Hayes rides his groove for Altoona

Following a slow start to the season, Ke'Bryan Hayes has seen his slash line improve steadily over the past few weeks. He bumped it up even more with a big night Friday. 
The fourth-ranked Pirates prospect matched his career high with four hits, including three doubles, as Double-A Altoona topped Hartford, 4-3, at Dunkin' Donuts Park. It was Hayes' fifth multi-hit game this week.

In his first taste of the Eastern League, the 2015 first-round pick hit .234/.256/.299 in 21 games in April. But thanks to eight multi-hit games in May, Hayes sports a .276 average with a .755 OPS. After walking three times in all of April, the 21-year-old totaled 14 free passes in 28 contests in May.
Hayes said keeping his approach more in tune with what he can handle at the plate while becoming more patient has made for better results over the last month or so. 
"I'd say the biggest adjustment for me on the offensive side is you can't really swing at everything," he said. "You have to kind of look for certain locations because they can move the ball to both sides of the plate pretty well, especially in the beginning of the year. I noticed that, so it's been trying to pick a zone whenever you're up there, look for that pitch and don't miss it."
Gameday box score
There haven't been major chances at the plate, though Hayes admits he's been paying extra attention an aspect of his swing mechanics that is helping him over the recent stretch. 
"A big thing for me developing at the plate right now is just being able to stay back on my backside and be able to hit," he said. "It's being able to be on time for the heater and being able to adjust to off-speed and still be able to put a good swing on it. For me, it's whenever I'm in the leverage counts -- whenever I'm ahead -- I'm just setting my sights more to the on-gap side, trying to get the barrel out a little bit."
Hayes watched some video before Friday's game and picked up on some patterns from the Yard Goats staff, deciding he was going to be aggressive early in counts when facing Rockies No. 13 prospectJesus Tinoco. In the first inning, Hayes followed through with the plan and whacked a 1-1 pitch into left field for his first double of the night. In the third, the Texas native was retired for the only time when he popped to short to end the frame.
Hayes laced a single to left field leading off the sixth and scored the game's first run on Bralin Jackson's base hit four batters later.
On a 2-2 count an inning later against reliever Logan Cozart, he ripped his second double into left. Using the opposite field in the ninth, Hayes swatted another double to right to lock in his first professional game with three extra-base hits.
"In all of my at-bats I had pulled the ball up until my last at-bat," said Hayes, the son of former Major Leaguer Charlie Hayes. "Then I got to a 1-1 count and I noticed [Scott Griggs'] out pitch was a slider. I just wanted to think off-gap -- middle, off-gap -- just in case he threw that I'd be able to hit it and still get the fastball, too."
Hayes has a .280/.349/.379 slash line in 281 games over four Minor League seasons. Now a little more settled in Altoona, the third baseman said he hopes he can refine small parts of his game before taking the next step. 

"It's just trying to continuing to develop with all of my assets of the game," Hayes said. "On offense, kind of work on the cat-and-mouse -- fastball and off-speed recognition. Defensively, just continuing to get better and on the baserunning side, trying to get better with that. And also try and win a championship with our team."
Pirates No. 10 prospect Taylor Hearn yielded three runs on four hits and three walks while fanning six over 5 2/3 frames. Tate Scioneaux (1-1) picked up the win in relief, allowing one hit and fanning two in 1 1/3 innings.
Tinoco (4-4) struck out eight but allowed three runs on six hits and a pair over walks over 6 1/3 innings.