Ke'Bryan Hayes has smashing debut for Pirates, who lose to Cubs in extra innings

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ plan was not to put pressure on Ke’Bryan Hayes when their top prospect and 2015 first-round pick made his major league debut Tuesday night at PNC Park against the Chicago Cubs.

Hayes had other plans.

The 23-year-old third baseman doubled off the wall in left for his first career hit and RBI. After a 71-minute rain delay, he crushed a game-tying home run to center. Then, in the 10th inning, Hayes raced home on Anthony Alford’s one-hopper to pitcher Josh Osich and slid to beat the tag of Cubs catcher Willson Contreras for the tying run.

“He made probably about as good a contact read as you can make,” manager Derek Shelton said. “That’s textbook. It’s something we worked on in spring training and talked about, but that’s baseball instincts. That was unbelievable. It was outstanding. He did things well in all three facets of the game.”

The smashing debut was spoiled, however, by a hometown kid, as Mt. Lebanon’s Ian Happ drove in the winning run in the 11th inning to lift the Cubs to an 8-7 victory over the Pirates. Jacob Stallings struck out looking with runners on first and second to end the game, as the Pirates dropped to 10-23 overall, including 9-12 against NL Central teams.

Hayes went 2 for 5 with two extra-base hits, two RBIs and three runs scored. His first hit sparked a four-run, sixth-inning rally, his second tied the game and he scored the tying run in extra innings. And he became the seventh Pirates player to homer in his debut, joining the likes of Cole Tucker and Starling Marte.

“This kid’s a good player. We saw it,” Shelton said. “The one thing we have to realize is there’s going to be ups and downs, because he is a young player. He had a hell of a debut, but he’s going to be a good player and he does like playing underneath the lights. Being in the big leagues didn’t faze him at all.”

Hayes flashed his power potential when he hit Cubs left-hander Jon Lester’s 1-2 cutter 346 feet to left to score Stallings from second base to cut the Pirates’ deficit to 6-2. Hayes was happy to put his barrel on the ball, despite missing hitting a three-run homer by just a few feet.

“I feel like without that first hit, I would have been still anxious trying to go get that first hit,” Hayes said. “Getting that first hit out of the way takes some weight off your shoulders. You kind of settle in. Going into that at-bat, I felt a lot better than my first two at-bats as far as my approach, the way I felt in the box. I felt more comfortable in that at-bat.”

What Shelton noticed was how hard Hayes the ball, with an exit velocity of 108.5 mph.

Hayes sparked an offensive outburst for the Pirates, as Adam Frazier followed with a single to right to score Colin Moran, Jose Osuna doubled to score Hayes and Erik Gonzalez hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Frazier to cut a five-run deficit to 6-5.

The Cubs jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Happ hammered a Chad Kuhl 0-1 pitch 434 feet to right-center for his third leadoff home run of the season and fourth of his career. They added to it in the second, when Kuhl walked Jason Kipnis with the bases loaded to score Willson Contreras to make it 2-0. The Pirates cut it to 2-1 in the second, when Colin Moran hit a leadoff double, advanced to third on Hayes’ groundout to second and scored on Frazier’s groundout to second.

Another scoring chance came in the third inning, when the Pirates had runners on second and third with one out. But they came up empty when Josh Bell popped up to center and Stallings flied out to right. Kipnis had an RBI single to score Contreras in the fourth for a 3-1 lead, and the Cubs chased Kuhl and battered Tyler Bashlor in the three-run fifth. Kris Bryant hit a leadoff single off Kuhl, who was pulled after allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits and two walks, with three strikeouts. Javier Baez doubled off Bashlor to score Bryant to make it 4-1, and Kyle Schwarber hit a two-run homer to give the Cubs a 6-1 edge.

Then Hayes changed the complexion of the game with a pair of unforgettable swings. His double got the Pirates back into the game. His homer came after a 71-minute rain delay that had him hitting a foam roller in the weight room to stay loose, knowing he would lead off the eighth inning. By then, Shelton had been ejected for arguing a called third strike on Moran to end the seventh with home plate umpire John Tumpane.

When reliever Dan Winkler tossed a 2-0 cutter, Hayes drilled it 410 feet to dead center for his first homer, tying the game at 6-6. For a moment, Hayes wondered whether he hit it good enough. Then, he says, he “kind of blacked out.”

“So, it is special for me,” Hayes said. “Hitting a home run, you see a lot of guys they do it in their debut. Since Day 1, whenever I came to Pittsburgh, whenever I got signed, I’ve always dreamed about hitting a home run there.”

Hayes was involved in a pair of big defensive plays in the ninth. He barehanded a grounder to third and nearly threw out Bryant at first. Bryant advanced to second when Gonzalez tried to turn a double play and his throw hit Bryant, and took third on a wild pitch by Richard Rodriguez. With two outs, Javier Baez hit a grounder to third that Hayes fielded and threw to Stallings for the tag on Bryant at the plate instead of making the play at first for the final out.

After Kevin Newman doubled to the North Side Notch to start the ninth, and the Cubs intentionally walked Josh Bell, Hayes came to bat with two outs in the ninth and the chance to win the game. But Josh Osich struck Hayes out looking at a 93-mph fastball to send it to extra innings. The Cubs scored the go-ahead run in the 10th against Chris Stratton, when Javier Baez scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Jason Heyward.

It wasn’t so much that the Pirates lost but rather what they found in Hayes.

“I think we just make sure that we talk to him about the things that he’s doing and how he’s doing it and realize he’s another player on our team,” Shelton said. “He’s somebody that was highly touted to come up, but I think we have to make sure that we don’t put expectations on him. We don’t have to look at him like he’s the guy who’s going to take us to the promised land. There’s going to be a lot of people that are going to help us move forward, and he’s going to be one of them.”