PITTSBURGH— The year he made his major league debut, Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Jose Bautista discovered how crazy the game can be.

"I was a New York Met for about four minutes,"he said, laughing.

Bautista was drafted in the 20th round by the Pirates in 2000 as a 19-year-old from the Dominican Republic.

The Baltimore Orioles selected him in the Rule 5 draft in 2004 and his quick tour of the big leagues began.

"They had to play me, but I wasn't there very long,"Bautista said of the Orioles.

Baltimore designated him for assignment on May 24 of that season after only 16 at-bats and he was claimed on waivers by Tampa Bay. He had 12 at-bats with the Devil Rays before being designated for assignment on June 25.

This time, he was claimed by Kansas City. After 25 at-bats with the Royals, they dealt Bautista to the Mets on July 30. Minutes later, he was sent to the Pirates as part of a multiplayer trade for pitcher Kris Benson and infielder Jeff Keppinger.

"I mean, that was crazy, mind-boggling,"Bautista said. "I never got my feet wet anywhere.

"But I was happy with where I wound up — the team that originally drafted me. I knew they would invest some time in me."

And the Pirates did, giving Bautista the entire 2005 season at third base in the minor leagues before calling him up in September — and playing him in center field.

"Hey, I didn't mind,"he said. You do whatever you have to do to wear a big league uniform. But I always knew I'd wind up back at third base. That's what they were grooming me for."

Indeed, Bautista became the Pirates' regular third baseman early in the 2005 season, showing promise by hitting 16 home runs in 400 at-bats.

He added 15 homers in 532 at-bats last year before beginning this season miserably, hitting .195 with no home runs in the month of April.

By May, the 27-year-old Bautista was on the bench, watching 34-year-old journeyman Doug Mientkiewicz play third base in front of him.

"I would have loved to have kept playing and rediscover my stroke that way,"Bautista said. "But the team has an obligation to the fans and other players to put a lineup on the field that produces and I wasn't doing that.

"I understood the decision to sit me. I didn't like it, but I couldn't find fault with it."

So Bautista worked with hitting coach Don Long, trying to find his stroke in the indoor batting cages at PNCPark instead of on the field.

"I was getting pitches to hit, I just wasn't squaring up the baseball,"he said. "I'd swing too late or too early, hit the top of the ball or get under it too much.

"Sometimes you just kick in. It's hard to explain."

But Bautista has kicked in.

Since May 25, his .359 batting average ranks first in the major leagues among third basemen. His home run Tuesday night against the Yankees was his fifth in nine games.

Bautista hit his first seven home runs this season on the road — the first Pirate since Al Oliver (1971) to do that — before connecting Saturday night against Toronto.

Right now, he's working on improving his defense, as his seven errors are tied for most on the team. Bautista does turn in outstanding plays at third as well.

"It's a tough position and errors will happen," he said. "As far as hitting goes, I don't set goals in terms of numbers. How hard and solidly I'm hitting the ball is what matters to me.

"Square the ball up, the hits will come."

They've been coming in droves of late for this former prospect who found his way back to the Pirates.

"This is the team I want to play for and win for,"Bautista said. "We're getting close."