Pirates’ Ke’Bryan Hayes seen eating sunflower seeds as Mets player heads for home

Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes found himself in a bit of hot water Friday night in the team’s 4-3 loss against the New York Mets.

Hayes was seen standing near third base eating sunflower seeds in the third inning of the game. Eduardo Escobar headed for home on Tomas Nido’s single. On the SNY broadcast, an eagle-eyed Todd Zeile caught Hayes in the act.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton was asked about Hayes on Saturday after the Mets beat Pittsburgh 5-1.

“We talked to him about it, dealt with it, and now we move on,” Shelton said, via MLB.com.

He added: “The one thing I will share about our conversation is that in that play, he should be closer to third base, and we talked about that. If you watched Ke’Bryan 99% of the time, he’s in the right place defensively. This, again, was an outlier play. We talked about where he should have been. He took ownership of it.”

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The 25-year-old is having an OK season with the Pirates. He’s hitting .244 with a .664 OPS and 22 doubles. He’s played in a career-high 123 games.

“I just went to my pocket and got seeds,” Hayes told reporters bluntly. “Nothing really to it other than that.”

The Pirates are 55-91 on the season with their latest losses to the Mets. The team is in last place in the National League Central. The team hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2015.