McCutchen's return nears as woes vs. lefties continue

MILWAUKEE -- Andrew McCutchen has gone from pacing the circumference of his hotel room in Atlanta to pacing the clubhouse at American Family Field. This is progress. But he’s not ready to play just yet.

McCutchen is expected to remain confined to the COVID-IL on Wednesday afternoon when the Brewers face left-handed Braves ace Max Fried in the finale of a three-game series. It’s a quick turnaround from a quiet night against another Atlanta lefty, Triple-A call-up Tucker Davidson, who pitched five scoreless innings while dueling with Adrian Houser in a 3-0 Brewers loss on Tuesday.

“I think [McCutchen] needs more baseball,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “With the off day [Thursday], it just gives us two more days to get him ready to go for the weekend.”

McCutchen is 2-for-15 lifetime against Fried, but he’s the sort of right-handed bat the Brewers like to stack against lefties -- so far without much success. After being shut out by Davidson and four relievers with right-handed hitting McCutchen and Willy Adames (ankle) sidelined, Milwaukee is 4-8 in games started by opposing left-handers compared to 19-6 against righties.

Those dozen opposing southpaws have combined for a 1.39 ERA. None has been charged with more than two earned runs and only two have been charged with more than one run.

“Quite frankly,” McCutchen said a few hours before Houser and Davidson took the mound Tuesday, “I’m ready to go today. But that’s just me. That’s my mentality. When I was five days into it I was like, ‘I’m ready to play, come on, let’s go.’”

McCutchen reported feeling under the weather on May 7 when the Braves were in Atlanta and tested positive for COVID-19. He spent the next week sequestered in his hotel room and described feeling terrible with all of the common symptoms of the virus, most notably aches and fatigue. Once he started feeling better, he paced the carpet and did squats and push-ups to keep his body moving. He kept his mind active with YouTube videos and conspiracy theory podcasts -- and with Twitter, becoming the Brewers’ most high-profile and arguably most entertaining commentator.

Eventually, McCutchen was cleared to travel back to Milwaukee, and on Monday, MLB cleared him to rejoin the team. By Tuesday afternoon McCutchen was on the field for the first time during batting practice, eager to get running again.

“You can probably hear it in my speech, I’m still congested,” he said. “I’m negative, but it still has its effects and it takes some time to feeling like yourself. I went out and did some throwing, running, I took some batting practice and I’ll run down some fly balls. We’ll see how the process goes. But it was brutal. It was brutal for the first couple of days.”

Instead of facing Fried, who held the Brewers to one run on four hits over seven innings in Atlanta on May 7, McCutchen will get two more days of workouts, including on the team’s off day Thursday, before the Brewers’ three-game series at home against the Nationals from Friday to Sunday.

The Brewers’ trouble with left-handed starters is not a new development. Last season, they were 20-19 in games started by southpaws compared to 75-48 in the rest, which is one reason McCutchen was appealing to Milwaukee with the addition of the universal DH. Last season in Philadelphia, he slashed .293/.405/.622 with 15 homers in 164 at-bats against lefties.

In a small sample this season, McCutchen has a .696 OPS in 28 at-bats against lefties. Some of the Brewers’ other right-handed hitters have had even more modest output, including Lorenzo Cain (.262 OPS vs lefties), Tyrone Taylor (.579) and Keston Hiura (.398 prior to his demotion to Triple-A Nashville). New right fielder Hunter Renfroe has been the exception, with a team-best 1.032 OPS and five home runs so far against southpaws.

“We haven't done well against them, I agree,” Counsell said. “I think it will change. I think we can provide plenty of matchups to be good against left-handers, we just haven't done it yet. We had some opportunities [on Tuesday] but didn't get a hit. We had plenty of guys on base, we just didn't get the next hit.

“I'm confident. I like our lineups versus lefties. We're obviously missing a couple of guys, but the guys we can normally run out there against left-handing pitching, I think it's a good lineup.”

McCutchen will bide his time two more days.

“This is really the first time I’ve had a condensed schedule of baseball activities so we’ll see where we are,” McCutchen said. “I’m anxious, ready to be back. Just ready to get back in the lineup, be with the club. But we’ve got to be smart.”