One of the wonderful things about a player like Andrew McCutchen is that no matter how badly he seems to be slumping, he’s never more than a swing away from breaking out. After an 0-for-5 night last night, a relatively slow start to the second half, and a strikeout in the first inning against the Twins this afternoon, McCutchen stepped up to the plate in the fifth inning and hammered a two-run homer to tie this afternoon’s game against the Twins at three. To that point, the game had been awfully sloppy for the Pirates; they left the bases loaded in the third, they misplayed some balls in the outfield due to the wind, and Francisco Liriano didn’t seem to have his best stuff. From the point of McCutchen’s home run forward, it turned into a borderline farce and an easy win for the Pirates
The inning after McCutchen’s homer, Ervin Santana threw a wild pitch with runners on second and third to put the Pirates ahead 4-3. He then walked Travis Ishikawa and Jaff Decker, before a Starling Marte sac fly gave the Pirates a 5-3 lead. McCutchen stepped up again and laced a single to left field that Eddie Rosario completely whiffed on, allowing Ishikawa and Decker to score and McCutchen to go to third. As McCutchen arrived at third, Eduardo Nunez missed the throw to third from the outfield, then collided with McCutchen as McCutchen broke for home. He was called for interference and McCutchen was awarded the plate. In one trip through the lineup, bookended by big hits from McCutchen, the Pirates turned a 3-1 deficit into an 8-3 lead and cruised from there.
In their last six games, the Pirates have five wins and have scored at least seven runs four times. It was about this time last year (well, actually about two weeks from now, but let’s not get into the specifics of what transpired in Arizona around last year’s deadline) that the Pirate offense heated up to an incredible level and carried the club into the playoffs. If the Pirates could get McCutchen and Marte going along with Kang (who had another homer to open the scoring here as well as two more singles) and Polanco, well, that’s a club that could run down a five-game deficit in the season’s last 60 games.
Anyway, the Pirates have won 59 of their first 100 games. They’re at .500 after the All-Star Break, despite their ugly six game run out of the break. They’ll be either 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 out of first place, depending on tonight’s Cardinals/Reds result. These last 62 games are going to be [fun, stressful, wild, aaaaahhhhhhhh it’s crunch time pennant race baseball again heeeeeeeeelp].
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