'I’m really happy': Yoshi clubs walk-off blast

PITTSBURGH -- Wil Crowe was inside the Pirates' clubhouse after pitching five innings in his start on Sunday afternoon when he claims Chad Kuhl walked by and told him Yoshi Tsutsugo, who stepped to the plate as the go-ahead run in the ninth inning, was going to go deep.

“We were all like, ‘Yeah, we’d love that. Wouldn't that be awesome?’” Crowe said.

Sure enough, one pitch in, Tsutsugo cranked a walk-off three-run homer over the right-field seats at PNC Park to clinch a 4-3 win over the Cardinals in the series finale. Tsutsugo took Cards closer Alex Reyes deep on a slider down the middle with Bryan Reynolds and Jacob Stallings on base. It was his first career walk-off RBI and walk-off home run.

“Obviously, I’m really happy about that, too,” Tsutsugo said through interpreter Brian Tobin about his first career walk-off homer, “but I’m really happy that I was able to help the team win.”

Tsutsugo has gotten fairly consistent playing time since he was signed on Aug. 16. He’s a product of something the Pirates have said over and over in recent weeks: When they’re giving opportunities to guys in the final month of the season, hoping some make an impression and a case to remain on the roster, they don’t just mean young guys called up from Triple-A Indianapolis.

Tsutsugo is a perfect example of a different type of player. In a 10-year Nippon Professional Baseball career, the left-handed hitter posted a .910 OPS with 205 home runs in 968 games. He’s 29 years old, which in the grand scheme of things is not generally a point at which you begin to worry about a player sharply dropping off in offensive production, but beyond when a player would be considered up-and-coming.

The start to Tsutsugo’s MLB career hasn’t been ideal; he hit .197 with a .708 OPS in 2020 before he bounced between three teams this season. Maybe the third time’s the charm, though, as Tsutsugo is 9-for-27 with two doubles, a triple and five home runs for the Pirates.

“It’s been extremely impressive, and I think it’s a credit to Yoshi,” manager Derek Shelton said. “This is a guy who had a really good career in Japan, he’s come over to the big leagues and scuffled at times, went down to the Minor Leagues and worked on things and made adjustments. We’re reaping the benefits of that.”

Much of Tsutsugo's success has come against St. Louis, whom he has drawn at least one plate appearance against in seven games in August. To show for it, he’s hit 6-for-16 with a triple and four homers, leaving the Cardinals befuddled.

“I won’t take it away from it -- [he’s] a Major League hitter, he’s capable -- but what he did against us, even at our place and here, is not something historically he’s done consistently,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said. “We didn’t pitch very well against him and didn’t make enough adjustments, and for whatever reason, we made pitches that he could put good swings on and he made us pay.”

It’s in part a product of work Tsutsugo has put in as a Triple-A player for the Dodgers, where he said he worked to catch up to the high-velocity fastballs that are common in MLB and “retrieve his swing” that he had so successfully gotten to in NPB. He’s also had to adjust in the field, as the Pirates have sent him out to right field twice since they released everyday right fielder Gregory Polanco on Friday. Tsutsugo looked stronger there on Sunday -- including an on-target throw to help catch Dylan Carlson trying to stretch a single to a double -- than his debut on Friday.

But Tsutsugo doesn’t have much time to make adjustments if he’s going to be on the Pirates in the coming year or more. He’s in a different situation than many of the players on the Bucs’ roster: Tsutsugo is a free agent at the end of the season. So if Pittsburgh wants to bring him back, it will have to have reason to sign him away from another club.

Surely, general manager Ben Cherington will supplement the team with free agents in the offseason as he did last offseason, most notably with left-hander Tyler Anderson. He’ll have to balance that with a group of top prospects producing at Double-A Altoona this season who are sure in at least a few cases to get MLB reps next season.

“Every player that is here and every player who is playing we do believe has a chance to be a part of what we’re doing going forward, whether they’re a free agent or not,” Cherington told 93.7 The Fan on Sunday morning. “… That alone doesn’t mean that there isn’t necessarily an opportunity to go forward, and those are conversations we’ll have after the season.”