Andrew McCutchen has expressed time and time again that he wants to be playing as much as possible. As he said following his first game of the season out in right field on April 4, "I don’t want to feel like I’m just sitting here collecting a paycheck and not being able to do anything for the team." 

Despite the fact that Bryan Reynolds is no longer limited to designated hitter duties, McCutchen was held out of this afternoon's lineup and, less than 30 minutes prior to game time, provided a short but simple reply on social media to a post displaying the starting lineup and stating that he was getting the day off. He displayed the words "Day off" in quotations next to an eyebrow-raised emoji. 

McCutchen wasn't available for comment postgame, but his response does raise questions surrounding his potential displeasure regarding playing time. He had frequently been held out of the lineup when Reynolds was dealing with a shoulder issue that forced him to serve as DH and pushed McCutchen into taking occasional reps out in right field. This latest instance in which he was held out of the lineup was, according to Derek Shelton, to give Oneil Cruz a day off from the field. Cruz was used as the team's DH. 

"Get him off his feet and deciding to keep Cruz in the lineup because he's been swinging the bat as well as anyone except for (Enmanuel) Valdez," Shelton explained. 

Shelton said McCutchen was available off the bench and could have been used as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning when the Pirates had a runner in scoring position following a one-out double by Jared Triolo. Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Joey Bart were also options off the bench. Instead of going to either of the three, Shelton turned to Alexander Canario, who hasn't played in a game since the finale of last weekend's series against the Reds and now has just two hits in 20 at-bats after striking out in this particular appearance.

Shelton's reasoning behind the decision was based on Canario's "ability to drive the ball out of the ballpark," something he did last weekend in Cincinnati. Aside from that and one other hit, his productivity hasn't been too impressive in an albeit small sample size. 

"If you're going with Bart or IKF you're making a two-player move," Shelton continued. "Cutch, we could put out in the outfield if we wanted to." 

• The Pirates had plenty of opportunities to put runs up on the board prior to suffering their fourth shutout loss of the season. 

They stranded Adam Frazier on second base following a one-out double in the second, left Cruz on second following a one-out single and a steal in the third, stranded the bases loaded with one out in the sixth, and failed to bring Triolo in following his aforementioned one-out double in the seventh. 

The sixth was the dagger, though. A walk to Cruz and a single by Reynolds put two on, Ke'Bryan Hayes struck out on a close 3-2 pitch and Valdez walked to load the bases before Tommy Pham grounded into an inning-ending double play. 

"We've had some frustrating ones, but that one did frustrate me because we had some good at-bats," Shelton said. "Then, we struck out on a pitch that was a close pitch then we hit into a double play." 

• In his first appearance back in the big leagues since the season-opening series against the Marlins in Miami, David Bednar tossed a scoreless ninth inning. He did run into some trouble after allowing one-out singles to Bo Naylor and Angel Martinez, but he registered back-to-back strikeouts of Lane Thomas and Brayan Rocchio to come away unscathed.