Bottom of batting order productive for Pirates through season's 1st week

Just over a week into the 2024 campaign, the Pittsburgh Pirates have benefitted from the presence of arguably the most dynamic No. 9 hitter in baseball.

It’s been a small sample size, to be sure, but Michael A. Taylor has begun the season on a torrid note, batting .480 with a seven-game hitting streak entering Friday’s home opener vs. Baltimore.

Taylor, even after an 0-for-3 performance Friday, still leads the Pirates in hits with 12.

The presence of Taylor, in his first year with the Pirates after spending 2023 with Minnesota, has added balance to manager Derek Shelton’s daily lineups.

He’s been the most prominent example of the club’s bottom-of-the-order hitters who have done a commendable job to date in setting up their teammates, such as Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes, at the top of the lineup.

Counting Friday’s at-bats, the Pirates’ No. 8 hitters are batting .290 (9 for 31) on the year, with the nine-hole men batting .300 (9 for 30).

“We have a guy that hit 21 homers last year on a team that played in the playoffs and he’s hitting ninth for us,” Shelton said of Taylor. “We are much deeper. We have the ability to do different things and score runs in different ways, and we’ve won a couple games because the bottom half of our order has started or finished rallies, which is really important.”

Taylor has batted ninth in five of the Pirates’ eight games so far, with Shelton inserting him in the No. 8 spot twice.

While Taylor saw his early-season hitting streak end Friday, he’s batting .429 with a .438 on-base percentage and .974 OPS.

“I think hitting ninth is a good strategy to put him there, to get guys on base for the top of the order,” said infielder/outfielder Connor Joe, who’s hitting .346 to start the year. “He’s a pro. He’s been doing this a while. His at-bats are professional. His outs are productive. You always know what you’re going to get out of him. When he’s on base, a lot of special things happen.”

Taylor may not have been able to do much at the plate Friday in the Pirates’ 5-2 loss, but Jared Triolo, batting eighth, picked up some slack, blasting his first home run of the season in the seventh inning, a solo shot off starter Grayson Rodriguez.

Jared Triolo's first of the season! ???? pic.twitter.com/XyJYn9CxpT

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 5, 2024

Triolo got aboard via a walk earlier in the game but in the fourth inning, lined out to center field.

However, during that plate appearance, Triolo picked up on how Rodriguez was attacking him.

When he came to bat in the seventh, he swung on the first pitch he saw for a homer.

“The at-bat before, he froze me on an inside fastball, so I was kinda going up there gearing up for it,” he said. “(Rodriguez) put it in the same spot.”

Triolo, who ended last season on a hot streak at the plate, batting .296 in August and .368 in September, picked up where he left off in spring training, producing a .310 average in 16 Grapefruit League contests.

“It goes back to September of last year, or even August of last year,” Shelton said. “ … (Triolo) has just continued to develop into a good major league hitter. He’s a big guy with a big frame, so I think that power or ability to impact the ball is going to be something that just continues to come.”

The bottom of the order’s success has had a ripple effect so far this season in the Pirates’ ability to get men on base and score more runs.

Players like Taylor and Triolo have done the heavy lifting to date, but even Alika Williams, who’s made just two starts and taken eight at-bats, has made an impact.

Batting eighth and ninth, Williams already has a triple, two RBIs and a .375 batting average.

Whether the bottom of the lineup’s combined production is sustainable in the long run remains to be seen.

And in fairness, contributions such as Triolo’s Friday mattered little when the majority of the lineup was unable to find much rhythm offensively.

But the offerings thus far of Taylor, Triolo, Williams and others have been a big part in the Pirates’ hot offensive start to the year as a team.

“(We’re) more complete, I feel like, top to bottom,” Joe said. ” … There’s really no holes.”