PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Andrew McCutchen said the waiting was just horrible. He knew he would eventually get hit 2,000 but it was the last day of the homestand and he wanted to do it here. It finally happened on an 0-1 pitch in the first inning Sunday in what ended up a 2-1 win over the Mets.
It’s not as if he wasn’t getting on base. He walked in every game the last two series, totaling 10 the last six games. He said he would be lying if he wasn’t feeling the pressure, but he wasn’t going to swing at a bad pitch.
“The toughest thing about this sport is you’re at the mercy of someone else to help you accomplish something you want to accomplish,” McCutchen said. “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.”
The 36-year-old felt like he was having good at bats, taking his walks. When he would get a pitch to hit he was fouling it off or just missing it. A couple of times he hit it hard and defenders made plays. But he wasn’t going to alter his approach to get the milestone. In fact seeing all of those balls he feels has really put him in a good hitting situation to where when he got that pitch on Sunday, he ended the drama on a bad slider over the heart of the plate.
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“I stayed through it as much as I could,” McCutchen said. “It was a good pitch to hit. As a major leaguer that’s what we do, we hit mistakes. I doubt he wanted to throw it there, but good swing on it and got a hit.”
He said he was texting his wife as he walked into the clubhouse after the game and was caught a little by surprised as everyone stood up and cheered. Derek Shelton spoke a few words and gave him the ball from the 2,000th hit.
“It was nice,” McCutchen said. “It was really nice to get that from everybody. I’m sure they wanted to give me a beer shower, but I tried to stay away from that as much as I could.”
And like his first career hit against Mike Pelfrey in 2009, Cutch gets 2,000 also against the Mets which he said was also a day game.
“It’s pretty neat,” McCutchen said. “It’s one of those things when things like that happen you are kind of like ‘what is going on in the universe’ for stuff like that to happen. It makes you think some weird stuff is happening. I don’t know. Yeah, that was cool to do that, first and get your 2,000th at home in Pittsburgh against the Mets again. It was cool.”
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McCutchen said he hadn’t thought big picture of what he’s accomplished, he was just glad for the team to get a series win after the last two games against Oakland.
“I wanted us to secure the win because we are in a good position right now and take advantage of teams who aren’t quite where they want to be like the Mets,” McCutchen said. “We have to take advantage and get those wins. It was nice we were able to get that win today. Win the series, it was a good homestand for us. Try and enjoy this as much as I can, get ready for the road trip because we have some important games coming up there.”
While he will reflect more on it one day, it was indeed about the win for the 2005 first-round pick. As McCutchen said when he signed, he didn’t come back to Pittsburgh as a farewell tour, he thought this team could win.
Right now, Mr. 2000 and the Pirates head to Chicago in first place in the NL Central.