Andrew McCutchen's as cool as they come.
Been that way since I've known him, rewinding all the way back to when he was 18. And multiply that many times over as it's applied to baseball. Parachute him into any setting, from a final-out playoff elimination to a February exhibition, and he'll put together a professional at-bat with the same steady-pulsed approach that's served him so well for a decade and a half.
It can't always produce a result, of course. But on those occasions that it does ...
... yeah, it looks like Cutch coming through in the clutch.
That two-run blast into the bleachers on this summery Wednesday afternoon at PNC Park was part of a 3-for-3-plus-a-walk output for Pittsburgh's returned son, it put his side up by three early runs ... and it'd soon become moot because almost no one else on the roster can hit anymore.
Nine losses in 10 games. Fifteen total runs over those 10 games. Five total home runs over those 10 games, two of them by Cutch. Three total hits with runners in scoring position out of 14 such plate appearances in this now-complete series with Colorado, two of them by Cutch.
In all seriousness, just watching how he carries himself on and off the field compared to most of the rest of the clubhouse, it's as if he's all alone in being able to separate himself from the team's fates and find his own way through the collective fog. As if he's the only one not squeezing his bat handle into sawdust at the simple sight of a baserunner.
I'd mentioned to him after this one that he still seemed to be exhibiting all his standard chill these days, and he smiled wryly before this:
"I've never been not chill," he'd come back. "I've only ever known one way, and that's to control the at-bat."
When I followed up as to whether some of that needs to rub off on his teammates, he didn't flinch.
"I hope it does. I hope, having these at-bats, doing what I do, hopefully, I'm able to set an example, just keep the line rolling. That's the way I've always played the game. Just understanding what I need to do to work the at-bat and get myself on base, regardless of the situation, regardless of what inning it is. And yeah, hopefully, it rubs off."
And what's he see as the offense's primary problem?
"People have an expectation of you, and then you exceed that expectation, and now people pay attention and make adjustments. Especially teams we've already played once."
This was the second meeting with the Rockies in less than a month. For the record, Cutch wasn't the only one to credit Colorado with making critical adjustments. Ke'Bryan Hayes did that, as well, though neither delved into specifics.
"We've got to make adjustments, too," Cutch continued. "And we've got to be smarter sometimes. Don't try to create something that may not be there. Let the game play out. But that's just where we are right now. Maybe pressing a little too much."
Everyone but him, anyway.
Not even sure where to start: Bryan Reynolds doubled before Cutch's home run in the third inning, and he had an 11-game hitting streak into his past weekend, but he's 2 for 16 since Sunday and hasn't homered since ... wow, April 7. Hayes is having a .300 May, even after an 0-for-4 on this day, but he's got two extra-base hits over his past 14 games. Jack Suwinski's 2 for 29 with 16 strikeouts over these 10 games. Carlos Santana's 4 for 30 over the same span. Rodolfo Castro's 4 for 24. Connor Joe's 6 for 30.
Isolating on Joe: He had seven multiple-hit games among his first 16 games, and he's had none since April 21. On this day, he erased the two walks he drew by twice being caught stealing ...
... and he might've played the ugliest part in leaving bases loaded in the sixth when he was frozen for the following third strike that he had no business taking:
MLB.COM
After which Castro, sent to pinch-hit for Suwinski, flied out to shallow center and Reynolds was thrown out at home for an 8-2 double play.
Derek Shelton doesn't lightly acknowledge emotion related to specific outcomes, of this inning he'd offer without hesitation, “It’s extremely frustrating. Bases loaded, nobody out, we don’t execute.”
I asked if he's got hitters pressing.
“I think so," he replied. "I think, when you scuffle a bit, you have guys who press. I think that’s where we’re at right now.”
This was Joe, typically among the most graceful speakers in the room, when I asked a couple of innocuous questions about the team's offensive struggle: "Uh ... honestly, I'm not sure. You want to do the job. The pitcher wants to do his job. ... uh, yeah, that's all I've got for you."
"It's just baseball," Hayes would reply when I raised the same subject with him. "Sometimes you're gonna have success with guys on base. Sometimes you're not. As a whole, I think we've just got to find a way to put the ball in play. Maybe not do too much."
I brought up Ji Hwan Bae's casual-stroke double in the ninth, even though Bae's the one on the roster who seeks out straight contact with any regularity.
"Yeah, like that," Hayes proceeded. "Just gotta find a way to make something happen. And if we don't get our pitches, take our walks."
There was a ton of this type of talk around the room, most of it focusing on failures with runners in scoring position or the recent baserunning woes. Both are very real: Over this same 10-game frame I've been referencing, the Pirates are a cumulative 7 for 56 -- .125 -- with runners in scoring position, while their season total of 13 caught stealings is tied for most in Major League Baseball.
But those very real things also are, at least from my long-held perspective, more symptoms than cause.
I've been writing for years, dating to my earliest days at newspapers, that I don't believe in clutch in sports anywhere near as much as I believe in the absence of clutch. To me, in baseball, a player is a clutch player for the simple reason that he remains who he usually is. Whereas, a player who shrinks from big challenges -- remember Barry Bonds going 13 for 68 with a single home run in the 1990-92 playoffs for the Pirates, for instance -- was a grossly visible departure from his MVP form from those regular seasons.
As such, the current Pirates' chief complaint shouldn't be that they lack clutchiness or the intangible fire/energy that's commonly associated with taking extra bases. Rather, it's the comparatively boring fact that they're not reaching base often enough:
• In April, their team on-base percentage was .341, third-highest in the majors. Their batting average was .266, fifth-highest. They hit 33 home runs, 11th-most.
• In May, their team on-base percentage is now .277, fifth-lowest in the majors. Their batting average is .181, second-lowest. They've hit five home runs, second-fewest.
And yet, even with the recent downturns on all fronts, they're still fourth in the majors with a .277 batting average with runners in scoring position.
But hey, don't take my word for it.
“We’re not scoring many runs," Cutch would say as part of the above conversation. "So when someone gets on, teams are paying attention. When we were rolling in April, we were stealing bases, but we were also hitting very well. You had people on the basepaths to worry about. You also had the guy at the plate to worry about. Right now, it’s just that there’s more focus and attention when someone gets on.”
Solution: Hit more.
Solution within the solution: Put the best hitters in the lineup.
Not to beat the Endy Rodriguez/Henry Davis drum as if it's a Neil Peart solo, but picture one of those two stepping up in the ninth after Bae's double put runners on second and third with two outs ... instead of 27-year-old non-prospect Josh Palacios, newly recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis because of a nice little stretch there but probably never having encountered a hellacious 86.4-mph hook:
Uh-huh.
Better yet, picture Rodriguez/Davis being part of a lineup that makes that scenario moot about an hour or two earlier.
JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
The Rockies' Ezequiel Tovar tags out Connor Joe at second base in the second inning Wednesday at PNC Park.
• Rich Hill didn't pitch all that well. But at least he didn't field well, as I document in a Freeze Frame.
• First place. They're in first place. Keep repeating it.
Because it's true:
MLB.COM
Everyone in Milwaukee has to be exactly as down as everyone in Pittsburgh at the moment. The Brewers are now 2-8 in their own past 10. Wild.
• It's borderline mathematically impossible to keep hitting like this. Keep repeating that, too.
• I get that the pitching's taken a step back, aside from Mitch Keller, but the most upbeat news of the day might've come in the morning when Todd Tomczyk looked/sounded awfully happy about Vince Velasquez's elbow, first disclosing that Velasquez has resumed throwing, then adding, "It's very encouraging. We project him to throw a live BP early next week. So we’re hopeful that it'll be the minimum time down for Vince." There'll be a rehab start in there, but that's a couple weeks at most.
• Tucupita Marcano homered in the second, but only after he'd missed a hit-and-run sign to account for Joe's first caught-stealing.
"Part of the game," he'd say of the latter. "It happens. I just try and do my best."
OK.
• The very last thing I'd have expected after an offseason like the one Ben Cherington had would be that, one, the team would be awesome in April and, two, he'd go dumpster-diving at the first sign of trouble. He's got talent at hand. This is the time to utilize it.
• Cutch, by the way, is now slashing .255/.366/.491 with seven home runs, 18 RBIs and five steals. Which one might think is about as well as he could've hoped this comeback would go.
Hardly.
"No," he'd say to that. "Not even close. I've got a lot more I can do."
• Thanks for reading my baseball stuff. I'll have a baseball lede for this week's Point Park University Friday Insider, as well.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 15-day injured list: RHP Vince Velasquez (elbow), Rob Zastryzny (elbow)
• 60-day injured list: 1B Ji-Man Choi (Achilles), RHP Wil Crowe (shoulder), RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Connor Joe, RF
6. Jack Suwinski, CF
7. Tucupita Marcano,2B
8. Chris Owings, SS
9. Austin Hedges, C
And for Bud Black's Rockies:
1. Jurickson Profar, LF
2. Ezequiel Tovar, SS
3. Kris Bryant, DH
4. C.J. Cron, 1B
5. Randal Grichuk, RF
6. Ryan McMahon, 3B
7. Austin Wynns, C
8. Alan Trejo, 2B
9. Brenton Doyle, CF
THE SCHEDULE
There's a day off Thursday, followed by a weird east-west trip to Baltimore and Detroit. Alex Stumpf will have the former, Chris Halicke the latter. I'll be covering the Steelers' rookie minicamp on the South Side.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
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