Kovacevic: Cervelli ensures Cutch has his moment

There wasn't going to be a pitch. Not until the city had its say.

Andrew McCutchen had just taken the first stride of his career from the visitors' on-deck circle at PNC Park. The crowd of 34,270 had just begun climbing to its feet. The roar had just begun to build. All nine men on the field for the home team stood almost completely still.

All but Francisco Cervelli.

He walked forward, toward the mound, stopped halfway through the grass, turned back toward the plate, placed his right hand inside his catcher's mitt and looked down. And he did so, as he'd tell me hours later, with one word on his mind.

"Respect."

Nothing else?

"Just respect. That man's a legend. He is baseball in Pittsburgh. Respect for my brother. Respect for my friend."

The Pirates couldn't join the crowd in applauding, of course. They were playing the Giants. This was the first inning of a real game with a real shot at first place. But they sure could show respect, and no one could have better led a show of this scope, unprecedented in the 132-year history of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club, than their heart-and-soul catcher.

Here's the whole minute-and-a-half, from my perch in the press box:

Yeah. Wow.

“It was cool," Jameson Taillon would say of his view from the mound. "I’ve seen some cool things just in my short time in the big leagues. Today topped all of it. Today might have been cooler than my debut, honestly. That reception and just seeing him up there was really cool. I’ve never really been a part of something like that, so I didn’t really know when it was time to step on the mound. I’m glad Cervelli knew what to do because he’s done them before like that, I guess.”

He'd done them before, yes. Like that, no.

But from the day Cutch was traded, the 15th of January, I can attest firsthand from my communication with Cervelli that day, his emotions would be sky-high upon Cutch's return to Pittsburgh. Even as his competitive level wouldn't allow him to let those show in any unprofessional way.

So this was the response. The respect. He stood, far enough outside the batter's box that the stage was singular, with his back to his pitcher to ensure symbolically that the game was on hold.

Once during those 90 seconds, as I'd confirm with Cutch, he "signaled" to Cervelli to tell him "I was ready to go" and that he could get back behind the plate.

"No. No way," Cervelli recalled his reply. "You get this one time in your life. Enjoy it."

Cutch laughed about it when I brought it up:

Oh, and that part about Cutch experiencing this one time in his life?

Not true.

"I'm going to do it again tomorrow," Cervelli told me.

First pitch is 7:05 p.m., so be in your seat ... then prepare to get right back out of it. The catcher won't budge until you're done.

• Give it up, too, for Chris Segal, the home plate umpire. In this Rob Manfred era of hurry-hurry-hurry baseball, he and the rest of Tom Hallion's crew also stepped back, took in the moment and never made so much as a motion for the game to resume.

I confirmed with Cervelli that Segal was never asked for time.

"He just knows. That's respect."

• What seemed to move Cutch the most was the playoff-type feel of the crowd's reception, notably the chants of 'M-V-P!' that were ringing through the place on the Blackout night that Cutch himself had named.

"Yeah, they were ... they were intense," Cutch would say of this crowd. "I mean, it's something to remember, for sure."

He'd strike out his first two times up, both against Taillon, and wound up 1 for 5 with a sixth-inning double tomahawked down the left field chalk that drew another standing ovation.

"I did my best to soak it all in. I was able to step back and just kind of be in that moment. But ... yeah, great emotions there. Makes it a little tough to hit after that."

He chuckled a bit.

"You're trying not to come undone, and the next thing you know, you've got a 96-mile-an-hour two-seamer from Taillon coming at you. ... But it was ... it was worth it."

• By the way, the Pirates won, 11-2.

That was always going to be a by-the-way element in this context, but it was a significant one. Because I can tell you that, for all the respect the Pirates feel for Cutch, and as awestruck as they were by the ovation, they were feeling far better about the evening for the W.

"We're playing good ball," Josh Bell told me after his home run was one of four by the Pirates. "And we're still not where we're going to be yet."

He's so right. For one, Bell's batting .248/.331/.383, and the home run was just his third. For another, Gregory Polanco's showing signs of emergence, including a double on this night, but he's at .224/.329/.455 and capable of far better. And remember, Josh Harrison's been out a month, and he was out there again swinging the bat and taking grounders. He'll be back soon.

Put it this way: The Pirates' .761 OPS currently ranks sixth in Major League Baseball, third in the National League behind the Braves and Cubs. And they're still not close to peaking with some of their most important guys.

• Before Taillon's finger laceration cut short his night at three innings, he threw the filthiest of curves -- 86 mph, 12-to-6 on the clock and an unfair lunge outside just to show off -- to fan Cutch with two aboard:

I was visiting my daughter down on the main concourse and, in watching that at-bat, after Taillon got ahead with a first-pitch for a called strike, he came with three fastballs. All through that, this rather vocal fan to our right, evidently familiar with Taillon's trademark, kept calling "Curveball! Throw the curveball!"

Taillon eventually listened to the guy. Or to Cervelli. One of the two.

• Then, this priceless exchange on Twitter:

Thanks bro. U aint have to punch my ticket twice though?

— andrew mccutchen (@TheCUTCH22) May 12, 2018

• What a night to be Bob Nutting, Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington, huh?

Oh, come on, don't say it didn't cross your mind, too.

Biggest crowd of the season. Jacked-up "premium" pricing for the weekend -- purely a coincidence -- brings bonus revenue on top of that. On the field, the Pirates run up a rout, smacking four bombs at the plate, whiffing a dozen batters on the mound, and getting a lasered RBI double from Colin Moran, one of the trade acquisitions. And an $88 million roster moves to six games over .500 while San Francisco's $208 million roster drops a game below.

Dear God, a draft pick homered!

Can't believe I left this off that list, but .208-hitting Max Moroff, thrust into the majors only because he's a draft pick, slugged a three-run oppo shot!

All on a night that everyone expected would publicly embarrass all concerned.

Oh, well.

• The place didn't sell out, and actual turnstile count clearly was lower than the paid figure given the large empty swaths of four outfield sections. But I wouldn't take that as a sign of ... almost anything.

What's got to be understood is that terribly low season-ticket and group sales make selling out any single game a challenge. Because the process begins from a much smaller base, it takes somewhere in the range of 25,000 single-game tickets to reach this level. So, in reality, a ton of tickets were sold related singularly toward saluting Cutch.

• If only Jose Osuna had been drafted, management would never even consider sending him to the minors.

What a launch in the fourth:

The Pirates' first pinch-hit home run of the season. Bet that'll be appreciated in Indianapolis.

• The Giants are awful right now. They've lost five in a row, fresh off being swept in four in Philadelphia. They've been outscored in that time, 43-10, while their hitters have struck out an astounding 70 times -- 14 in this game alone -- and their pitchers have given up 56 hits.

I was in Bruce Bochy's office after the game, and he was in no mood to get all sappy about Cutch.

"We're not doing a lot offensively, and the pitching's not on top of their game," Bochy said with that familiar growl. "That's why we're in this little streak we're in right now. Hey, you've got to deal with this. You gotta keep coming and going hard. That's all you can do. The offense breaks out, or a well-pitched game, that's what we need right now."

• Say what anyone will about the Pirates running into a bunch of bad teams, the formula for sustained success in baseball ever since Abner Doubleday's epiphany was this: Win more than you lose against those teams.

The Giants aren't a bad team, but they're playing badly. The Reds, White Sox, Marlins and Tigers are all bad, and the Pirates have taken care of business in those. They hadn't always done that, even with their playoff teams. It's a feather in their collective cap and a promising sign.

• What a fun night. Imagine if the Pirates, of all teams, were the ones to pick up Pittsburgh's spirits this summer.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY