PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates may be out of contention this season, but there are players that are looking to finish the season strong and leave a great impression heading into next years spring training. Rookie infielder Josh Harrison sure left a great one in the Pirates 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Harrison finished the night just a homer short of the cycle, going 4-for-5 at the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only for myself, but just in general,\u201d Harrison said on making an impression. \u201cYou can look at the whole season and most people are only going to remember what you did in September, your last impression. To win a game like tonight, we definitely had fun out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harrison, who made his first start since September 17th<\/sup>, hit a single in the 1st<\/sup> inning, a leadoff triple to deep center field to start the 3rd<\/sup> inning, and doubled to center field with two outs\u00a0in the 4th<\/sup> inning to come within a homer of the cycle. There has never been a cycle hit in the 11-year-history of PNC Park.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew after my third at bat,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cA couple guys in the dugout wouldn\u2019t let me not know that.\u201d<\/p>\n In his fourth at-bat in the 6th<\/sup>, Harrison singled, not homered.<\/p>\n \u201cI probably got a little big,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cIt was a pretty good pitch to hit. It just got in on me a little bit. I don\u2019t feel like I really got away from my approach, it was something to drive. I just missed it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got one career so I mean, we all thought it was a lay down,” Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle said. “It\u2019s a big night for him. He shows up ready all the time. I\u2019ve spoken to him a couple different times, trying to get some different looks. He\u2019s a guy that I know is coming back with us to spring training. He keeps working, keeps showing up, works hard, he stays prepared. Tonight that barrel is showing up so much more dramatically since he\u2019s come back the second time\u2026The extra-base hits are coming. He\u2019s banging the ball. He plays with a lot of energy and he\u2019s played much more consistent third base this time back as well.<\/p>\n Harrison, who isn\u2019t the biggest guy on the team, standing at just 5\u20198\u201d, is trying to prove that he belongs in the Major Leagues.<\/p>\n \u201cI know whenever I\u2019ve been told, I\u2019m not a little guy, but whenever I\u2019ve been told I cant do something, it motivates me. I wouldn\u2019t get in an argument about it. \u2018Okay. I\u2019ll remember that. I\u2019ll go find a way to get it done.\u2019 The beauty of our game and the beauty of the sport, we measure things as men in so many different ways. With a radar gun, a clock, you look at power, you put a number on that, but you can never measure what a man has inside him. The desire in his heart and the courage he\u2019s got to just go knock down barriers to just get things done. Those are a couple of the intangibles that Josh Harrison definitely has.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates may be out of contention this season, but there are players that are looking to finish the season strong and leave a great impression heading into next years spring training. Rookie infielder Josh Harrison sure left a great one in the Pirates 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[616,1068,425,619,606],"class_list":["post-7871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional","tag-clint-hurdle","tag-josh-harrison","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-reds"],"yoast_head":"\n