Dunlap: McCutchen Needs To Take Matters Into His Own Hands
His teammates are probably tired of it.
Pirates fans, well, they feel the same --- tired of it.
And Andrew McCutchen? You can bet everything he's tired of it.
Doink.
Doink.
Doink.
That's what it has been like to be McCutchen, the star centerfielder for the Pirates as pitches have hit him time and time again in the recent past.
With varying degrees of purpose and intent, 10 pitches struck McCutchen last season and --- heading into play Monday night against the Padres --- eight have already plunked him this season, making double-digits seem a formality as the season has reached only the halfway point.
And with it, McCutchen has grown more outward incensed and vociferous as to his disdain for this little game of inside baseball.
After the most recent drilling --- a Julio Teheran fastball that found his elbow late last month --- McCutchen went so far as to joke about the need to put an end to it by going out and having to "dropkick a pitcher."
Or was it a joke?
And that's we are with all of this, in this little game of tit-for-tat, cat-and-mouse or whatever you want to call it.
It's been a lot of talk to this point, but is it time for some McCutchen action?
Doesn't it feel like, at some point if this keeps happening, human nature says he's due --- and maybe within his rights --- to boil over in a very, very public display?
Hell, I know I wouldn't blame him.
You see, not long after the Teheran heater hit McCutchen, Pirates pitcher Charlie Morton came back and roared inside with a fastball at the lower body of Adrelton Simmons that made contact and, with it, undoubtedly left a nice mark.
That's the way baseball works. That's the code, that's the etiquette and the manner in which this grand game polices itself.
Good on Charlie Morton, who has always been a stellar teammate and never one to shy away from protecting anyone, not just the team's superstar.
But, furthermore, some of this stuff with McCutchen getting hit so much, could be the product of the Pirates pitching inside so much, as they lead baseball over the last three years in their pitchers hitting batters.
But with that said, maybe just some of it; maybe just some of the reason he's getting hit is due to retaliation.
Some might be a proactive, antagonistic measure.
It seems since a late-season branding a few seasons ago by Aroldis Chapman, the book out on rattling McCutchen is to buzz him and see how he reacts.
Sometimes he reacts well, sometimes --- as it was with a mighty slump after the Chapman HBP --- it is going into a bit of a funk.
That's why, if this vicious cycle is ever going to end, it might be incumbent on Andrew McCutchen to be the man to attempt to put an end to it; say "screw the code" and do things his way.
Does he need to charge the mound and go get someone? I don't know, on the surface that sounds great, but it also feels very shortsighted as an injury during a fight would be hard to live with. If McCutchen went out there to grab his pound of flesh next time he felt his was hit on purpose, and he was injured in the process, it would be tough to live with a sidelined superstar not being available because he was hurt in a skirmish.
That's why I propose this the next time McCutchen truly feels he was thrown at …
Don't talk about it in the clubhouse afterward, or speak about "dropkicking" someone or being mad. Quite simply, as soon as he's hit, start that slow walk out to the mound. Not a run, not even a jog, just a nice slow walk out to the mound, mouthing the whole time to the pitcher.
We have all seen how baseball skirmishes work. That will leave enough time for the cavalry to come from both sides, for the benches and bullpens to empty and for someone else to make their way to go get the opposing pitcher.
Let some sacrificial lamb do it --- some Gorkys or Scahill or Lombardozzi or Worley or Sean Rodriguez. Let one of those guys be the explosion on the wick that McCutchen lit by simply making a scene and refusing to take his base.
Let one of those guys go get the pitcher; let them absorb the big suspension and be the hero for Pittsburgh's hero.
If something like this doesn't happen, Andrew McCutchen will keep getting hit, he'll keep taking his base and we'll keep talking about it just the same.
It's going to take a true flash point for this all to stop.
And it is probably going to take McCutchen, himself, causing that flash point.
Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weekdays from 5:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can e-mail him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.
