After losing spring, Pirates' Kevin Newman looks toward summer of hope

In the spring before the start of baseball season, everyone has a clean record. No one has made an error or struck out with the bases loaded — yet.

This year, that hope is held over until July, with the start of the season delayed by four months because of the coronavirus.

The wait hasn’t diminished shortstop Kevin Newman’s optimism as the Pittsburgh Pirates prepare for a 60-game season, compared to the usual 162.

“I think we approach it differently as a team because it’s a sprint,” he said. “Everybody’s in it. There’s a chance for us to get hot and really do something special.”

Of course, the reality is there is less time to dig out of slumps.

“I think that everybody is kind of on board that, in a long season, there’s time to make up and time to get out of little slumps,” Newman said. “I think this year the mentality is different. We’re coming in just trying to do every single thing we can to be ready for Day 1 because each game is even more important.”

On the first day of summer camp Friday, Newman said the team has plenty of work to do to reach midseason form, but he said it was apparent players didn’t waste time during the covid-19 quarantine.

“It definitely seemed like everybody had been doing their part,” he said. “I certainly wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, man. This is tough.’ We’re going to work every day to get to midseason form as quickly as we can.”

Newman is working toward a successful encore after last season teaming with left fielder Bryan Reynolds to form the first rookie duo in 45 years (the Boston Red Sox’s Fred Lynn and Jim Rice) to hit over .300.

Reynolds slashed .314/.377/.503 and Newman .308/.353/.446.

“We had a good time with that whole competitive battle. It was fun,” Newman said. “We kind of bounced off each other and played well.”

Meanwhile, pitcher Joe Musgrove has hopes an infield anchored at shortstop by Newman can turn potential ground-ball singles into outs.

Newman showed improvement with his glove last season. He made three errors in a game April 8, but he committed a total of only four over the next three months. He finished with 12.

“We work so hard to get ground balls and weak contact,” Musgrove said. “When those balls are put on the ground, we want the outs.

“We’ve got a pretty good infield. (Second baseman Adam) Frazier finishing (as a Gold Glove finalist). Newman played an incredible shortstop. We’ve got three really good options over at third base (Ke’Bryan Hayes, Erik Gonzalez and Colin Moran). JB (Josh Bell) showed incredible signs of improvement at first base.”

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