McCutchen, Hayes continue home run surge in victory over Twins

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Prior to his third and final at-bat in Friday’s Grapefruit League matchup against the Twins at LECOM Park, Derek Shelton approached Andrew McCutchen with a simple question. 

“I asked him if he wanted to run because veteran guys, when you get their third at-bat, you run for them,” Shelton explained. “He said, ‘Well, I’m gonna hit a double and go hard on the 90.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you just hit a homer and run hard?’ He said, ‘If I hit a homer, I’ll give you a hard 90.’”

Soon after the comical back-and-forth conversation between the veteran and skipper concluded, McCutchen fulfilled his promise by running hard to first and jogging around the rest of the bases, as he sent a 1-0 sinker from Josh Staumont over the center-field fence for his first home run of the spring in a 6-3 win. 

“That happened, and I turned around and looked at him,” McCutchen said. “It was a good laugh.” 

McCutchen has now hit safely in each of his first two games this spring. He singled in his first at-bat against Toronto on Tuesday before belting a ball 418 feet towards the deck in center against Minnesota. McCutchen will be the first to admit that spring training home runs are overrated. Still, he still sees value in any information he can gather from the swings he takes. 

“If you hit a ball on the screws, that means everything is working perfectly, most times. You took the right swing, right approach, right timing. Everything has to sync up for that to happen,” McCutchen said. “That’s why home runs are, I think, one of the coolest things in sports, just because everything has to just work perfectly.” 

McCutchen, who went 1 for 3 on Friday, added: “When you do something like that, it lets you know that all the work you’ve been doing, over the offseason and tinkering here and there to get yourself in a good spot, the fact that I’m able to do that in my fifth at-bat, lets me know that I don’t need to be making drastic changes. I just need to stay where I’m at and maintain that same approach. That’s the hardest thing to do in baseball.” 

McCutchen wasn’t the only Pirates player to send one out, as Ke’Bryan Hayes continued his stellar spring with a solo shot of his own in the fourth. Behind in the count 1-2, Hayes hammered a pitch from Brock Stewart that was down and inside to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. 

“A lot of times last year, whenever I started to feel good, outside of a couple pitches, there were a couple pitches where I was in a better spot, I had more space, where it felt like the pitch was almost middle, middle-in,” explained Hayes, who is hitting .368 with three homers and seven RBIs in seven games this spring. “Then I would look at the video and it would be almost the inner-third line. Really still looking up and out over the plate, middle of the plate, and then just reacting to the pitches in. Not really looking for 'em or anything.”

The Pirates lead Major League Baseball with 24 home runs this spring. In addition to the two hit by McCutchen and Hayes, Canaan Smith-Njigba added his second of the spring during Friday’s split-squad doubleheader against the Braves in North Port. 

While the at-bats and swings leading to the long balls have been encouraging, not a lot of stock is being put in to this surge of home runs. 

“We have to do little things better. Key got a hanging breaking ball that he hit and swung the bat well. Cutch hit a line drive … not taking anything away from him, but I don’t know that it gets out at PNC because of the cut there and how deep it is," Shelton said. "As long as we’re taking good swings, but don’t look at spring training homers. Don’t put any stock in ‘em at all. Just because of the fact that early in the spring, guys are throwing fastballs. They may not throw breaking balls. They may be working on things. Our guys are taking good swings, but the little things are why we’re going to be successful offensively.” 

Hayes finished with two hits against the Twins, joining Jake Lamb with multi-hit performances. Lamb went 2 for 2 with a double and a run scored to help lead a 10-hit attack. Against the Braves, the Pirates totaled 11 hits in a 6-6 tie. Billy McKinney, Edward Olivares and Gilberto Celestino each had two hits.