Ke'Bryan Hayes has 4 hits, Ben Gamel smacks 3-run homer as Pirates roll past Cubs

A day after the Pittsburgh Pirates celebrated the signing of Ke’Bryan Hayes to the richest contract in club history, the 25-year-old third baseman showed why he was worthy of the long-term investment.

Hayes went 4 for 4, scoring two runs, driving in another and saving at least one with his glove as the Pirates rolled to a 6-2 win over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday afternoon before 9,122 at PNC Park.

It was the second four-hit game of Hayes’ career, the other coming Sept. 26, 2020, at Cleveland. Hayes went 5 for 5 with three doubles in that 8-0 win, part of a stretch of eight consecutive hits in that series. Before Tuesday’s home opener, Hayes signed an eight-year, $70 million contract extension that keeps him locked up through at least 2029.

“He’s extremely dangerous,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We’ve talked a lot about how good of a defensive player this guy’s going to be, but we feel he’s going to be a good offensive player. … The ability to impact the game in multiple ways is something that’s really important to us, and Ke’ is just going to continue to get better as a hitter.”

This win, however, wasn’t a one-man show.

The Pirates got a solid start from Zach Thompson and an even better finish by converted starter Wil Crowe, who tossed three scoreless innings to earn his first career save. They played stellar defense and produced timely hitting, including a three-run homer by Ben Gamel and a two-run triple by Kevin Newman.

“I’d say it’s a full team win,” Gamel said. “Everyone did their job. You look all around the field, and everyone had a day and it was fun to be a part of.”

Thompson, a 6-foot-7 right-hander acquired from the Miami Marlins in the Jacob Stallings trade, allowed two runs on five hits and one walk with three strikeouts before leaving in the fifth inning with a right shoulder contusion that resulted from being struck by a comebacker.

“It was good, exactly what we thought,” Shelton said. “He commanded the ball, used the two-seamer. He put the ball on the ground, which goes back to how well we played defensively. I thought he stayed composed.”

Thompson yielded a solo homer in the first inning, when Willson Contreras crushed a 3-1 fastball into the Pirates’ bullpen to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead. The 453-foot shot had a 110.2 mph exit velocity.

After Bryan Reynolds hit into a double play, Hayes got an infield single and Yoshi Tsutsugo drew a walk to set up Gamel’s three-run shot off Kyle Hendricks over the Clemente Wall for a 3-1 lead.

“We made him work throughout that first inning,” Shelton said of Hendricks. “We didn’t go out of our zones. The one thing Kyle does a really good job of is he throws the ball out on the edges. The thing that stood out to me today is we didn’t chase balls to the edges to get ourselves back into counts.”

Reynolds made a running catch on Jonathan Villar’s 109.5 mph liner to left-center, robbing Villar of an extra-base hit in the top of the third. Cubs center fielder Jason Heyward returned the favor in the bottom of the inning, snaring a Reynolds 104.1 mph liner to right-center.

Hayes followed with a double to left, and Gamel drew a walk, setting up Newman for a two-run triple on a long fly ball off the right-field wall, just inside the foul pole at the 320-foot marker, for a 5-1 lead.

In the fourth, Contreras got the Cubs started with a ground-rule double that dropped beyond the reach of a sliding Hoy Park in right field. Seiya Suzuki, who homered twice Tuesday, lined a single to center to score Contreras and cut it to 5-2.

Hendricks (0-1) struggled with his control, throwing only 42 of his 78 pitches for strikes and walking four Pirates a day after they failed to draw one. In the fourth, he walked Park and gave up singles to Daniel Vogelbach and Hayes, the latter of which scored Park from third for a 6-2 lead.

The Cubs pulled Hendricks after he gave up six runs on seven hits in 3 2/3 innings, but Thompson left in the top of the fifth when a Nico Hoerner comebacker hit him in the back of his right shoulder.

Lefty Dillon Peters (1-0), who inherited runners on first and second with no outs, walked Frank Schwindel to load the bases but got Contreras to ground to third, where Hayes turned an inning-ending double play that Shelton called the turning point of the game. Crowe allowed one hit and one walk but fanned four of the final six batters he faced in three scoreless innings of relief.

Gamel believes the Pirates getting a well-rounded win came out of necessity.

“I think that’s what it’s going to take for us to win ballgames,” Gamel said. “We’ve got to do the little stuff, and we can’t get complacent. We’ve just got to go out there and compete.”