Gregory Polanco taking aggressive approach at the plate for Pirates: 'Just keep swinging'

As Gregory Polanco talked with Miguel Sano, the Minnesota Twins slugger shared something with which the Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder can relate: Sano has been feeling tired since testing positive for covid-19.

And it was showing in his swing, until Thursday’s game.

“I said, ‘Just keep swinging,’” Polanco said to his fellow Dominican. “I’m just trying to get my timing, whatever, you’ve got to keep swinging. Then he hit that homer the first at-bat, and I’m like, ‘Wow, OK. I’m going to go up there aggressive and put a good swing.’”

Sano’s three-run home run off JT Brubaker in the first inning Thursday was a rocket, with an exit velocity of 114 mph. When Polanco got to bat, he crushed Kenta Maeda’s first-pitch curveball – with an exit velocity of 109.7 – and sent it 446 feet and into the Allegheny River on a bounce.

It was the first homer – and second hit – of the season for Polanco, who is slowly rounding into form after his own bout with the coronavirus.

“Yes, I got that one,” Polanco said of his homer. “Finally.”

Polanco almost had another extra-base hit when he smacked a Maeda slider 329 feet to right field before Max Kepler made a leaping snag. That one had an exit velocity of 102.9, the seventh-hardest hit ball of a game that featured four home runs.

“Every at-bat, I feel more comfortable and more comfortable. I’m very close to being 100 percent ready with my swing, so I keep working every day..." pic.twitter.com/qCn5ukvYso

— Pirates (@Pirates) August 7, 2020

Pirates manager Derek Shelton was impressed with Polanco’s hard contact in his first two at-bats – he struck out in his final two plate appearances – and saw it as a sign that Polanco is finding his groove.

“The one that got in the river was way better than the one they caught. It was really good,” Shelton said. “I thought his swings were really aggressive throughout the game. At the end of the game he took an aggressive swing on the fastball up. To see him barrel up two balls on the pull side was good for him. Any time you get Polanco smiling, it’s a great thing. To see that smile after that homer, it was big.”

If Polanco was inspired by Sano’s display of power, he might also want to follow his statistics. Sano was cleared to return to playing on July 15, two days before the Pirates announced that Polanco had tested positive, but didn’t get a hit until his third game, a double; Polanco’s first hit came in his fourth game, also a double. Sano was batting .059 (1 for 17) before hitting two home runs in his sixth game; Polanco was hitting .053 (1 for 19) before homering and lining out to deep left in his eighth game.

“I’m still working on it, but it feels good to hit the first one,” Polanco said. “Seeing a breaking ball and adjusting every day, every at-bat I feel better. Feeling now like my hands are working more, so hopefully in the next three or four days, I get locked in. Just trying to work on my timing right now because my body feels great. Just trying to keep everything together right now and put a good swing to the ball.”

What the Pirates see a positive sign is that when Polanco does make contact, he’s hitting the ball hard. His exit velocity is up from 89.4 to 97.7, and his launch angle has increased from 18.4 to 22.5.

The swing-and-miss is a greater concern for Polanco, who has 12 strikeouts and only three walks this season. His zone contact rate is down from 77.9% last season to 64.7% this year, while his whiff percentage has risen from 32.7% to 52.7%. It’s true that eight games is a small sample size, but this is a 60-game season.

Clearly, his timing is off.

The lefty-hitting Polanco also admitted to being out of sync against left-handed pitching, as evidenced by his striking out against Twins reliever Taylor Rogers in the ninth inning with no outs and runners on second and third before Kevin Newman’s pinch-hit heroics in the 6-5 walk-off win.

“I’ve been swinging and missing a lot and trying to stay short to the ball, but he got me with a couple sliders and I should have not missed that 1-1 slider,” Polanco said. “And he got me with the fastball up. Like I said, the more I face lefties, I’m going to feel more comfortable with my swing. I’m going to get better, for sure. I’m going to work on that.”