Kevin Gorman: Why do Pirates keep pitching to Derek Dietrich?

Derek Dietrich has made a habit of admiring his home runs – a little too long for my liking – and celebrating them with choreographed moves while rounding the bases.

Chris Archer took exception to Dietrich’s homer display and threw a pitch behind the Cincinnati Reds infielder last month that caused both benches to clear at PNC Park. When Alex McRae served up a bomb to Dietrich in the sixth inning of the second game of a doubleheader Monday in Cincinnati, Dietrich showed up the Pittsburgh Pirates by waiting several seconds to watch the shot before starting his home run trot.

That prompted this tweet:

This is why pitchers throw at batters, and it's totally justified. Reds have a tendency to forget that they are a last-place team. https://t.co/D4J0Q1cv5J

— Kevin Gorman (@KGorman_Trib) May 28, 2019

Baseball fans, especially Cincinnati Reds fans, took exception to the suggestion that Dietrich deserved a payback pitch. They were just as upset at the swipe at their last-place standing in the NL Central. Now I didn’t call for the Pirates to throw at Dietrich, only that they would be justified for choosing to do so.

When the Pirates-Reds game started on Tuesday, you had to wonder whether Jordan Lyles would throw at Dietrich, especially because the Pirates’ pitching depth is so precarious that they can’t afford an ejection. By the time it was over, I was asking a much different question: Why are the Pirates pitching to Dietrich?

Dietrich hit three two-run home runs in the Reds’ 11-6 victory over the Pirates, one off Lyles in the fourth and two off reliever Geoff Hartlieb, in the fifth and seventh. The third dinger earned a curtain call, and Dietrich didn’t disappoint. Holding his batting helmet, he emerged from the dugout and raised both arms before bowing to the crowd of 13,824 at Great American Ball Park.

Derek Dietrich's last 6 hits:

HR
HR
HR
HR
HR
HR pic.twitter.com/8hUNQxepta

— MLB (@MLB) May 29, 2019

“He’s hitting our mistakes extremely well,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We pre-game plan and these balls are not where we want ‘em and he’s clobbering ‘em. So you tip your hat to him from that standpoint. He’s hitting balls, he hit soft … He hit a four-seamer, a changeup and a two-seamer – and he’s hit four more before we even started the series.”

Seven of Dietrich’s career-best 17 homers this season are against the Pirates. If that sounds unbelievable, consider that Dietrich has homered in 12 of his last 17 at-bats. He’s hitting homers at such an extraordinary pace, especially against the Pirates, that you have to wonder why they didn’t walk him. Maybe it’s because he’s batting .254 and has more than twice as many strikeouts (28) as walks (13) this season.