PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was born as much from battling through a six-game losing streak and trying to change the team's fortunes. Pirates manager Derek Shelton was looking for a little stability, so he moved Andrew McCutchen to lead off Monday against Milwaukee.
He would homer in his first at bat, add two more hits and the losing streak ends.
A leadoff hitter early in his career and now 37, the only 22 he's feeling is the one on his jersey, but he so wants to win again with the Pirates, and to reach that goal, he'll do anything.
"Yeah, I mean, I get it," McCutchen said as he is batting first for the second consecutive game on Tuesday. "It's something that I'm familiar with, when you get called in by the manager and he's asking something of you. You want to be able to hold your end of the bargain and try and step up. So quite frankly, I probably would have did that in the five hole today."
But that he did it leading off and set a tone for a team struggling to score runs. The Pirates had scored nine runs total in 6 games, any tally was significant.
"Obviously, I have some experience there," McCutchen said. "So, have good at-bats and do what I do. It's nice to be able to do that. Sometimes, you kind of get lost in the middle of the order. So, it's nice to start things off for the club. And, I'm sure I'm probably going to be doing it for a little bit now."
The length of time is unknown right now. He's played Major League baseball for 16 years now, he knows the game and brings some of the traits you are looking for up top--good plate discipline, make the pitcher throw pitches, usually a good on-base percentage.
"I don't know," McCutchen said of going back in the lineup where he started his career. "I mean, you got to switch it up every now and then. So, I guess it just took me leading off. So, it's nice to get the win and to be able to show up, start things off for the team. Yeah, it was nice."
Cutch would prefer to bat lower in the lineup at this point in his career. But he wants to help, and right now that's batting first.
"Hey, as long as I'm playing, that's all that matters," McCutchen said. "I don't care about where I'm playing or where I hit. As long as I'm in there, doing my job, trying to help the team. So, hit me leadoff, hit me ---I don't care, it's fine."
In his career, McCutchen has 72 homers batting first with a .354 on-base percentage.
Teacher
Struggling in his last nine games, McCutchen had a talk with Oneil Cruz before the game Monday telling him he was getting a little ahead of himself.
The former league MVP says he recognizes talent and potential and said you've got to be patient with a player like this. McCutchen described his conversation with Cruz as a good talk and now he's hoping he can build on his three hits in the series opener.
"That's what I'm here for, just to keep reminding him, just to stay where he's at, try not to do too much," McCutchen said. "It's okay to get jammed and get a hit. It's okay to hit one 111 off the end of the bat, too."
Batting first, batting fifth, playing the field, talking to younger players, McCutchen continues to try to give back to baseball in Pittsburgh.
