Henry Davis slugs ninth home run in win Sunday

Rodríguez hasn’t required a trip to the injured list yet, but he’s sitting out for the third straight contest due to left hip discomfort. It’ll be Henry Davis continuing to handle the catching duties in his absence. The 26-year-old former top prospect has been rolling at the dish, hitting .284 (27-for-95) with six homers, 15 RBI and four steals over his last 30 games.

Henry Davis will catch in his place against the Mets. Rodríguez was also absent Friday, but that just seemed to be a day off. If Rodríguez lands on the IL, the Pirates will probably call up a non-catcher (most likely Tyler Callihan or Billy Cook) and let Davis and Rafael Flores Jr. split time.

Henry Davis isn’t catching Paul Skenes for the first time since last April. We’ll see if the change has an impact on Skenes from a performance standpoint, but the Pirates are going to keep rolling with Rodríguez behind the dish since he’s hitting .268/.380/.457 with six homers and six steals in 151 plate appearances since mid-May.

Davis was thrown out at home in the third inning while trying to score on a sacrifice fly, but he made up for it in the fifth inning when he singled to drive home Marcell Ozuna to give the Pirates their first run of the night. Davis was one of three hitters to tally two hits in this one and he has now hit safely in four of his last six games.

Davis helped to break the game open with a 364-foot (95.6-mph EV) two-run shot off of Robert Gasser in the second inning that went just over the outstretched glove of Jackson Chourio to increase the Pirates’ lead to 4-0. He also delivered an RBI single during the Bucs’ 10-run uprising in the fourth inning and scored as Bryan Reynolds was plunked with the bases loaded. With his two-hit attack, the 26-year-old backstop is now slashing .166/.267/.344 with eight homers and 27 RBI on the season.

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.