With 2 HRs, ailing Cutch shows he can still pack a punch

LOS ANGELES -- Andrew McCutchen is not 100 percent. Reading between the lines of what he and Pirates manager Derek Shelton were saying postgame, it doesn’t sound like he’s particularly close, either.

He was out of the lineup the last three days after aggravating a left quad strain trying to score the tying run on a contact play in the 10th against the Padres on Wednesday. The initial strain was a week ago, and that’s on top of coming off of a partially torn Achilles sustained last September, plus the general physical taxes of being 37 years old and playing in your 16th Major League season.

“I would say swinging the bat, he’s fine, but he’s still moving gingerly if you watch him,” Shelton said. “If you get to just jog, then he’s in a good spot, but he’s still grinding a little bit. He’s able to get his swing off, obviously, but other than that, I think he’s still grinding a little bit.”

“You guys see me running around the bases,” McCutchen said. “I'm not where I need to be. But I'm going to do what I can. I'm here to hit right now. That's what I'm going to do. Try my best and if I've got to gimp around the bases, I'll gimp right now. Just trying to do my job."

McCutchen may not be running right now, but he showed Sunday he can still swing it, homering twice to erase an early four-run deficit. While the Pirates ended up taking the lead in the top of the 10th, the Dodgers would strike against David Bednar in his second inning of work, and the Pirates wound losing at Dodger Stadium, 6-5, in 10 innings.

The Dodgers struck for a pair of two-out RBIs in both the first and second innings off of Bailey Falter, but the bullpen -- which had been spinning of late -- picked him up by posting five scoreless frames. That set the stage for McCutchen to tie it with his second two-run shot of the game, a blast to left field off of Anthony Banda in the eighth inning.

Bryan Reynolds would single home Michael A. Taylor to give the Pirates a brief lead in the 10th, but the Dodgers rallied against Bednar, who was the last traditional leverage reliever in the bullpen, before Teoscar Hernández knocked a two-out base hit to right to end the game.

McCutchen’s big game helped give the Pirates second life, but it wasn’t enough to prevent their losing streak from reaching a season-high seven games. And as he continues to battle through his injuries, it raises the question of why it’s important for him to play rather than take more downtime to try to recover.

"Because my 70 percent is better than zero percent,” McCutchen answered. “If I can swing the bat, I'm going to swing it. If I can't run, I can't run, but my job is to hit and DH. They're not asking me to steal bases or anything. Just trying to do my job. Just keep the line moving, get the next guy up, get B-Rey up. That's what I'm going to do. I took a few days off and I’m like, 'All right, I'm ready to go.' That's where I am now. Hopefully I'll feel a little better. As long as I can swing, I'm going to get in there."

This isn’t the first time McCutchen has been part of a young Pirates team that stumbled in August, with 2011 and ’12 being the most notable examples. It’s too soon to write this team off yet, but it needs to right the ship fast.

And it’s clear McCutchen learned a lot from those aforementioned seasons that could be beneficial for this club.

“The game takes no prisoners,” McCutchen said. “It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter where you're from or what you did to get you there. You've got to show up the next day and be ready to win. Can't feel bad for yourself. Game doesn't feel bad for anybody. Game doesn't care who you are. Game doesn't care what you did last year. Game doesn't care if you were an MVP or an All-Star. You've got to be ready to go the next day. That's what I've learned. I don't care that I hit two homers today. I'll be ready to go tomorrow, trying to win the ballgame. That's what we have to do. Gotta put our big boy pants on and go.

“We don't feel bad for each other in here. We're just going to shake it off and get ready to go the next day."