Kovacevic: Even amid major milestone, Cutch remains defined by this: 'Man, we got the dub. That's all I care about'

Wait for it, I was telling myself. Just wait for it.

He won’t need anyone’s prompt. Never has. Never will.

And sure enough, even upon Andrew McCutchen planting his 2,000th career hit onto the Pittsburgh grass he's always found greenest, even after an ovation for the ages from those who've forever embraced him, even upon being accompanied into PNC Park's press room by his family, even upon being peppered by reporters about this remarkable milestone on this already unforgettable Sunday afternoon, he still had to bring it up: Pirates 2, Mets 1.

"Hey, we got the dub," he'd bring up, though no one else had. "That's all I care about."

Never, ever change, Cutch.

Oh, it's not that he didn't care about this:

That's history, as I shot it from the press box to try to capture the overall reaction from the 26,770 on hand, a few of whom were New York fans, a few of whom were the Mets themselves, all of them applauding and appreciating. Umpires don't applaud, but Dan Merzel stepped out from behind home plate, pitch clock be damned, to ensure the moment was met.

At first base, where No. 22 kept it characteristically classy with the simple helmet doff, not unlike No. 21 after his own 3,000th:

In the dugout, where he's simultaneously been a model teammate and gosh-wow-hero for 25 others:

In the family box, where Maria and the kids had been, like everyone else in the place, waiting and hoping it'd happen on this day rather than on the pending road trip through Chicago and Milwaukee:

No one who was here will forget it.Nor should anyone who loves this grand game: There've been 22,960 players in a century and a half of Major League Baseball, and Cutch is only the 291st to achieve 2,000 hits. That puts him in the upper 1.3% of everyone, as well as one of five among all active players in joining Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto, Nelson Cruz and Elvis Andrus, as well as the 11th to do so while playing for the Pirates, joining Roberto Clemente, Honus Wagner, Willie Stargell, Bill Mazeroski, Pie Traynor, Max Carey, Fred Clarke, Paul and Lloyd Waner and Dixie Walker Jr.

And if that doesn't offer sufficient perspective, maybe this stirring tribute video that was shown on the scoreboard will help:

Mm-hm. A mythical Mount Rushmore of Pittsburgh sports for this century, to my mind, has Ben Roethlisberger, Sidney Crosby, Cutch ... and then maybe we just let Evgeni Malkin and Troy Polamalu duke it out for the fourth, right?

So, yeah, he cared about this.

Which is to suggest, he found it ...

"Horrible," he'd say in opening his press conference with that word, referring to the run-up to 2,000. "It was horrible. Going into the homestand knowing that you have nine games, one of our longest home stands of the season. And I knew I was going to feel pretty good being here, especially coming off the last game in San Francisco, I got three hits in that one game. I was feeling pretty good. Then, baseball happens, right?"

Yep. He'd go 2 for 4 in the homestand opener against the Cardinals to get to 1,996, then 2 for 17 in the next six games. There were 10 walks in there, though, to lead the majors.

"You feel it," Cutch would continue. "I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. The toughest thing about this sport is you’re at the mercy of someone else to help you accomplish something you want to accomplish. You got a guy throwing a baseball, and you got people trying to defend it. You also have an umpire behind the plate. Things have to work out right for you for it to happen. It’s not like I can be LeBron James and I’m taking over in the fourth quarter. You can’t really do that."

It was Derek Shelton's call, then, to have Cutch start a day game after a night game and to lead off, offering as many plate appearances as possible to get it done where it needed to get done.

"To be able to finally get it on the last day ... I wanted to do it here in Pittsburgh," Cutch would say. "I’m glad I was able to do it here. It was a special moment."

It came right up front, on a 1-1 Carlos Carrasco slider that he'd rip into left field at 102.9 mph.

"You have to let the game play. When your moment comes, you just try to capitalize off of it. If it doesn’t, you have to get ready for the next one. I was happy I was able to get it out of the way in the first at-bat today."

Nothing impressed Shelton more, to hear him tell it.

 "Relief a little bit," the manager replied when asked how he felt. "More for him. We had three really good crowds this weekend, and he never really got away from his approach, which I give him credit throughout the whole time. I think a lot of people, when they're chasing milestones, start to press. We saw how unbelievable an individual he is because he didn't press and he played the team game."

The team game:

Hear that?

"The dub's cooler."

Cutch has carved his own distinct spot in this specific franchise's lore, and that, as with anyone, is bound to be quantified more than it's qualified. How his numbers compare to a Wagner or Clemente or Stargell. That's how baseball's always been.

I asked Cutch his reaction to the video with Ben, Sid and Neil Walker:

"I saw it," he replied. "I was a little delayed on it because I didn’t know they were doing that. I kind of looked up and I saw that Ben was talking, so I assumed it was for that moment. Him and Sid and Walk, for all of them to say what they did, it was special to hear those messages from them. It was a good moment to be able to cherish as much as I could at that time."

See, I see Cutch's legacy beyond the numbers. I see what Ben and Sid see, I'll bet, given that their own paths were paved, primarily, through winning.

I see the hope he's brought.

I see the winning he's brought.

I see what Rodolfo Castro sees.

"He's out there with the 2,000th hit, he's happy, we're happy ... and then we all want to win the game," the kid would tell me afterward. "We want to win it for him. That's what he wants."

Carlos Santana, one of the clubhouse leaders along with Cutch, Rich Hill and a couple others, corroborated that for me.

"Cutch is talking to us, we're all talking, we want to win this game," the big man would say. "We're all together with him."

When Cutch came along all those years ago, he was the hope. And yet, he wasn't. This team hadn't won a blessed thing since Barry Bonds' skull was regulation size, and it still hasn't won a championship since Stargell was sewing stars. For all anyone knew on the afternoon of June 4, 2009, the shiny new center fielder would be just another asterisk-stamped All-Star on just another last-place loser.

He wasn't, of course. To say the least. He was the author of the Blackout in every way, and he was the MVP-level backbone, the spirit of those three playoff teams in 2013-15. He was the one correctly credited with restoring hope for a fan base that'd long since lost any semblance of the stuff.

Fast-forward to this January. And yet again, even at age 36, he's that same guy, representing that same thing and, maybe most uplifting, he's pretty much been that same player, now slashing .265/.381/.423 with eight home runs, 23 RBIs and seven steals.

That's who Cutch is, my friends. That's what he's meant and what he still means.

That's why this game needed not only to happen in Pittsburgh but also why it had to end in a "dub."

Which Mitch Keller, more than anyone, made possible with a bounce-back seven-inning line of one run, two hits and seven Ks, including this dynamic cutter to whiff Omar Narváez with two runners in scoring position in the New York second:

I asked Keller what'd been the difference between this start and his previous three that saw a combined 15 earned runs over 17 1/3 innings.

"I think just attacking the zone," he'd reply. "Cutter usage. Everything’s just up a little bit more."

Then there was this defensive absurdity:

Never get used to that. Not from Ke'Bryan Hayes or anyone.

"The way Ke'Bryan played today was elite," Shelton would rave. "That's why he's the best defender on the planet."

Jack Suwinski nearly got this ball wet, and he might've if it hadn't banged off one of those AHN-adorned posts:

That tied the score in the fourth inning, and it'd soon be followed by a Tucupita Marcano RBI single that same inning to account for all the offense needed.

"I saw a curveball up," Suwinski would say of his team-high 13th home run. "Just pulled the trigger on it."

With him, too, though, the broadest smile came when speaking of Cutch.

"He's meant so much to us," Suwinski would say. "It's so great so this happen for him. And to get the W."

The "dub," he meant. And first place. And taking two of three from an opponent with a $364 million payroll. And meaningful baseball in Milwaukee next weekend.

Never a coincidence.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore 
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: RHP Vince Velasquez (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. Andrew McCutchen, DH
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Connor Joe, RF
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Jack Suwinski, CF
6. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
7. Ji Hwan Bae, 2B
8. Tucupita Marcano, SS
9. Austin Hedges, C

And for Buck Showalter's Mets:

1. Brandon Nimmo, CF
2. Francisco Alvarez, DH
3. Jeff McNeil, 2B
4. Francisco Lindor, SS
5. Tommy Pham, LF
6. Brett Baty, 3B
7. Mark Canha, RF
8. Omar Narvaez, C
9. Mark Vientos, 1B

THE SCHEDULE

The team's off Monday, then takes off for a six-game trip through Chicago and Milwaukee. Alex Stumpf will cover the first half, and I'll cover the second. This could be fun.

THE CONTENT

Visit our team feed for all the latest around the clock and our team page for everything else.