Jared Triolo, Pirates rookies shine in 2-strike situations in bounce-back win over Cubs

What impressed Derek Shelton even more than the six consecutive singles in the fourth inning was that five came with two strikes against Chicago Cubs All-Star left-hander Justin Steele.

The Pittsburgh Pirates manager watched Connor Joe connect on a 2-2 fastball for a swinging bunt, Jack Suwinski smack a 2-2 slider to center, Jared Triolo drive a 1-2 fastball to right, Henry Davis line a full-count fastball to right and Liover Peguero send a 1-2 slider up the middle.

“We had really good at-bats with two strikes,” Shelton said. “What I’m really the most proud of is that it was the rookies: Davis had a heck of an at-bat, Peggy had a good at-bat, Triolo had a good at-bat. It just kept going.”

The trio of rookies combined for one-third of the Pirates’ 15 hits in the 13-7 win over the Cubs on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, one of their best offensive performances of the season.

Triolo went 3 for 5 with a home run in the fifth, an RBI single in the ninth and two runs scored. It was his seventh multi-hit game and the first three-hit game of his 44-game career in the majors.

Shelton credited Pirates hitting coaches Andy Haines and Christian Marrero for their work getting the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Triolo “into his legs” to tap into his power potential for the 420-foot solo shot.

“When he’s in his legs, he has the ability to impact the ball because the barrel of the bat gets out front,” Shelton said. “What we saw earlier in the year is that he wasn’t in the strongest position. We’ve continued to work on it. Because of it, we’re seeing him impact the baseball.”

Jared Triolo hitting an absolute nuke for his second career home run

This is fun.

105.3 MPH exit velocity, 420 feet, HR in 25/30 ballparks pic.twitter.com/Sp6OvWH1Kt

— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) September 21, 2023

Triolo was batting .273 but had a paltry .314 slugging percentage when the Pirates optioned him to Triple-A Indianapolis in mid-August. He was recalled Sept. 9 when Andrew McCutchen was placed on the 10-day injured list with a slight tear in his left Achilles.

Triolo was batting .167 in the seven games since returning to the Pirates, despite two doubles against the New York Yankees on Sunday. He credited his conversations with Haines for tweaking some things.

“Start from the start, if that makes sense,” Triolo said. “Working with him, I’m getting consistent barrels on the ball. It’s good. Coming up to the big leagues, working with the hitting coach is always a little intimidating, for sure. Andy is pretty responsive. He likes taking what you have to say, which is great, talking to him about that sort of stuff.”

With the bases loaded, Henry Davis finishes an excellent AB with a 2 RBI single to give the Pirates a 3-1 lead!

93.2 MPH exit velocity, .640 xBA pic.twitter.com/ACwfSnZTEl

— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) September 21, 2023

Triolo is hardly alone among rookies in scuffling at times. Davis returned from a month on the IL only to strike out in his first six at-bats. But he went 1 for 4 with a two-run single in the fourth and drew a full-count walk in fifth. And Peguero, who has six multi-hit games this month, went 1 for 5 with two RBIs, including a run-scoring single in the fourth and a forceout in the ninth.

And it wasn’t just the rookie hitters who shined. Right-handed reliever Carmen Mlodzinski got the final two outs of the seventh inning, starting with a strikeout of Dansby Swanson. Right-hander Hunter Stratton, making his fifth major-league appearance, retired the heart of the order in the ninth and ended the game by striking out Swanson.

“To finish the game out in this environment, to go through (Nos.) 2-3-4 in their order, that’s really important,” Shelton said. “Just little steps we need to take in the last 11 games, we took a bunch of them today. We’ve just got to continue to go.”