Pirates’ Aggressive Swings on 3-0 Have Pros, Cons

Yesterday, Adam Frazier did something he hardly ever does: he swung on a 3-0 pitch. It was Frazier’s 834th career plate appearance and the 41st time he had a three ball, no strike count, but it was just the second time he ever let it rip. That swing resulted in something he had only done once before, too: a walk-off home run.

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.Frazier doesn’t have the look of a guy who would normally swing on a 3-0 count, boasting only 13 home runs and a .414 slugging percentage over his three year major league career. But this isn’t out of the norm for the Pirates. In fact, manager Clint Hurdle says his players have the green light on the automatic take pitch “a lot.”

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