PITTSBURGH — A starter for his entire career, Josh Bell said before the game on Saturday night that he was still trying to adjust to coming off the bench in a pinch-hit role.
“I’ve been talking to [Adam] Frazier about it, some guys like Matt Joyce, just working off the bench, getting ready about the third or fourth inning, getting some swings in, trying to stay loose and just trying to understand that role,” Bell said earlier.
It seems like he’s made that adjustment just fine. He collected his first major-league hit as a pinch hitter Friday night that was a big part of the team’s big seventh inning. As an encore Saturday, Bell had something even more special up his sleeve.
With the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning, Bell drove Adam Warren’s 1-1 changeup over the right-field grandstand for a grand slam that helped propel the Pirates to a 12-6 victory and a series win over the Chicago Cubs.
The 23-year old knew it was gone off the bat and raced around the bases with a smile before taking a curtain call in front of 37,796 fans.
“Those two, three minutes felt like an hour and a half,” he said. “Just everything that a kid wishes for as a baseball player, just growing up playing in the backyard. Bases loaded, first big league home run. I can’t ask for much more.”
“What a fantastic sequence,” agreed manager Clint Hurdle. “I got goosebumps. I’ve got them probably a dozen times since I’ve been a coach or a manager. [David] Freese was standing next to me, and I told him, ‘I’ve got goosebumps.’ He said ‘Chills went down my spine.’ … It seemed like the stadium was pretty excited, too.”
Bell said he couldn’t remember what he did or said after the home run, but that he was feeling “pure joy and excitement.”
“There’s no other feeling that I can say that comes close to that experience for me,” he said. “I can’t ask for much more in that situation and I’m just happy to be able to pull through.”
Jordy Mercer was in the on-deck circle and probably had the best view in the park of Bell’s shot clearing the deck.
“It was incredible,” Mercer described. “I was so hyped, so excited. I couldn’t quit smiling. … It’s so cool because it brings back memories of when you first got called up and the excitement they’re going through. You can’t help but be excited for them.”
Mercer followed up Bell’s grand slam with a solo home run of his own, but he didn’t seem to mind it being overshadowed.
“I was still thinking about him as I was rounding the bases,” Mercer said.
Even the opposition seemed impressed by Bell’s performance.
“The kid looks like he’s good – he’s had two at bats and with those pitches, he’s not missing,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “He’s probably going to be as good as they’re talking about.”
The plan has been for Bell to spend just three games as an extra bat in Pittsburgh before the All-Star break. With his recent performance, has that been thrown out the window? Not so fast, said Hurdle.
“We’ll take it one day at a time,” he said. “He’ll be here tomorrow.”
Bell, of course, wasn’t the only offensive weapon, as the Pirates blasted Cubs starter Jon Lester and reliever Adam Warren for 12 runs in the first five innings.
Sean Rodriguez and Andrew McCutchen each also hit solo home runs and three runs scored in the second. With the bases loaded, Lester hit Josh Harrison with a pitch, Eric Fryer hit a sac fly and Rodriguez scored on a throwing error.
MASH UNIT
Harrison had to leave the game because of discomfort in his left foot. Hurdle said preliminary tests were negative for a serious injury. Outfielder Matt Joyce also left the game with left quad tightness. He is still being evaluated. Gregory Polanco (hamstring) did not play and Hurdle was unsure if he would have been available to pinch hit.
UNCOOL START
Starter Chad Kuhl went just 2.1 innings and allowed four runs on seven hits while throwing 55 pitches. Even the outs he allowed were hard-hit as the sinkerballer had trouble keeping his primary offering down in the zone.
“That’s a lot of pitches in 2 1/3 innings and it was a lot more fly balls and balls in the air than ground balls,” Hurdle said. “It just wasn’t working tonight. With what we had on offense, I felt we just needed to keep trying find a way to stop them, slow them down.”
IN NEED OF RELIEF
After Kuhl’s less-than-stellar start, Juan Nicasio came in and gave up three hits and two walks in an inning of work, and allowed another run to score. Arquimedes Caminero came in with two on and one out in the fourth and shut the door, getting Jason Hayward to pop up and Addison Russell to ground out. Caminero then went back out for a prefect, three-strikeout fifth inning.
“Caminero was fantastic out of the pen,” Hurdle said. “Caminero has pitched really well the last three touches until the home run the other day. He’s really shown up. His game has gotten back together. … I love the way he showed up today.”
A.J. Schugel gave up a run in the sixth, but Jared Hughes shut the door the rest of the way, picking a save the hard way by pitching three scoreless frames.
“Hughes finished so strong — some of the best stuff he’s had all season,” Hurdle said. “We haven’t seen that type of sinker with that consistency in a while. He’s worked hard, he’s stayed after it, he never backed away and that’s when you’re really happy for your guys when they have some success.”
Hughes had a career-high three strikeouts, and was efficient, completing his three innings with just 43 pitches.
“I was just pounding the strike zone,” Hughes said. “We’ve got a great defense. … When you have guys like that behind you, it’s easy to pound the zone.”
HELPING HAND
With the break coming up, Pirates starter Jeff Locke volunteered to go out to the bullpen if necessary, as he won’t be making another first-half start. Of course, it was one thing to volunteer, but when Kuhl couldn’t get out of the third inning …
“That’s when things got real,” Locke said.
He never got up to throw, and will still be available Sunday. If he does come in, he would probably only be able to throw 30 or 40 pitches, which is a usual side session for him. He appeared out of the bullpen twice in 2012, so it’s not a new situation.
“Anything I can do to help the team, I’m down for,” Locke said.
UP NEXT
With the Pirates’ win, they are now 1.5 games behind the New York Mets for the final NL Wild Card spot and are just 6.5 games behind the Cubs in the Central Division. Jon Niese will finish the first half for the Pirates. He’ll face John Lackey for Chicago.
