If he is being honest, Andrew McCutchen thought he would have gotten to 2,000 hits long ago.
During the Pittsburgh Pirates star’s run as one of the best players in the game in the early 2010s — a stretch in he won a Most Valuable Player award and was an All-Star five times — the hits came so easily it seemed as if they would never stop.
Then, well, “baseball happened.”
Photo: AFP
Pitchers adjusted. The magic he once summoned so regularly waned. He bounced around from city to city and position to position.
Peace arrived in January when McCutchen returned to Pittsburgh on a one-year deal. He vowed to appreciate his second stint in his adopted hometown more than he did his first. That is what made the moment on Sunday when his 2,000th hit — a sharp single to left leading off the bottom of the first in a 2-1 win over the New York Mets — so sweet.
McCutchen was just a 22-year-old on June 4, 2009, when he fisted an 0-2 pitch from New York starter Mike Pelfrey up the middle in the bottom of the first. The ball died in the grass, giving him just enough time to beat the throw.
Just over 14 years later, he did not need to use legs he admits do not move quite like they used to to become the 291st player to reach 2,000 hits.
McCutchen turned on a slider from Carlos Carrasco (2-3) and had time to soak in the moment, waving to a PNC Park crowd that included his wife Maria and their three children after rounding first and making his way back to the bag.
“It was definitely special to have them here and be here,” McCutchen said. “In my mind, I was like: ‘I’ll get it today. It’s Sunday. I’ll get it.’”
McCutchen entered Pittsburgh’s season-high, nine-game homestand just a handful of hits short of a plateau only four other active players have reached. As much as McCutchen wanted to get there at home, he promised himself he was not going to abandon the mindset that carried him to the cusp of some rare company.
So he waited patiently, taking walk after walk — McCutchen entered Sunday with 12 free passes alone this month — rather than flail at something out of the strike zone and hope he got lucky. It is the kind of selfless example McCutchen has set for much of his career, one of the reasons the surprising Pirates were so intent on a reunion.
“When you see someone of his caliber of player that’s chasing a milestone and staying consistent with their approach 100 percent, there’s no better model for young players than watching a veteran player handle himself like that,” Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said.
Perhaps even more importantly for McCutchen, a day he knew would come coincided with his team finishing off a 6-3 homestand that pushed them back to first place in the National League Central.
“We won,” McCutchen said. “That’s all I care about.”
Jack Suwinski hit his 12th home run for Pittsburgh. Mitch Keller (8-2) allowed just two hits over seven innings, while David Bednar worked around a one-out double by Tommy Pham in the ninth for his 14th save.
In the clubhouse afterward Shelton flipped the ball from McCutchen’s 2,000th hit to the player who is helping jolt the franchise back to life the way he did a decade ago, when Pittsburgh ended 20 years of losing and reached the post-season three straight years from 2013 to 2015.
Back then, McCutchen thought maybe 3,000 hits were on the table. Probably not, though he joked he might play until 50 if the MLB allows unlimited pinch runners.
“Just hit and someone runs for me, that’s a piece of cake,” he said. “The hits will come, and I don’t know and I will look back and see where I’m at. Two [thousand] is good. More is better.”
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