Ryan O’Hearn explains the change fueling his recent offensive surge

Ryan O’Hearn could have shrugged off the details as baseball minutiae. Two inches here. A slight hand placement there. Six degrees with the front foot.

Instead, he explained them like the difference between getting beat by fastballs inside and driving them over the right-field wall.

O’Hearn’s recent offensive surge has not come from some sweeping philosophical change or dramatic swing overhaul. It has come from the kind of tiny mechanical correction that can look insignificant from the outside but feel massive to a hitter living inside the box every day.

After helping power the Pirates to a 7-2 win over the Rockies on Thursday at PNC Park, O’Hearn credited Pittsburgh’s hitting department for catching what had gone wrong during his recent May dip. His setup had drifted. His stance had widened. His hands had crept closer to his head. His left foot had turned slightly too far toward the third-base dugout instead of staying more directed toward the pitcher.

That is the frustrating part of hitting. Sometimes a slump does not announce itself with one obvious flaw. It shows up as a fastball that suddenly feels like it is getting in on the hands. It shows up as timing that is a fraction late. It shows up as a player chasing the feel of a swing he had a few weeks earlier without realizing his body is no longer putting him in the same position to create it.

Ryan O'Hearn credits Pirates hitting staff for helping him get out of his early May slump

O’Hearn had been excellent in April, slashing .306/.394/.481 with five home runs. Then May brought some drag. Before Thursday, he was hitting .238/.289/.357 with one homer in 11 games during the month. Nothing catastrophic, but enough for the Pirates to go searching for the small leak before it became something larger.

It's safe to say they found it.

O’Hearn homered Wednesday night in a 10-4 loss, then followed with three hits Thursday, including a two-run homer off Chase Dollander in the first inning. The blast capped a three-run opening frame and gave the Pirates the early cushion they needed on a bullpen-heavy day.

More importantly, O’Hearn said the adjustment allowed him to get to a pitch that had been giving him trouble.

“That pitch has been blowing me up the last couple of weeks,” O’Hearn said of the inside fastball he handled Wednesday. “It was a good adjustment. Seeing it pretty good right now, just going to keep riding the wave.”

For the Pirates, this is exactly why the O’Hearn signing mattered this offseason. They did not just add a veteran bat. They added a hitter with enough self-awareness to work through the inevitable valleys of a long season — and enough trust in the staff to let a six-degree correction turn back into production.

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