Tim Benz: A day after earning jeers, Gregory Polanco gets some cheers

Of course, it went that way for Gregory Polanco and the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night.

Of course, it did. The beautiful irony of sports can even shine on the lowly Buccos from time to time.

After struggling outfielder Gregory Polanco had been put on waivers and brought back — much against the fans’ wishes.

After Polanco let a ball roll through his legs in the outfield for a costly error against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday.

About 24 hours after the fans jeered and booed him, Polanco played the role of hero as the Pirates exploded for a monumental eight-run inning in an explosive 11-7 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park.

Following the fans’ chants of “D-F-A, D-F-A” that admittedly shook Polanco, the outfielder responded with a 3-for-5 night in the batter’s box, to accompany two RBIs and a run scored.

“It was good to see,” manager Derek Shelton said. “He comes to play every night. Regardless of anything going on surrounding him, he comes to play — and plays hard — every night. He had a really nice game.”

Everybody loves a good redemption story. Even if it’s just for one night, in another lost season. A season that will officially become the 25th losing campaign in the past 28 years with the squad’s next defeat. A season for Polanco that further cemented the disappointment of his career in Pittsburgh.

Once the hottest of hot-shot prospects, Polanco is still only hitting .209 and has 103 strikeouts in 381 plate appearances even after last night’s big game. Not quite as bad as his .153 average and 65 strikeouts against 12 hits in 50 games during the shortened 2020 season.

But still really bad.

That said, Polanco was right Thursday afternoon when he told reporters in a pregame interview session, “You don’t ever hear nothing wrong about me outside the baseball field. … You ask around the city, how I am, how I treat people, and they’re going to say 100% I’m a nice person.”

Indeed. Polanco is a nice person. What he needs to understand is, though, the fans weren’t booing Gregory Polanco the human being. They were booing the player with the $11 million paycheck with the -1.5 WAR. They were booing the guy who leads the team in dollars earned, as well as strikeouts accrued and outfield errors committed.

I’m not saying that Polanco should view Wednesday’s tongue lashing from the few remaining ticket buyers who were in attendance as anything but a personal attack. That’s what it was. To suggest anything else would be sugar-coating things to a ridiculous extent.

They were mad at him. Personally.

But they were just as mad at what he symbolizes. Why did the “Dream Outfield” of which he was a part with Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte only stay together four years, instead of the decade or so we were led to believe it would?

Why did the 2013-15 teams only yield a flash of enthusiasm that never resulted in anything more than one wild card game win, instead of the dawn of an extended era of competitiveness that the other two pro sports teams in town have enjoyed?

Why does it have to be Polanco as the last link to those three playoff rosters, limping through the end of his time here as opposed to a fan favorite like Andrew McCutchen, or a hometown hero like Neil Walker, or an annual Cy Young contender like Gerrit Cole?

That’s what the verbal barbs were about in the big picture, as much as they were about a ball going through Polanco’s legs.

In that sense, Polanco doesn’t deserve to bear the weight of that burden. He does have to absorb the mockery from those in attendance and in the media and on Twitter for how he performs individually. However, the decades-long, winding road of failure this franchise has traveled didn’t start in Polanco’s driveway.

Nor will it stop there. For that reason, you can understand why he and his teammates took particular pleasure in seeing him rebound in the manner he did Thursday night.

“He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever played with,” infielder Colin Moran said. “Any time he does great, you feel great for him. … Watching him succeed is always great.”

After Polanco stroked a two-run, go-ahead double to left field in that eight-run seventh inning, his celebration on second base was hard to miss.

A THREE-hit night for Gregory! ????☕️ pic.twitter.com/pHPuLQyyaz

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 27, 2021

Polanco admitted after the victory that was partially exuberance for getting a base hit, but also a message to the fans that he still has a few hits left in his bat.

“It was a mix of both,” Polanco said. “Obviously, I want to go out there and show I can still hit and still play. … Getting a hit and bringing people in (during) a tie game is always good. I was just happy.”

For as much as Polanco’s play earned a dressing down from the fans, he deserved that retort.

And for as much as Polanco the player had to take the brunt of Wednesday’s miscue, Polanco the guy is allowed to be happy about his response the next night.