Andrew McCutchen's impact on the Pirates can't just be quantified by his .265 batting average or his four home runs because moments like the spech he gave last night about earning respect, following the team's one-loss to the Padres, matter. 

Just ask his teammates. 

"Any player of that caliber, in any moment, when you see the emotion and you see the care and the give-a-s**t, when you see that as another player, it's hard to -- I mean I grew up watching Andrew McCutchen -- so watching him deliver a speech that powerful and moving like that, it's like, man 'You gotta listen, you gotta get invested in that,' " Caleb Ferguson told me tonight. 

"He's an icon in the sport, he's got all the accolades and all the respect throughout the game, so his words hold weight," Spencer Horwitz said in a one-on-one interview. "To see him that fired up last night, definitely gave me goosebumps, and I know it got a bunch of guys going." 

The results speak for themselves: The Pirates jumped on the Padres early tonight at Petco Park for a 5-0 win, their sixth shutout. McCutchen hit a solo home run off Dylan Cease in the fifth inning, something Don Kelly said there was "no doubt about." 

"He backs up what he says," Mitch Keller told me. "I think it just turned up an extra gear in him, honestly. I'm not saying that he was holding back anything, but he took it to like 120% now. So, I'm excited about that, for sure." 

It was part of the Pirates' 12-hit effort in which Oneil Cruz, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Adam Frazier and Bryan Reynolds all logged doubles and ran Cease from the game after 4 2/3 innings.

Bailey Falter threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings. Ferguson, Dennis Santana and David Bednar added 2 2/3, and the defense played a near perfect game, holding the Padres to two hits. 

"I think it definitely played a role tonight," Horwitz said of McCutchen's speech. "Even in our hitters meeting this morning, he said some more things that got the guys even more amped up. He just has a whole different perspective and has so much experience it's hard not to have his words have more meaning." 

Despite his resume -- a five-time All-Star, former Most Valuable Player and franchise cornerstone in his prime who helped the Pirates make their last playoff appearances from 2013-2015 -- McCutchen has never been the type of player to do what he did last night. 

He's not usually this guy: 

Sure, he'll chip in with some Phiten necklaces to try and bring the team together and he'll have one-on-one conversations with teammates throughout the clubhouse. But, last night wasn't a regular occurrence, Keller said of McCutchen's "pretty emotional" speech.

So, when he does speak up ...

"Anytime he speaks, I think everyone here definitely listens and goes home and sits and thinks about what he said," Ke'Bryan Hayes told me. "He's such a good player and such a good person and anytime guys like that speak, especially with the passion he showed -- you could tell he was really pissed off -- it's always great having him here lead us."