PITTSBURGH — Andrew McCutchen’s walk-off home in the bottom of the ninth inning run to give the Pirates a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at PNC Park on Monday was impressive.
It was impressive because it gave the Pirates a win in a game they had so nearly let slip away with two Arizona runs in the top of the inning. It was impressive because Arizona reliever Archie Bradley has been superb this season, coming in with 1.23 ERA.
But more than anything it was impressive because it was an outside pitch and McCutchen drove the ball to right field.
McCutchen hasn’t always been a pull hitter. His career spray chart shows a pretty balanced attack, especially when it comes to balls hit in the air to the outfield.
But this season, it’s been dramatically different, with the vast majority of his contact coming to the left side of the field.
That’s been a problem, because the pitches that McCutchen has been hitting have been for the most part middle-outside.
When a hitter attempts to pull a ball pitched to the outside, it results in the hitter rolling the ball over. That’s happened a lot to McCutchen this season, especially compared with 2016. Remember that 2016 was a career-low for him, which makes the decline in outcomes to this season even more troubling.
But McCutchen feels like he’s on to a fix to that issue. He feels that he’s been trying to pull the ball too much and over-rotating his upper half. In order to drive a ball pitched outside, he needs to stay with the pitch and take it to the opposite field.
That’s what he got from Bradley in the ninth inning Monday, and that’s what he did with it, putting it into the seats above the Clemente Wall.
McCutchen said the fact that he was able to drive that ball given where it was pitched is a sign that he’s making some progress in fixing what’s been ailing him.
“For me to be in a spot and a position where I get a fastball out over the plate and I can drive it out to right field, that shows that I’m in a good spot, because a week ago, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do that,” he said. “I’m in a better spot that I was a week ago. I’m in a better spot than I was yesterday. We’ll continue to just keep working in that fashion. Hopefully, it can get hot really soon.”
In order to come up with the problem and the plan for fixing it, McCutchen was given two days off in Atlanta last week and was moved to No. 6 in the batting order. He said that first gave him the time needed to go put the work in. In addition to the time spent on the off days in Atlanta, he’s regularly been taking extra batting practice early in the day.
“I just got to unwind and be able to work as opposed to getting up in the morning, getting to the field, getting some work in the cage and taking what you’re doing in the cage to the game,” he said. “I haven’t been where I’ve needed to be at, so I haven’t had much time to do what I needed to do. … Last year I said the time off in Atlanta, that didn’t do anything for me. This time it did. Being able to have those couple days did help me. I don’t know what it is about Atlanta. I’m feeling good, feeling better and having more consistent at-bats.”
Hurdle wasn’t ready to call McCutchen’s swing cured at this point, but he does think the home run — combined with the fact that he’s also seen his batting average climb to .225 this week — as a positive sign.
“It’s a good swing on a pitch that’s out there,” Hurdle said. “It’s good to see. We’ll keep penciling him in and let him get his swings. Good things are happening.”
INJURY WOES RETURN
Coming into Monday, it looked like the Pirates were nearing full health. Gregory Polanco was on a tear since returning from the disabled list.
Antonio Bastardo, Josh Lindblom and Jameson Taillon had already begun rehab assignments and seem ready to re-join the team sooner rather than later.
That all unraveled over the course of two innings Monday. In the sixth inning, Polanco injured his ankle by crashing into the low railing in right that separates the playing field from the crowd. Chris Stewart tweaked a muscle in his leg stretching his two-run hit into a triple in the seventh.
Polanco said he has a sprained right ankle and while x-rays were negative, he was in a walking boot after the game and was on his way to see a doctor. Stewart was more positive, with preliminary tests showing no damage, but he cautioned that he would still require more testing.
It’s been a series of frustrations on the injury front for the Pirates season, and Polanco has now been hurt four separate times.
“I just hit the wall straight with my right foot. Just straight into the wall,” Polanco said. “I was running full speed and that hall doesn’t help because it’s so low you don’t realize how far you are from then wall. … It’s hard. Everything happens for a reason. I left everything in God’s hands.”
NOTES
Trevor Williams pitched six innings of one-run ball, which Hurdle called his best start of the season. … Felipe Rivero and Juan Nicasio each pitched scoreless innings. … Jordy Mercer also tripled and scored on Josh Bell’s sacrifice fly.
