PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – On a day that was about celebrating the past and honoring one of the all-time greats returning, Bryan Reynolds tied a career high in the Pirates 13-9 win over the White Sox Friday.
The Bucco All-Star had six RBI as the Pirates improved to 5-2 on the season. The runs coming on two hits, the first an over-the-fence home run driving in Jason Delay and Oneil Cruz in the fourth inning to give the Pirates a 7-5 lead.
The second big hit was a bases-clearing triple with an error allowing Reynolds to score or you might call it a ‘Little League home run’. The switch-hitters’ shot down the right field line came after the White Sox had tied the game and made it 12-7.
Here is another way to say Reynolds is off to a hot start, he joins Willie Stargell as the only other Pirates to have five home runs in the team’s first seven games.
“It’s special,” Reynolds said. “Anytime you are in the same sentence with someone like that. It’s something that can never be taken from you. I’ll be able to take that with me for a while.”
Reynolds credits his start, currently second in the majors with a .448 average and leading the majors in home runs (five) and RBI (13), to timing. He feels like he’s on time with his swing and when he does that, he has a chance.
“He’s swinging at the right pitches obviously, it’s probably the most locked-in I’ve seen him,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “We’ve seen him locked in at times. His tempo throughout his entire at bats. The thing that stands out, it’s not as much the pitches he is swinging at, it’s the pitches he is not swinging at.”
“He’s at another level,” said Pirates Connor Joe. “Just being around him, he’s making us better hitters. Watching him go through his day, go about his work, prepare for the games. It’s helping me.
It takes the pressure off us to know that someone like that is in the lineup continually producing for us. It’s special what he’s doing. I’m admiring it for sure.”
“Keep doing what he’s doing,” said Pirates Andrew McCutchen. “It’s been fun to watch thus far in the season. Shows the type of special player that he is. He’s shown that pretty early this year and he’s shown it in the past. So, he’s a lot of fun to watch when I’m seeing him out there. It’s great. He had a really good day today and hopefully he can keep it up.”
“It was awesome,” Reynolds said of the day. “The fans today were locked in, it was packed. It was fun to play in front of a stadium like that. Hopefully we will keep rolling and it will be like that more often.”
Related
Notes
· Connor Joe, Ji Hwan Bae and Jason Delay each had 3 hits, the first time the Pirates 7-8-9 hitters each had 3 hits since August 12, 1921
“They barely got out, every time they got up a rally either started or kept going,” Reynolds said. “That was huge for us tonight.”
“You move the ball forward, good things will happen,” Shelton said. “We did a good job of moving the ball forward.”
· The 18 hits are the most for a Pirates home opener in the modern era (since 1968)
· The 13 runs are the most for a Pirates home opener since a 14-4 win over St. Louis in 1976