me a little bit and I can get back on track," said Bell postgame Monday.
Every year there is a segment of fans that don't want to see their favorite players participate in the home run derby because of the talking point that it messes up there swings and they struggle early on post All Star Break. Bell discusses how he doesn't know where that talking point came from, but he's not concerned about it.
"I talked to Cutch (Andrew McCutchen) about it, he said just swing at 70% I should be good, we always have a couple of home run rounds in batting practice. I haven't stretched it out to four straight minutes, but I'm definitely excited to," said Bell pregame Monday. "I don't know where (that conversation) started, but I'm pretty sure that's not the case, but who knows, fingers crossed regardless, but I'm definitely going to do it."