After Ke'Bryan Hayes home run erased, Dodgers pounce on Pirates

It was the home run trot that was not, a play that started with fireworks but ended with a blank.

How a Ke’Bryan Hayes homer was officially scored as a putout became the inexplicable storyline for the Pittsburgh Pirates after the rookie third baseman failed to touch first as he circled the bases in the first inning Tuesday night.

The baserunning blunder was the biggest in a series of Pirates mistakes against the reigning World Series champions, and the Los Angeles Dodgers capitalized to roll to a 5-3 win before a season-high crowd of 9,047 at PNC Park.

And Hayes didn’t stick around to explain it, as he was not made available for postgame video calls.

“It’s not something that I’ve had happen, and probably not something that will happen again,” Pirates center fielder Bryan Reynolds said. “So, it’s just weird. It just sucks. But, he’ll learn from it. And we’re not worried about it at all for him.”

Hayes went from hero to goat in a matter of minutes in the bottom of the first inning, when he hit Walker Buehler’s 3-1 pitch down the right-field line for a home run that bounced off the bottom of the foul pole. The play drew a challenge from the Dodgers (35-25). After a 1-minute, 9-second review, Hayes was called out for failing to touch first base.

Video showed Hayes watching the ball to see whether it would stay inside fair territory when his left foot completely missed the bag as he rounded the base. When the ball bounced back onto the field, Hayes sped up on his way to second and then circled the bases in celebration.

“It’s one of those things that Key thought he caught the back corner of it, and he didn’t,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “If he even thinks he misses it, he has to go back and touch it.”

The play was ruled a 1-3 putout — after pitcher Buehler threw the ball to first baseman Max Muncy — so instead of a 1-0 lead, the Pirates had two outs. It also erased a 346-foot shot that would have been Hayes’ third home run of the season, his second since returning June 3 after missing two months with a left hand/wrist injury.

Hayes finished 1 for 4, making hard contact in all four at-bats.

“I mean, that’s a once in a lifetime thing, and it won’t happen again,” Reynolds said. “And, yeah, I mean, that could have easily been a day-ruiner for him, and he could have mentally checked out. But he didn’t and strung together a bunch of good at-bats after that. So, that says a lot about who he is as a player and as a person.”

In Hayes’ next at-bat, in the third inning, he turned on an inside pitch and roped a single to left-center. He touched first as he rounded the base, then returned and stood on the bag. When Reynolds flew out to left fielder AJ Pollock, however, Hayes was thrown out at second when he tagged up and slid past the bag and was tagged out by second baseman Chris Taylor. Shelton credited Hayes for making a good read and an aggressive play.

“The tag, I thought was a good play,” Shelton said. “He slid past the bag. I mean, he was safe on the initial play from Pollock, and he just slid past the bag, and Taylor did a nice job holding the tag.”

The Dodgers got another break on a Pirates gaffe in a three-run fifth inning. The rally that started when right fielder Gregory Polanco let a Gavin Lux single roll under his glove for a two-base error. With Lux on third, Pollock doubled past the outstretched glove of Reynolds to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Mookie Betts hit a two-out triple — also past a diving Reynolds at the warning track in center — to score Pollock for a 2-0 lead.

The Pirates pulled starter JT Brubaker (4-5), who had six strikeouts without a walk, after he gave up five hits in 4⅔ innings. Chasen Shreve came in for a lefty-lefty matchup against Muncy, who singled to right to score Betts and increase the Dodgers lead to 3-0. Chris Stratton relieved Shreve and gave up a two-run homer to Chris Taylor, who drilled his 1-0 slider 426 feet into the left-field seats for a 5-0 Dodgers lead.

Buehler (5-0) pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up just two hits. Joe Kelly relieved him in the eighth and gave up a leadoff single to Phillip Evans, who was activated from the injured list after missing three weeks with a left hamstring strain. Adam Frazier extended his hitting streak to 11 games with an RBI double down the right-field line to make it 5-1.

The Pirates added a pair of solo homers in the ninth off Nate Jones as Reynolds hit the first pitch he saw 418 feet into the visiting bullpen for his ninth home run to cut it to 5-2, and Michael Perez smacked a 2-1 sinker 412 feet to right-center for his first career pinch-hit homer and fourth this season to make it 5-3. Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen came in to get Evans swinging for the final out and his 13th save.

That Hayes had a home run erased when he missed the bag while rounding first was the second major mistake invovling a Pirates rookie at first base in a span of two weeks. First baseman Will Craig chased Javier Baez toward home plate instead of touching first base for the final out, allowing a run to score in a 5-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs on May 27 at PNC Park. Like Hayes, Craig also didn’t address the media immediately following the game.

The Pirates (23-36) couldn’t believe the turn of events, especially given that it involved their top prospect who had provided so many highlights through his first 30 major league games.

Shelton, for one, was at a loss for an explanation.

“They’re two plays I’ve never seen before,” Shelton said. “I think, like we said before, you stay in the game long enough, you see everything.”