Henry Davis entered Memorial Day with a subpar slash line that served as a black eye for a player who was billed as a bat-first catcher when the Pittsburgh Pirates selected him No. 1 overall in 2021.
Davis lived up to another reputation — as a pull hitter — by drilling a solo home run to left field to lift the Pirates to a 2-1 win over the Chicago Cubs on Monday afternoon before 22,174 at PNC Park.
It was the ninth consecutive loss for the Cubs (29-25), who have slipped from the NL Central lead to third place. The Pirates (28-26) started the seven-game homestand by winning their second straight on a no-doubter by Davis, who connected at a 103.1 mph exit velocity to send Trent Thornton’s 1-1 cutter at the bottom of the strike zone 413 feet to the left-field bleachers.
“He’s got the power to go anywhere, honestly, just the way he’s able to drive a baseball,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “We’ve seen in BP, him being able to go to right field, too, and center field. But when his direction is good through the middle, he’s got the power to catch one out in front and drive it out.”
Even though he’s meeting some of his goals this season, Davis has found it difficult to get hits. He was batting just .139/.243/.257 through 37 games, which would be the worst among Pirates hitters, if qualified. Although he batted .148 in April, Davis had only one RBI. He boosted his slugging percentage from .185 in 20 games in April to .436 through 13 games in May and his OPS from .418 OPS in April to .680.
“Obviously, there’s certain things in your control and out of your control as a hitter,” Davis said. “For me, coming into the year, I wanted to hit the ball harder. I wanted to strike out less, take more walks. I felt like I didn’t necessarily do that the first month. It was a little bit better but this month, the quality of contact, taking walks, not striking out a lot and hitting the ball harder and barrel rate, etc. Just hasn’t turned into results, necessarily. I’ve hit some balls well that have been caught. I’m just keeping my head down and work as hard as I can every day.”
Carmen Mlodzinski allowed one run on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in five innings, a pitching line matched by Cubs starter Ben Brown over six innings. Wilber Dotel had four strikeouts in three scoreless innings of relief, and Gregory Soto earned his sixth save by retiring the side in the ninth.
Even as Kelly noted Davis’ lack of productivity is magnified by his draft status, Mlodzinski credited Davis for learning from veteran catchers like Austin Hedges and Yasmani Grandal to transfer his frustrations at the plate into positive play behind it.
“I think he realized there was a lot more he could do once he got to the big leagues,” Mlodzinski said. “He’s somebody that is going to cover as much as he possibly can as a player. And once he started getting regular reps behind the plate, he realized how important game-planning, game-calling is. The years I’ve been around him and seeing how much time he’s invested into that, by himself and with our captain corps, it’s been awesome.”
With two-out singles by Pedro Ramirez and Moises Ballesteros and Miguel Amaya drawing a walk, the Cubs loaded the bases in the second inning. But Mlodzinski got Dansby Swanson to chase a sweeper low and away for a strikeout to escape.
Oneil Cruz singled to start the second and advanced via Brown’s throwing error on a pickoff attempt. With one out, Konnor Griffin appeared to be hit on the brim of his batting helmet by Brown’s sinker that ran high and inside. Griffin dropped his bat and took first base, but home plate umpire Mark Ripperger ruled it was a ball, a call that was upheld after the Pirates challenged. Kelly was ejected after arguing the call with third base umpire and crew chief Dan Bellino.
“Seeing the replay, I felt like it definitely grazed his helmet,” Kelly said. “There is no way that Konnor Griffin is going to lie about that. The way that he reacted in the moment — he didn’t even look at the umpire; he turned around, took his stuff off and went down to first base. I will always have Konnor’s back and all the guys’ back.”
Griffin drew a full-count walk to put runners on first and second, only for Jhostynxon Garcia to ground into an inning-ending double play.
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the third inning, when Spencer Horwitz drew a four-pitch walk and Brandon Lowe drove him in by drilling a 401-foot double over the outstretched arm of center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and off the center-field wall.
Mlodzinski kept the Cubs scoreless through two outs into the fifth inning, when he left a 2-1 sinker over the middle that Michael Busch sent 409 feet to center field for a solo home run to tie the score. Alex Bregman followed with a single to right but was picked off by Mlodzinski attempting to steal second base.
Davis struck out in his first at-bat. In his second, he bunted in hopes of drawing in the infield to keep the Cubs honest but popped it back to the pitcher. That helped set the stage for his next plate appearance.
Brown was replaced by righty Thornton for the bottom of the seventh. After groundouts by Garcia and Griffin, Davis drilled a 1-1 cutter for his fourth home run to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead.
“Great to see him be rewarded in a huge moment, to hit that home run there,” Kelly said. “He’s worked extremely hard to get his swing to a much better place. Unfortunately, he hasn’t had the success in results but the approach, the process has been so good. It’s really great to see him have a moment like that in such a big situation.”
For Davis, four of his five hits this month have been home runs. It was his second homer in five days — he hit a solo shot in a 6-2 win at the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday — and his fourth of the month. Davis had a two-homer game in a 9-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on May 1.
“He’s been hitting the ball as good as anyone the last month. Anytime he hits it hard, someone catches it,” Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds said. “It’s not like he’s been bad. He’s just been unlucky. Right now, the only way he can get a hit is to hit a homer. But he’s trending up. He’s just got to get some balls to fall, which they will.”
Only making matters worse for Davis is that catcher Endy Rodriguez is batting .316 (6 for 19) since being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis when Joey Bart went on the injured list with an infection in his left foot. Davis has dealt with his struggles with the bat by trying to help the Pirates win any way that he can, especially behind the plate.
“Process-wise, it’s definitely been the best month I’ve had in the big leagues,” Davis said. “It’s super frustrating to not have the results that I thought would line up with those over the course of time. Just trying to stay diligent, work hard and be prepared.”
After Davis homered, Horwitz followed with a single but Lowe was robbed of an RBI when Cubs right fielder Michael Conforto made a diving catch of his line drive to end the seventh.
The Pirates had runners on first and second in the eighth, but Marcell Ozuna struck out and Crow-Armstrong made a leaping catch against the wall to rob Griffin for the final out.
With Davis calling the pitches, the Cubs only registered one hit over the final four innings, when Ballesteros singled with two outs in the sixth. Soto faced three Cubs right-handed pinch hitters, getting Nico Hoerner to ground out to first before winning an ABS challenge to strike out Seiya Suzuki on a called strike then getting Carson Kelly to ground out to second to end it.
“He did a great job,” Kelly said of Davis. “He always does a great job behind the plate and for him to have that big hit, that home run to win it, was tremendous.”