Pittsburgh Pirates: Excellent Starting Pitching, Ke'Bryan Hayes Lead to Sweep of KC

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Another huge series from Ke'Bryan Hayes, excellent starting pitcher, and more takeaways from the Pittsburgh Pirates sweeping the Royals in Kansas City

Following a disappointing 3-4 homestand that was capped off by losing four of the final five games, the Pittsburgh Pirates traveled to Kansas City to kick off a six-game road trip. This road trip kicked off with a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium against a Royals team that is as bad as any baseball has seen in recent seasons.

Playing a woefully bad Royals team the Pirates were able to take advantage by sweeping the hosts. With the series sweep, the Pirates are now 15-22-4 in series played this season and are 61-73 overall on the season. Additionally, with the sweep the Pirates finish August with a respectable 14-15 record. Their second best record in a month this season next to their strong 20-9 April.

The Pirates will get Thursday off before making the short trip to St. Louis for a three-game series this weekend. So far this season the Pirates are 7-2 against the Cardinals and a series victory this weekend would go a long way toward burying the Cardinals in last place in the division.

Before looking ahead to St. Louis, let's take one last look back at their series in Kansas City. Here are takeaways from the Pirates sweeping the Royals in Kansas City.

Another huge series for K'eBryan Hayes

Few hitters in baseball were as hot at the plate in the month of August as Ke'Bryan Hayes was. To be honest, there is a legitimate chance he is the National League Player of the Month. Honestly, this hot stretch goes back to the start of June. The third baseman has been the team's best hitter since the start of June and that strong performance at the plate continued over into this series.

In the first game of the series, Hayes had one of the best games of his MLB career. He went 4-for-4 at the plate with a double, a walk, a run scored, and he drove in a run. Then in game two, Hayes was 1-for-4 with a walk and a a go-ahead home run in the 8th inning.

Dating back to May 31st Hayes has 198 plate appearances. This number is not higher due to him missing essentially all of July with a back issue. In these 198 PAs he has hit for a .324/.354/.553 slash line with a .229 isolated slugging (ISO), 140 wRC+, 36% of his hits have gone for extra bases, and his average exit velocity is 92.7 MPH.

This is the best 200 PA stretch of his career and the best Hayes has looked at the plate since that spectacular September 2020 when he made his MLB debut. If Hayes can continue this through the final month of the season, then there will be plenty of optimism entering 2024 that he has finally turned a corner and put it all together as a hitter.

Liover Peguero grabbing bull by the horns at second base

The Pirates have turned the reigns over to plenty of young players over the course of the summer. One of these young players is middle infielder Liover Peguero, and few young players have impressed more with the opportunities they have been given than Peguero.

Peguero has been playing both shortstop and second base since joining the MLB club in July. However, with Oneil Cruz set to take back over at shortstop next season, second base is the position where Peguero has an opportunity to seize a starting job moving forward. Thus far, Peguero has grabbed the bull by the horns at the position, and that continued against the Royals.

Peguero drew a walk in four trips to the plate in game one. He then recorded a three-hit in Tuesday night's victory including a 3-run moon shot in the 9th inning to put the game away. Wednesday night Peguero helped get the scoring started by doubling to start the 2nd inning and scoring the first run of the game.

Moving forward, second base should be Peguero's job until he gives the Pirates a reason for it not to be. The rest of the way this season Peguero should be starting at second base. If he continues to hit the way he has thus far in the majors this season, then the job should be his entering the offseason and spring training 2024.

Strong starting pitching

Johan Oviedo started the first game of the series and turned in arguably the strongest start of the season from a Pirate pitcher. Oviedo allowed just two hits while pitching a complete game shutout, both the first complete game and shutout of his career.

Game two did not see a traditional starting pitcher. Colin Selby worked as an opener, striking a batter out while retiring all six he faced in 2 scoreless innings pitched. Luis Ortiz followed as the bulk man, allowing a run in 5 strong innings pitched in one of his best outings of the season.

Game three saw Andre Jackson take the ball and he continued to impress. Jackson struck out the first five batters he faced in 5.2 brilliant innings pitched. He allowed a run, via a Bobby Whitt Jr. solo home run, on two hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts.

Jackson now owns a 2.98 ERA in 24.2 innings pitched with the Pirates. With the Bucs in search of starting pitching help there is no reason for Jackson to be removed from the starting rotation. Jackson has earned his spot in the rotation for the rest of the season.

The old adage is that in baseball you're only as good as your next day's starting pitcher. In this series, the Pirates got excellent starting pitching. That will often lead to series victories, and against a team as bad as the Royals it helped spark a series sweep.

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