PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s just something inherent in some athletes, the ability to come through in big situations. Some refer to it as a slow heartbeat, whatever you want to call it, it seems Pirates second baseman Nick Gonzales has it.
The RBI single in the eighth inning was Gonzales’ eighth game-winning RBI of the season, which leads the team. Does manager Derek Shelton believe in the slow heartbeat analogy?
“If you talk to anybody who is an analyst, they’ll tell you ‘no.’” Shelton said. “If you talk to anybody that’s ever put a uniform on, they’ll tell you ‘yes’ because people that have the ability to slow their heartbeats down and hit in those situations, it’s something that can’t be taught, it’s something that you have to do.”
"I think my heartbeat is going pretty good in those moments,” Gonzales said. “I try to slow it down, but I think that just kinda gets me a little more locked in. I definitely try to slow it down and not try to do too much."
Gonzales now has 38 RBI on the season in just 61 games, 10 RBI in his last 13 games. He’s been such a run producer that the 25-year-old, who didn’t make the team out of Spring Training, is batting cleanup. And it’s not a surprise when he comes through in the clutch.
"He's just a gamer, man,” said Monday’s starting pitcher Mitch Keller.
“He loves baseball and he's really good at it, too. I don't want to say we expect it now, but every time he comes up in a big situation, he's getting the job done, which is a testament to him and his hard work."
Simplicity is really key for Gonzales, when he gets into the batters’ box, he approaches that late-inning, crucial at bat like ones he had in high school in Arizona, like when he beat rival Ironwood High School with a walk-off grand slam.
The approach is aggression. If he sees something that he likes early in the count, he’s going to swing at it. After a swinging strike on the first pitch from reliever John King Monday, Gonzales took a 96 mile-an-hour slider to right field to drive in Bryan Reynolds for the second Bucs run of the game and a big victory in game one of their series with the Cardinals.
"I think it's the guys hitting in front of me getting on base,” Gonzales said of how he’s able to do it. “Them getting into scoring position, second and third, that passed ball read with Reynolds. And then just trying to not do too much."
“Guys get over-anxious, they try to do too much,” Shelton said in lock-step with his second baseman. “I mean, as we saw today, base hit on a ground ball to right field. And the three guys that they threw are heavy ground-ballers. You saw by our at-bats today we hit a lot of ground balls. The ability to be aggressive is really important.”
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There are comparisons between Gonzales and the Pirates other All-Star Bryan Reynolds in that neither ever seems to get rattled. They are kind of flatlined during a game in that nothing seems to affect them on either end of the emotional spectrum. Shelton joked that rarely do you ever see one of them smile unless it’s a sarcastic comment.
"It's been great for me,” said Gonzales, the Pirates 2020 first-round pick. “Obviously still a lot of time left. Still a lot of areas to improve on. Taking it one step at a time."
GM Ben Cherington has talked this season about internal options improving their offense. Gonzales has sparked this team when he could have sulked.