Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton spoke about Bae Ji-hwan’s performance.
“He’s toned it down in every way,” Shelton said of Bae’s recent performance in an interview following the Pirates’ 2-1 home win over the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Friday.
In his sixth start in center field, Bae went 2-for-2 with two RBIs, including a two-run single with the bases loaded in the first inning. He is batting .304 over his last seven games and .354 over his last 15 games.
He’s had his ups and downs with stolen bases and walks, but he’s also shown a lot of steadiness at the plate. He also stole two bases today, taking advantage of a loophole in the opposing defense.
“Our expectations of him are, ‘Hey, make plays, use your speed, don’t get too greedy,'” Shelton said. Sometimes he gets wild, but as he gets big league experience, he’ll slow himself down and tone it down,” Shelton said, adding that Bae is going through an adjustment process.
“The big league game will tell you what kind of adjustment you need to make. There are some things you can do in the minor leagues that you can’t do in the big leagues. The two leagues are very different. You can see the nibs he’s adjusting to now. He’s talking to the hitting coaches and figuring out what he needs to do.”
The Pittsburgh offense was unable to score after Bae’s RBI double in the first inning. Still, Shelton praised the effort of his bats, saying,스포츠토토 “This is the best we’ve hit all series.”
When asked what the sweep over district rival St. Louis meant, Shelton said, “I think it sent a message internally to our team, more than externally, that if we keep playing well, we’ll have a chance to win on our own.”
The bullpen has been particularly strong in this series. Closer David Bednar pitched three consecutive innings today after the starters of the first two games were pulled early.
“Bednar came in today and said he was good to go,” Shelton said. The pitching coach saw him play catch and decided he was good to go. It was a day game instead of a night game last night, so it was good to get some rest,” Shelton said of using Bednar for the third straight day.
“He stuck to the game plan throughout the series. He did a tremendous job,” he said, praising the efforts of the entire bullpen.