Matt Capps is a little fuzzy on the particulars of the first time he saw Andrew McCutchen, but he remembers the important details of his trip to Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla., in 2005. He believes he was there to take part in the Pirates' instructional league, which is why a recently drafted McCutchen was already at the training complex. The sun was shining, it was early in the morning, everyone was wearing shorts.
And most vividly, he recalls the sound of the ball coming off of the bat.
“It just sounded different," Capps said. "You look out there and think, ‘who’s this skinny little kid,’ but when he hits the ball it sounds different.”
It's been almost 18 years since Capps heard McCutchen take batting practice that day. In that time, McCutchen has risen from a first-round draft pick to an All-Star, Most Valuable Player, Gold Glover, Silver Slugger, husband, father, Pittsburgher and the unquestioned face of the Pirates' franchise in the 21st century. His return to the Pirates this winter was the most celebrated return of a Pittsburgh sports icon since Mario Lemieux came out of retirement in 2000, one that generated plenty of buzz for a team that has taken a big step in its rebuild, currently sitting with a winning record.
McCutchen came back because he thought the team was ready to take that next step. This was never presented as a farewell tour or him just trying to pad his stats. When it comes to milestones, though, he is creeping up on plenty. He has 399 career doubles. He's hit 295 home runs.
And perhaps the most accomplished, he's at 1,998 career hits, putting him just two away from the 2,000 club, a milestone only four other active players have reached (Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto, Nelson Cruz and Elvis Andrus). There's a chance, depending on how the rest of this season shakes out and how many of those other players retire, that McCutchen could be the sport's active hit leader next year.
He's downplayed the milestone chases. After getting his 1,500th hit as a Pirate on May 22, he told a small group of reporters that baseball puts too much emphasis on the big, round numbers. "It looks nice on the board and all," he said that night, "but I'm not trying to be at 1,500 very long. Go ahead, change that tomorrow."
But it's such an aesthetically pleasing big, round number.
"2,000 hits is a lot of hits," Derek Shelton said. "We’re talking about one of the best players in franchise history here. When you get to milestones like that, that’s really important. Excited to see him get it."
Rather than focus on the milestone, McCutchen recently sat down with me to look at some of his most infamous hits on his path to 2,000. I had the videos saved to my phone as a reference, but for almost all of them he was able to recount the at-bat before the pitcher had even delivered the ball. What the pitch was, who the umpire was, what was going through his head at the time.
During the interview at his locker, Rich Hill quickly interjected during McCutchen's retelling of his first hit. I asked Hill if he gave up any hits to McCutchen during their decades-long careers.
"I'm sure I did," Hill answered.
"A couple," McCutchen said, adding he had a two-hit game off the lefty. Upon further investigation, that game was April 7, 2018. McCutchen was a Giant, Hill a Dodger.
It was just a taste of McCutchen's baseball memory and what was in store as we scrolled through the videos.
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THE FIRST OF MANY
Date: June 4, 2009. Location: PNC Park. Pitcher: Mike Pelfrey.
The first hit needs a preamble.
McCutchen's call up to the majors was made possible because the team's All-Star center fielder, Nate McLouth, was traded to the Braves the night before.
GREG BROWN, PIRATES BROADCASTER: “I was doing some show the night McLouth was traded, trying to calm people down to a degree. As much as I loved McLouth, loved him, and understood the narrative was going to be, ‘here they go again,' I knew the guy in waiting was McCutchen. I was bummed because I loved McLouth, but I was so pumped to have McCutchen come up.”
CAPPS, CLOSER: “I remember someone asking why would we trade Nate McLouth. I remember hearing [bench coach] Gary [Varsho] saying, ‘well, the guy we’re bringing up is going to be even better.’ I remember that hitting me."
Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, McCutchen had gone to sleep early because the Indians were rained out. His phone was on silent. Luckily, McCutchen saw his phone was ringing. It was Indianapolis manager Frank Krembles, giving him the news. He had a 5:40 a.m. flight to Pittsburgh with a connection in Chicago. First pitch between the Pirates and Mets would be at 12:35 p.m.
MCCUTCHEN: “I got there about 11:40. Went and saw the manager, John Russell. Told him I was running on fumes right now, but I’m sure the adrenaline [will help] when the game starts. He’s like, ‘good, you’re leading off, playing center.’ That’s when my heart dropped. Like, yeah, this is really happening.”
McCutchen's first at-bat was against Mike Pelfrey, a fellow first-rounder in the 2005 draft.
MCCUTCHEN: “I remember being 0-2 before I blinked. There was an old-time umpire behind the dish, Tim McClelland, and it was a quick 0-2. I remember looking up and just being like, ‘man, I better swing if I want to make any type of magic happen.’ Pitch came in and I was able to fist it off up the middle. When I got to first base, I was like, ‘’man, I can’t believe that got up the middle,’ because at Victory Field in Indianapolis, the grass was so thick, you hit a ball up the middle, the infielders would get to it. I hit it and thought, ‘oh, I’m out,’ but when it got through the middle, I thought, ‘this is big-league grass? That’s great. If that’s a hit, I think I’m going to get quite a few hits.’ ”
McCutchen would pick up another hit, steal a base, score three runs and drive in another in the 11-6 win over the Mets.
MCCUTCHEN: “It was kind of a blur of a day, but a good day. I got a lot of my ‘firsts’ out of the way.”
BROWN: “For him to put on that show, oh my goodness, this doesn’t happen to the Pirates. Not only is he a top prospect, but he delivers when he arrives.”
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ROUND TRIPPER
Date: June 17, 2009. Location: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis. Pitcher: Francisco Liriano.
One first that McCutchen didn't get that first game was his first home run. That would come almost two weeks later against a future teammate, Francisco Liriano.
MCCUTCHEN: “He would always be the one to remind me. ‘You hit your first one off me, right?’ He asked me that question, no lie, like 10 times. 10 times. He’s like, ‘changeup?’ Yeah, changeup. Funny thing about that was I thought it was a fastball."
"I had no idea that ball went out. I thought it bounced out. Thought it was ground rule double. I just saw Delmon Young jump. Thought it went over his glove, hit the ground and bounced out. That’s why I was looking like a ‘deer in the headlights’-type. Was that a double? When I got to second, I saw the umpire doing that [waving his finger]. Once again, another blurred moment for me because I didn’t think it was a homer so I didn’t really get to enjoy it like I wanted to."
Getting a home run ball back can sometimes be an arduous process, with a hot-shot young player often needing to offer signed bats, balls or even tickets as trade bait. Even after just two weeks in the majors, McCutchen already looked like a star in waiting.
NEIL WALKER, SECOND BASEMAN: “There was never any doubts in anybody’s head that he wasn’t going to at least have a long career.”
But McCutchen didn't have to haggle for the ball, as the fan simply threw it back.
MCCUTCHEN: “I didn’t have to give anything up. Appreciate that fan for his hatred of the Pirates.”
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OPPO WALK-OFF
Date: July 11, 2009. Location: PNC Park. Pitcher: Brad Lidge.
Not every rookie can claim that they hit a walk-off home run. Fewer can say they did it off the defending World Series champions and the closer who finished the game.
But when McCutchen reflected about his first walk-off homer, the first words out of his mouth weren't about the game itself.
MCCUTCHEN: “That was my first opposite-field home run ever. In my life. I don’t know if I had ever hit a home run to the opposite field ever before that moment.”
WALKER: “As a AA, AAA player, he pulled the ball a lot more. He hit a lot more balls in the left-center gap. When he got up here, he got tired to flying out to left-center field in this ballpark, and he really made a commitment to use more center, right-center field, and then there’s not too many guys who can do that and do it successfully. When he adopted that center, right-center approach, he couldn’t be stopped.”
That swing was only made possible because McCutchen had made a miscue in the field which resulted in a Shane Victorino triple.
MCCUTCHEN: “It was all because I misjudged the ball. I went in on the ball instead of going back and the ball went over my head. They say one of the hardest things to do from AAA to the big leagues is the flight of the ball off the bat because you have the third tier. All those minor-league stadiums, you only have two tiers. Now you have a third one, ball flies a little more and I got my experience of that there.”
“Capps didn’t get the save. Got the blown save because of me. I was just thinking, give me a chance. Some opportunity to be able to do something. And I got that chance right there. That made that special that much more special to me. I didn’t get him the save, but I got him a W.”
CAPPS: “I got paid on saves… I think that warrants a dinner at some point.”
The cherry on top for this hit was McCutchen's triumphant leap home, one of the quintessential images of his playing career. The idea for the jump came from a conversation he had with his teammate and childhood friend, Lastings Milledge.
MCCUTCHEN: “The night before, we had talked about things we hadn’t done in our career that we wanted to do. Of course he made it to the big leagues before I did, but we were sitting there and I said, ‘I can’t wait until I hit a walk-off homer.’ We started talking about what we would do if we hit one. I said I would jump up like the [Air] Jordan Logo if I ever did it. We laughed and the following day that happened. It was pretty fresh on my memory. When I hit the homer, it was the first thing I thought about.
“Iconic. Good photo.”
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A DASH AROUND THE BASES
Date: Sept. 10, 2014. Location: Citizen's Bank Park, Philadelphia. Pitcher: Jerome Williams.
“I never thought I would do that in my career, an inside-the-parker.”
McCutchen played three years with the Phillies from 2019-2021. In that time, he got a handful of starts out of center field, but never had to play a ball off the top of the left-center wall like the one he hit in 2014.
MCCUTCHEN: “Off the bat, I thought it was a homer, and as it was going down, it’s like, ‘that ball’s not going out.’ But it hit off that concrete, and right when it hopped off, I’m like, ‘ok, I’ve got to go.’ ”
“I ran as hard as I possibly could because I wanted that inside-the-parker. You can see it on my face as I’m rounding third. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. Thank you, Grady Sizemore, for just kind of taking your time. I was able to go in standing up.”
At this time, this was McCutchen's only inside-the-park home run.
WALKER: “Only worse place to hit one is Colorado.”
MCCUTCHEN: "I was tired for the next three innings. I know if I did that today, I’d probably be out of the game. The lactic acid starts building up.”
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'ONE OF THE BEST ALL-TIME IN PITTSBURGH'
Date: July 11, 2015. Location: PNC Park. Pitcher: Nick Greenwood.
On the weekend before the All-Star break, the Pirates and Cardinals met for a four-game series at PNC Park that was the unofficial start of the second-half pennant chase between the two clubs with the best records in baseball. In a back-and-forth affair on a Saturday night, McCutchen came to bat in the bottom of the 14th with the Pirates down a run and Walker on first base.
WALKER: “I remember, internally, that was just a part of the season where we all felt like he just put us on his back. Really catapulted us forward and gave us a bunch of confidence.”
MCCUTCHEN: “It was a good game. It was a good series. Right before the All-Star break. We’re rolling through that moment as a team. That was bound to happen. It felt like things were just clicking for us on all cylinders there.”
WALKER: “Anytime he was at the plate, you knew there was a chance for him to change the game.”
MCCUTCHEN: “You can almost feel that happening before it happened.”
McCutchen's home run was the third time the Pirates erased a Cardinal lead and their only lead of the game. The Cardinals were the beneficiaries of some borderline, if not missed, calls throughout the game, including a pair of foul ball calls on what should have been third strikes, adding to the drama of the evening.
MCCUTCHEN: “If you see me screaming, I’m screaming at a particular individual because of some calls that didn’t go my way. But we’re not going to even talk about that.”
In the broadcast booth, Brown and color commentator Steve Blass gave one of their most enthusiastic calls as a duo, and Brown's exclamations were used in the bumpers for MLB Tonight on MLB Network for years afterwards.
BROWN: “The best game I’ve ever called in terms of excitement, drama, crowd. Everything about it. In my mind, I’m thinking, ‘This is the best game in Pittsburgh,’ and I realize as I say that, it’s impossible to know. How the hell do I know that? As I go, ‘Maybe the best ever in Pittsburgh,’ I wish I had added, [at PNC Park]. I was so exhausted. I was losing my voice because there were so many exciting moments leading up to that… I wanted to say, ‘ever in PNC Park history,’ but I just needed to end it because I was frickin’ done.”
Brown called the Sunday night game before the All-Star break, where the Pirates once again battled back to walk off the Cardinals, this time on a Gregory Polanco base hit. By the end of the game, Brown's voice was starting to crack.
BROWN: “I didn’t have a voice for three days. Thank God the break came.”
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A BITTERSWEET RELIEF
Date: Sept. 26, 2017. Location: PNC Park. Pitcher: Kevin Gausman.
Of all McCutchen's on-field accomplishments, perhaps the strangest omission for a long time was that he did not have a grand slam. He often batted leadoff or third in the lineup, and with the pitcher still batting in the National League game, he didn't have as many opportunities with the bases loaded. Entering the game, he had 201 career home runs and 97 plate appearances with the bases loaded, but never had a four-run swing.
MCCUTCHEN: “I never thought I’d do that. I thought I’d be the only person to have 200-plus home runs without a grand slam. I’m just going to be that guy. Because I was getting close to the record.
"I was going to be that guy. I was going to have that record. I gave up on it. Going into that at-bat, that was my thought process. Whatever. I’m not thinking about a grand slam, and then I hit one. Crazy how that works. That whole game was a special day.”
There was an air of melancholy throughout the night, though. It was the penultimate home game of the 2017 season, and after a year of trade rumors, the belief was McCutchen was going to be dealt in the offseason. That would become a reality in January when the Pirates traded him to the Giants.
MCCUTCHEN: “It was kind of my last hoorah of showing the fan base, not necessarily this is what you’re going to be missing, but I can still do this, and I would love to just do this here. I wouldn’t want to do it anywhere else. It was a bittersweet moment for me, that whole game. I just knew it. The game of a lifetime that I had, but at the same time, I’m on my way out."
“As I’m going through the game, they’re asking for a curtain call. Man, this is great, but it sucks at the same time, because at that moment, that’s when I’m thinking about it. Like, ‘man, this sucks.’ ”
“That inability of knowing what’s about to transpire, I don’t know if it trumped my feelings, but I thought about it a lot more. I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to.”
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BACK AS A VISITOR
Date: May 11, 2018. Location: PNC Park. Pitcher: Michael Feliz.
Of all the videos McCutchen was shown, this was the only one that he needed to confirm. His first hit against the Pirates.
Even though he was a visitor, McCutchen still got the loudest ovations of the day and the series. That would be a common occurance when McCutchen returned to Pittsburgh as a member of the Phillies from 2019-2021 and the Brewers in 2022.
SHELTON: "I think any time Cutch comes to the plate here, there's excitement. I mean, hell, there was excitement when he played for the Brewers when he came to the plate here. That's one of the reasons I was really excited he came back, so they weren't cheering for him in a Brewer uniform."
Getting that first hit back was definitely the hardest, though.
MCCUTCHEN: “I was struggle bus. That was kind of a sigh of relief, hitting that. We’re losing by four in the seventh, but I was struggling. Emotionally, I was struggling there, like I knew I would. I think the first game, I struck out three times. Finally, in the seventh, I got that hit. It was like a breath of fresh air to finally get a hit at PNC, because you knew the fan base, they wanted to see me do something. They don’t want to see me strike out every time. It took me facing someone who wasn’t my teammate before I was able to get a hit. I attest the hit to that: I didn’t know the guy. I can treat this like a normal at-bat.
“Now that I’m here, I try to compare that day to the opening day at home this year, and it’s too totally different… it’s the same, but it’s just different. I was on a different team, so I had the emotion of being somewhere I’d been my whole career, and now I’m on another team. I was more sad. I was appreciative of the fans, but I was really sad that I wasn’t there. Leaving that series, I was just mentally checked out. Mentally, I was not there. Part of me wanted to ask [Giants manager Bruce] Bochy, like, I didn’t want to play. To the point where, I don’t want to be here, man. I’m only doing the team a disservice if I’m out there because I’m just not there."
The series was emotionally draining, with one of the few fun parts of the weekend being the Mother's Day cleats he wore that day. At the bat, he was touched by the ovations, but it made it harder for him to perform.
MCCUTCHEN: “I didn’t think I would get one hit at all. I thought I was going to strike out every single time.”
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BACK, THE RIGHT WAY
Date: April 7, 2023. Location: PNC Park/ Pitcher: Lucas Giolito.
MCCUTCHEN: "If I could have cried…”
McCutchen admitted that he did tear up a bit in his first plate appearance back as a Pirate during the home opener this season, though he fought it as well as he could.
MCCUTCHEN: “Think about it. You’ve welting up with tears and someone throws something to you, you’re gonna panic. You can cry all you want, but you’ve still got to try to hit a baseball. If your eyes are welted up with tears, how are you going to hit a baseball? I had to stop myself from doing that. As much I feel like I could, I can’t, because I’ve got to hit a baseball.”
“I’m swinging no matter what. I don’t care where this pitch is. It can be in the dirt. I’m swinging."
It was the right call. McCutchen rolled one through the right side for a base hit.
BROWN: ”He had to do it.”
WALKER: “I know what that day meant to him from knowing him and talking to him. That doesn’t surprise me either.”
MCCUTCHEN: “It’s something you can do thousands of times, swinging at a baseball, taking a pitch, and how crazy it feels in moments like that. Baseball’s still the same game, but it seems to be more important in moments like that. It’s what you make it. But at the same time, you can’t help how you react to certain situations, and for me, it was a very good moment for me. Special moment, because you don’t get too many moments like that in this game. Try to appreciate it as much as you can… You get that once, maybe twice in your career. There’s moments like that and there are moments when you’re on your way out.”
“Once I swung that bat and it was over, it’s, ‘all right, we’re back.’ ”
