Henry Davis powers Pirates to lopsided victory

The steal was a nice piece of work. Jake Mangum was looking to bunt him to third after his double leading off the eighth, and since that drew third baseman JP Crawford way off the bag, Davis just took the base without the bunt. Davis’s homer off Bryce Miller was his sixth of the year. He’s still batting just .148/.247/.319, and while the Pirates did show a certain level of commitment to him when they traded Joey Bart to the Braves last week, they clearly prefer Endy Rodríguez as their primary catcher right now.

This frees up the Pirates to carry on with Endy Rodríguez and Henry Davis behind the plate. Bart has missed the last five weeks with a foot infection, but he’s about ready to return now after going 4-for-16 with a homer in five rehab games, and that the Braves DFA’d Sandy Léon to make room for him suggests he will come off the IL and join the team right away. Bart seemed to have a breakthrough 2024, hitting .265/.337/.462 with 13 homers in 282 plate appearances, but he hasn’t kept it up in coming in at .251/.345/.346 with six homers in 394 plate appearances the last two seasons. The Braves will have him back up Drake Baldwin for now, but like they did with Jonah Heim, they could move on from Bart once Sean Murphy is healthy.

Davis returns to Pittsburgh’s catching mix after a three-game stint away from the club on paternity leave. The 26-year-old former first-overall pick has hit an underwhelming .138/.241/.285 with five homers, 17 RBI and one steal across 142 plate appearances over 45 games this season.

Davis will be away from the club for a couple days on paternity leave with Endy Rodríguez handling the bulk of the catching responsibilities.

Incredibly, the slam is just Davis’s second ever extra-base hit with RISP; he was a lifetime .105/.185/.121 hitter with 220 plate appearances in those situations. Tonight, though, he managed to sock a 91.0-mph fastball (Arrighetti’s slowest of the game) 389 feet to left for a no-doubter over the Crawford Boxes. Davis struck out in his other three at-bats tonight before being removed for a pinch-hitter in the ninth. He’s at .143/.239/.294 for the season.

Davis’s fourth homer was a 413-footer to left in his third at-bat of the day. He previously struck out on three pitches and popped up a bunt attempt with no one on base for an out. Davis is hitting just .144/.246/.288 through 119 plate appearances. He has 15 hits in 104 at-bats, which as it happens, is also where he finished at in 2024.

As a team, the Pirates were only able to muster four hits in the contest, so the fault wasn’t all on Davis in this one. He is having an abysmal season at the plate though, slashing a cringe-inducing .141/.248/.239 with two homers and eight RBI in 106 plate appearances.

It will be Rodriguez’s first taste of big league action this year as Henry Davis takes a seat in the day-game-after-a-night-game scenario against RHP Chase Dollander. Rodriguez was hitting .221/.326/.301 for Triple-A Indianapolis in 136 plate appearances. The prospect luster appears to have worn off here after several injuries.

No word yet on how much time Bart will miss. The 29-year-old backstop heads to the injured list ahead of Tuesday’s series opener against the Rockies. It’ll be Henry Davis and Endy Rodríguez handling the catching duties in his absence.

The Pirates jumped all over Reds starter Brady Singer and Davis was right in the middle of the action. He walked to lead-off the third inning which helped start a two-run rally and then blasted a 415 foot home run that nearly chased Singer from the game. He added his second homer in the fifth to push the lead out to 8-0 and the rout was on. It has not been a great start to the season at the plate for Davis, but he’s proven to be a strong option defensively and still has that great raw power.