d'Arnaud making immediate impact
PITTSBURGH — A baseball sat next to a tube of deodorant on the top shelf of a locker that was missing a nameplate.
A lineup card lay on the bottom shelf, sandwiched between a pair of gray sweatpants and a pair of flip-flop sandals.
Chase d’Arnaud barely had time to unpack his things and arrange them in his nameless locker, which was wedged between the stalls of Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ clubhouse.
But the rookie third baseman had time enough to make his major league debut against the Boston Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd at PNC Park Friday night.
d’Arnaud may become the most popular Pittsburgh athlete with an apostrophe in his name since former Steelers running back Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala.
His smile was wide. His words were humble and his first major league hit came in the form of a triple off Red Sox starter Jon Lester in the fifth inning of a 3-1 win over Boston in the opener of the series.
“It was definitely a night to remember,” d’Arnaud said. “It’s very special. I’m just thinking so many different things right now.”
Before his call-up, d’Arnaud was thinking his manager at Triple-A Indianapolis was benching him.
Indians’ manager Dean Treanor met with d’Arnaud late Thursday and told him he was too slow in running to first base that night.
“He was telling me all kinds of stuff, all kinds of reasons why I couldn’t play the next day,” said d’Arnaud, who was worried he had worked his way into his manager’s doghouse.
“He said, ‘I’m gonna have to bench you tomorrow … because you’re gonna be on your way to Pittsburgh.’”
d’Arnaud, who was batting .280 with 17 stolen bases at Indy while playing mostly shortstop before his promotion, hit second in the Pirates’ lineup all three games of the Red Sox series.
He flew out to center in his first major league at-bat, but in his third plate appearance became the first Pirate since Chance Sanford in 1998 to triple for his first major league hit.
“I didn’t know that,” d’Arnaud said, laughing. “Cool. Awesome.”
Now that d’Arnaud is in the majors, he’s leaving nothing to chance.
After Friday’s game and before he held court in front of the media, d’Arnaud worked out in the clubhouse weight room.
“I have no expectations,” d’Arnaud said. “I know there are certain things out of my control. I can only control, well, what I can control and I’m going to get after it every day, play my heart out and hopefully stay here.”
d’Arnaud had a single and run scored in Saturday’s 6-4 win against the Red Sox and followed that up with a single in Sunday’s 4-2 loss.
In his debut, d’Arnaud certainly impressed Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle.
“He did a nice job. Very exciting day for him,” Hurdle said. “We win a ballgame in a packed house. Triple in his first game. His dad was here. This was probably a lifelong dream of his since he was 6.”
d’Arnaud already knows what he is going to do with the baseball that sat behind him on the top shelf of his locker Friday.
“I’ll be giving that to Pops,” he said.
