Pittsburgh Pirates: Huge Ke'Bryan Hayes Series, Poor SP, More Takeaways From Split With Atlanta

Poor starting pitching, a huge series from Ke'Bryan Hayes, and more takeaways from the Pittsburgh Pirates splitting a four-game series with the Atlanta Braves

In recent weeks the Pittsburgh Pirates had been playing better baseball. They had gone 2-0-2 in their previous four series played, going 7-5 overall. Facing a tall task in the Atlanta Braves, the Pirates continued their improved play of late.

Baseball teams are always looking for series victories. However, splitting a four-game series with a team as good as the Braves is never a bad thing. Especially when you're not a contending team. After splitting this series the Pirates are 13-18-4 in series played this season, and their overall record on the season is now 52-63.

Next up for the Pirates is another challenging series at home when they welcome the Cincinnati Reds to PNC Park for a three-game weekend this series. Before we look ahead to the Reds, let's take one last look back at splitting this series against the Braves with some series takeaways.

Right field struggles continue for Henry Davis

Right field has not been kind to Henry Davis thus far in his MLB career. Naturally a catcher, this season, between the minor and major leagues, Davis has played right field more than any other position.

Moving Davis to right field was a move that made sense. While Davis made his MLB debut before Endy Rodriguez, Endy was not far behind him. So, this was going to create a logjam at catcher. In an effort to get both of their bats into the lineup, Davis was moved to right field.

Through his first 333.1 innings in right field Davis owns a -5 Defensive Runs Saved and -4 Outs Above Average. His success rate in right field has been just 77% despite his expected success rate being 83%, giving him a success rate added of -6%.

His right field woes were on full display in Wednesday's loss. With the game tied at 5 in the 8th inning Austin Riley popped a ball up to shallow right field. The ball was one Davis needed to catch. He would have had his momentum taking him toward the plate and it would have prevented a run from scoring. However, Davis failed to call off second baseman Jared Triolo who drifted into shallow right field and caught the ball with his momentum taking him backward. This allowed Michael Harris II to tag up and score on a pop out that should not have scored a run.

On that play Davis needed to take control and call off Triolo. Triolo being very unfamilair with second base did not help on that play either. No matter how you slice things, it was an ugly play and the early returns on Davis in right field have not been good.

More than a bad streak for Jack Suwinski

You will hear a lot of people call Jack Suwinski a streaky hitter. To some extent this is true. Suwinski does struggle mightily to find consistency at the plate. However, what is currently going on with Suwinski is much more than just a bad streak.

Since June 1st, Suwinski has been flat out bad at the plate. This 2+ month long struggle carried into this series against the Braves. Suwinski was 2-for-14 in the series with two walks, he was hit by a pitch, and he struck out 8 times.

This included Suwinski coming to the plate with two runners on base, two ours, and the Pirates trailing 8-6 in the bottom of the 9th in game two. Representing the winning run, Suwinski once again failed to come up with a clutch home run, or even hit, by grounding out to end the game.

One of the two hits Suwinski had in the series was a double on Thursday afternoon. This double was his first extra base hit since July 29th. He is now just 2-for-32 in the month of August. Going bacj to June 1st, Suwinski is hitting just .186 with an on-base percentage of .313. He has also struck out in 33.3% of his trips to the plate. Suwinsk is in dire need of figuring something out.

Huge series for Ke'Bryan Hayes

There were some positives in this series for the Pirates and the play of Ke'Bryan Hayes was one of those. After getting the day off in the series opener, Hayes was the team's best hitter for the rest of the series.

Even though he played in just three games in the series, Hayes drove in 9 runs for the Pirates. He finished the series 7-for-13 with 2 home runs, a double, a triple, a walk, and those aforementioned 9 runs driven in.

Throughout the series Hayes was able to barrel up the ball and drive it with authority. He caught hte ball early with the bat and put together one of his best offensive series of the season. Every time Hayes puts together a stretch like this the hope is that he has finally got something to click offensively. Hopefully, this time, that's the case for Hayes.

New relievers impress

Thomas Hatch made his Pirate debut out of the bullpen in this series while Colin Selby made his MLB debut. After making his Pirate debut against the Brewers, Andre Jackson was once again called upon in this series to give an extended relief outing.

All three of the bullpen newbies would put together impressive series.

It started with Jackson. In Monday night's victory, Jackson pitched 2 perfect innings of relief while stirking out 4. He has pitched 5 perfect innings of relief since joining the Pirate bullpen, stirking out 7 batters.

Selby pitched 1.2 scoreless innings in his MLB debut on Wednesday. He allowed two hits, walked a batter, and struck out three. Selby's stuff is what was most impressive, as his great spin rates and movements had Brave hitters looking silly.

The most impressive outing of them all was Thomas Hatch. Hatch, who just joined the organization as a waiver claim on Sunday, took over after Falter lasted just 4 innings on Thursday. While getting some help from his defense, Hatch needed just 42 pitches to pitch 4 scoreless innings. He allowed just two hits, did not walk a batter, and struck out a pair.