Pittsburgh Pirates: Unsung Bullpen Heroes, Key Heating Up, Takeaways From Sweeping Cardinals

Ke'Bryan Hayes may be heating up

For much of the season Ke'Bryan Hayes has struggled at the plate. Even though he has continued his defensive wizardry, he just flat out has not been good enough offensively. However, it appears that Hayes may be finding something at the plate.

In the team's series finale in San Francisco last Wednesday, Hayes went 2-for-5 at the plate with a triple and a RBI. During that game you could see some changes in his approach at the plate leading to a better swing and Hayes catching the ball out in front more.

Hayes followed up this strong series finale against the Giants with a big series against the Cardinals.

In Friday night's victory Hayes drove in the first run of the game with a RBI single. Then in the 7th inning, he gave the Pirates their first lead of the night with a 3-run home run during their big comeback. Hayes did it again with the long ball in Saturday's victory bt launching a solo home run in the 5th inning to tie the game.

Sunday afternoon Hayes had three more hits. This included hustling out an infield hit in the 1st inning to help the Pirates grab an early 2-0 lead.

If this is the start of Hayes starting to figure something out at the plate that would be a huge shot in the arm for this Pirate lineup. It's always been said that Hayes just needs to give average offensive output with what he does defensively. If he can take what he's done the last four games and do that over an extended period of time, then you're talking about one of the best two-way players in the National League.