Derek Dietrich torched the Pirates with a three-homer night, and the story was all about the mistakes they kept making. His first couple of at-bats showed Pittsburgh trying to beat him with 86 mph off-speed pitches. They got him to swing through one and roll over another early on. But the third time, they tried the same strategy, and he sat on it, launching a home run into right field. He read the pattern and punished them for sticking to it. In his next trip to the plate, they finally changed it up, going with fastballs at 97. He just missed one and then got another shot, this time turning on it for his second homer of the day.
That gave him one bomb off off-speed and one off heat. Next time up, the count gets to 2-1, and the pitcher gets warned not to fall behind. Ignore that advice, and Dietrich gets a heater right down the middle. He crushes it into right, shrugs like it’s nothing, and celebrates with some flair. The fans love it, and he plays it up, handing out a curtain call. By the end, he’s sitting on three home runs, letting the dugout and the crowd know he’s dialed in. The Pirates kept giving him chances, and he didn’t miss.