Andrew McCutchen was Mr. Clutch for the Pirates late Tuesday night.
McCutchen hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 12th to give the Pirates a much-needed win over the Milwaukee Brewers.
Here’s the blast:
– Rick Green
It’s not too often that you can says this, even if it is the end of April: The Pittsburgh Pirates are in first place.
It’s especially nice after they started the season 1-5.
The Bucs took two out of three games against the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend to pass them up in the NL Central standings.
The big surprise after the Pirates were hammered 9-1 in the first game of the series Friday has been the pitching.
With apologies to Andrew McCutchen, the cover boy for “MLB The Show” and the hot-starting Starling Marte, the best thing going with the Pittsburgh Pirates is A.J. Burnett.
Burnett took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning Wednesday night, giving up a double to Carlos Beltran in a 5-0 win.
Burnett whiffed four of the first nine batters and struck out eight total. He was on.
Here’s Clint Hurdle on Burnett last night:
Actually, he’s been on all season.
It got interesting at the end, but the Pittsburgh Pirates prevailed 6-5 over the Cincinnati Reds Friday night.
After taking a 5-2 lead, the Pirates gave up a run to the Reds in the sixth inning and two in the seventh.
Andrew McCutchen responded with his second home run of the season.
Jason Grilli pitched the ninth, giving up a hit and a walk before striking out Brandon Phillips on a 3-2 pitch.
The Pirates improved to 4-6 while the Reds dropped to 5-5.
Tony Watson (1-0) picked up the win in relief of A.J. Burnett, who struck out eight in six innings. He was charged with three earned runs.
It’s a solid win for the Bucs after taking 2-of-3 from the Diamondbacks. The team easily could have folded after giving up the tying runs.
– Rick Green
Pittsburgh Pirates fans will have one more reason to purchase MLB 13: The Show.
Outfielder Andrew McCutchen won the fan vote to appear on the cover of the popular video game with 108,148 votes.
After winning the vote, McCutchen posted this on his Twitter account: “I am humbled and thrilled that you, the fans, have voted me as the cover athlete for MLB 13: The Show.”
McCutchen beat New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia (89,056 votes). Sabathia was followed by Triple-Crown winner Miguel Cabrera and Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp.
You can check out the voting here.
– Rick Green (follow me on Twitter @ETNrgreen)
In my opinion, Melky Cabrera has done the right thing.
The Associated Press is reporting that the San Francisco Giants’ Cabrera has been disqualified from the National League batting title at his own request.
A person familiar with the discussions told the AP that Cabrera asked the players’ association to convey his desire to the commissioner’s office and that an agreement to make him ineligible was reached Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.
Cabrera is currently serving a 50-game suspension for failing a drug test. He leads the National League with a .346 average.
The Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen is second at .339.
It would have looked bad for Cabrera, and MLB, if Cabrera would have won the batting title while serving a suspension.
In other sports, a player failing a test would lose any title or medal. The same thing should, and will apply to baseball in this case.
At one point, it looked as if McCutchen would win the title. With his slump — and the Pirates — it had increasingly looked as if Cabrera would win.
Aroldis Chapman routinely hits 100 mph on his fastball.
Apparently Pirate All-Star Andrew McCutchen didn’t like it when he was plunked by Chapman Friday night.
Do you think there will be any retaliation by the Pirates today?
http://youtu.be/DSS20zemaPE
Going into today’s trade deadline, the need for the Pittsburgh Pirates was obvious: get a power hitter.
They did that with the acquisition of outfielder Travis Snider from the Blue Jays.
In exchange for Snider, the Pirates send Toronto pitcher Brad Lincoln.
“We think Travis will fit in well with us in right (field),” Pirates GM Neal Huntington said. “He’s a hard-nosed player with power who likes to use the whole field and can make pitchers pay for their mistakes.”
With Snider, the Pirates have someone to step into the outfield right away. It should give them a starting outfield of Starling Marte, Andrew McCutchen and Snider.
I like the look of that.
Snider has serious power potential, something missing from this team. The big question is whether this helps more for this year or 2013.
Lincoln has emerged as a very good reliever this season. He could be a future closer for Toronto.
However, it’s easier to find a reliever than it is to get a power hitter.
Snider, 24, hit 14 home runs in 2010 with the Jays in 298 at-bats. A lefty, Snider hit .335 with 13 home runs in the hitter-friendly PCL this season.
Long term, I like the deal a lot. MLBtraderumors.com reports that Snider is under team control through 2016, which is a big plus for the budget-constrained Pirates.
That gives the Bucs a legit home-run threat for a few years.
The downside is the Pirates enter the final two months of the season with a rookie in left and an unproven player in right. That’s a big risk, but it could work out this season and beyond.
It’s nice to see a Bucco get noticed, but CBS Sports is off on this one.
MVP awards aren’t won in June and usually a team needs to win a division or be a contender.
I doubt the Pirates will be either in September.
I’d guess carrying the Bucs will weigh on Andrew McCutchen’s shoulders and weigh down is numbers when the dog days arrive.
Loading ...