McCutchen remains confident
BOSTON — When Andrew McCutchen was asked in late February to imagine the PNC Park opener Friday, which could be his last in a Pirates uniform, he hazarded this guess: “I’ll probably be excited like always. We’ll be three games in, so hopefully I’m hitting .600.”
Instead, the Pirates have played only two games — their game Thursday was rescheduled for April 13 because of rain at Fenway Park — and McCutchen returns to Pittsburgh as the lone Pirates regular still searching for his first hit this season. He is 0 for 9 so far with three strikeouts.
“I feel good,” McCutchen said Wednesday. “I haven’t got a hit yet, but it’s game No. 2. I’m not going to stress over it. I’m going to keep my approach. … I’m going in the right direction. Took some good swings on some good pitches. Hit a couple balls decent. That’s baseball sometimes.”
McCutchen isn’t alone in the slow start. Starling Marte, Jordy Mercer and Gregory Polanco were each 1 for 9 against the Red Sox. On Wednesday, the Pirates failed for 12 innings to get a runner to second base. Marte elected to sacrifice bunt in the ninth and popped the ball up.
“I’m not going to overcook this thing offensively,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “They threw some good stuff at us. ... It’s two games into the season. We’ve got work to do in front of us.”
After a shaky first start in right field Monday, a game in which McCutchen bobbled a ball along the wall on a triple that sparked a fiverun rally, he made two runsaving plays Wednesday.
In the third, McCutchen ran in to field a Dustin Pedroia single and fired a fastball, clocked by Statcast at 89 mph, to nail Sandy Leon at home plate. It was McCutchen’s first assist from right field. He has 56 outfield assists in his career — only six last season.
“It’s a shorter distance than center field,” said McCutchen, a Gold Glover in 2012. “The ball comes straight to you. You’ve got more of an opportunity to be able to throw somebody out, as opposed to playing center field where it’s deeper — a ball being hit to you like that, chances of you throwing somebody out are slim.”
In the fourth, McCutchen stole two more runs from the Red Sox. He tracked Mitch Moreland’s fly ball and caught it just as he made contact with the rightfield wall.
The catch didn’t have the highest degree of difficulty, but it avoided a two-run home run, and the game stayed scoreless.
“Man, that was fun to watch,” starter Jameson Taillon said.
“I knew the wall was close,” McCutchen added. “Didn’t really know how close until I hit it.”
After two games, McCutchen’s Defensive Runs Saved total is three. It means next to nothing given the small sample size, but, hey, McCutchen is on pace for a record 243 DRS this season. In 2016, he had a league-worst -28 DRS, which suggests he cost the Pirates 28 runs compared to the average center fielder, and the metric was used to describe his defensive decline.
Game rescheduled
The postponed PiratesRed Sox series finale was rescheduled for 2:05 p.m. April 13, a scheduled off day for both teams. The Pirates will fly back to Boston after their six-game homestand, then continue on to Chicago and St. Louis for their regularly scheduled road series.
The Pirates bumped starter Chad Kuhl, scheduled to pitch Thursday, to Saturday. Ivan Nova will start Friday, and Gerrit Cole Sunday. Rookie righthander Tyler Glasnow, who was scheduled to start Saturday, instead will make his season debut Monday against the Cincinnati Reds.