Adalberto Mondesi homers, scores winning run as Royals top Pirates

Ke’Bryan Hayes was off to a hot start to his major league career, so the Pittsburgh Pirates wasted no time to move him into a run-producing role in the lineup. After the son of major leaguer Charlie Hayes showed his top-prospect pedigree in his first seven games, Pirates manager Derek Shelton moved him from seventh to third in the order.

But the son of another former Pirate, Kansas City Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi — whose father, Raul played for the team in 2004 — did the most damage. Mondesi homered and scored two more runs as the Royals beat the Pirates, 4-3, on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

Shelton said starting Hayes in the three-hole had as much to do with wanting as many right-handed bats at the top of the order against Royals lefty Kris Bubic as it did Hayes’ .333/.407/.667 slash line with a double, two triples and a homer in his first 24 at-bats.

“It’s awesome for me, a compliment for me,” Hayes said of batting third in his eighth game. “Nothing changed for me, whether I was hitting third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh. I’m just trying to go out there and be aggressive and get good pitches to hit up in the zone.”

Where Hayes responded by going 2 for 4 with two singles, the Royals tested the rookie third baseman right off the bat when leadoff hitter Whit Merrifield laid a bunt down the line. The Pirates had warned their infielders that the Royals had speed and were willing to bunt in any count, so when Hayes saw Merrifield peak to see him playing deep he took a couple steps in.

Shelton, who called Merrifield “one of the best baseball players in the game,” said the Royals leadoff batter “thought he was going to take advantage of a young kid who was a step behind the bag.” Instead, Merrifield found out how advanced Hayes is in the field. Hayes crept in, scooped the ball barehanded and threw out Merrifield at first.

“To make that barehanded play,” Shelton said, “you don’t see too many guys make that play.”

Added Pirates pitcher Steven Brault: “I thought we had no shot of getting that out. I was blown away. He’s so good. … That’s a very difficult play, and he made it look really easy.”

Pirates first baseman Josh Bell said Merrifield admitted after drawing a walk in the fourth that he was stunned that Hayes, a three-time Gold Glove winner in the minors, threw him out on the bunt.

“He’s like, ‘Dude, I’ve never seen anybody make that play.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, me neither,’” Bell said. “It was one of those where he was like, ‘Dude, I feel like 10 times out of 10 if I lay a bunt down where he’s playing that far back, it’s a knock.’ I was like, ‘He’s one of those guys in the minor leagues he won a Gold Glove.’ He was like, ‘I wish that was in the scouting report.’ So we had a good little laugh at first base.

“The kid’s spectacular. He’s showing it. He’s a lot of fun to watch. It’s definitely a show when he’s on the field.”

Problem was, Mondesi followed by hitting his third home run this week. His 418-footer off Brault to left field gave the Royals a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Mondesi hit a solo shot at Cleveland on Monday and a three-run knock against the Indians on Friday night, his first two homers of the season.

Bubic got into trouble by walking Colin Moran to start the second and giving up a single to Josh Bell to put runners on first and third with no outs, but struck out Jacob Stallings, Adam Frazier and Cole Tucker on elevated fastballs to get out of the jam. That represented one of the Pirates’ best scoring chances.

The Royals added two more runs in the third, when Brault walked Mondesi then gave up three consecutive singles. The second, a bloop by Maikel Franco, scored Mondesi to make it 2-0. Salvador Perez scored when Brault threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded for a 3-0 lead. Brault was inefficient, giving up three runs on five hits and three walks while throwing 97 pitches (56 strikes) in only four innings.

The Pirates answered in the top of the fourth, when Moran and Bell hit back-to-back singles and Stallings drove in Moran with a double down the left-field line to cut it to 3-1.

Mondesi drew a walk against Chris Stratton to start the seventh, stole second base as Perez took a called third strike and then swiped third before scoring when Franco hit through a defensive shift for a 4-1 lead.

“No. 1, Mondesi’s one of the fastest guys in the game,” Shelton said. “We’ve got to do a better job of controlling our looks and keeping him there. The stealing of second doesn’t bother me because of the fact it’s 3-2, they’re moving on a 3-2 pitch, which a lot of teams do. The steal of third, we have got to do a better job of controlling him there and getting him to stop. From watching it … he just never stops. When you get a guy that’s an elite runner, that can’t happen. We have to make sure that we stop him at second.”

The Pirates cut it to 4-3 in the eighth when Bell crushed a Scott Barlow fastball 426 feet to right for a two-run homer, his fifth of the season. But Barlow struck out Stallings and Adam Frazier to end the inning and preserve the one-run lead. Greg Holland struck out pinch hitter Gregory Polanco and Erik Gonzalez to start the ninth, then got Newman to ground to second for the final out with Hayes standing in the on-deck circle.

Shelton wasn’t about to second-guess whether Hayes should have hit second.

“It’s not one of those things you can look in hindsight and say, ‘I wish this guy would have hit here or this guy would’ve hit there.’ That wasn’t the issue,” Shelton said. “The issue was we had opportunities to score runs and we didn’t get guys in. When you have those opportunities, you have to capitalize. We can’t go first-and-third and not have contact, and we can’t go second-and-third with no outs and get one run.”