Clint Hurdle called it "as inspiring a performance as I think I might have ever seen."
Ross Ohlendorf said it was "best performance I've seen in the majors by anybody."
Joel Hanrahan said, "Knowing the circumstances of how much he's pitched lately, and to go from being off to throwing that much, it's got to be one of the pitching performances of the year."
They were talking about Pirates reliever Daniel McCutchen and his 5.1 innings of work in Tuesday night's 19-inning contest against the Braves. It was almost a quality start, only it came in relief. McCutchen, who had almost gone in as a pinch runner in the eighth inning, instead took the mound in the 14th when he and closer Hanrahan were the only relievers left and told Hurdle he'd keep the ball until they had the lead.
Told of the descriptions his manager and teammates were giving of his outing, McCutchen, who threw 92 pitches that night, accepted the praise graciously.
"I don't know, I just let what I want to be take over. That was it," he said. "The defense played great behind me; it was a close ballgame. I just went with it. I've definitely had that feeling before many a time. It felt good. I was having a lot of fun out there."
The 5.1 innings out of the bullpen were the most by a Pirates pitcher since Ron Villone went 5.1 innings on May 13, 2002 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Going into Thursday's games, McCutchen's 57 innings this season was tied for fourth in the majors among relievers behind Jonny Venters (62.1), Jim Johnson (59) and Tyler Clippard (57.1).
He also grounded out in the 16th inning and hit a sacrifice bunt in the 18th, showing remarkable speed running to first
"He's really gutsy," Ohlendorf said. "I've played with him a lot, but this year he's become a whole different pitcher and it's great to see. But to pitch like that and not even think about coming out of the game, when he wasn't even supposed to pitch because he's pitched so much, that was just incredible. And just the way he ran down the line to first, I did know that he had that in him, for sure. He's really fast."
— Karen Price
Rob BIERTEMPFEL's COLUMN
The Mets were eager to trade Carlos Beltran this week, and the Pirates were willing to pay lots of dollars to get him. But it all became a moot point days ago, when Beltran refused to take the Pirates off his no-trade list.
It's not the first time a player has rejected Pittsburgh as a destination. Manager Clint Hurdle admitted that in January, when we talked about the club's modest shopping list in the free-agent market.
"What people sometimes don't realize is sometimes it's not about paying more money," Hurdle said. "Some players just don't want to come to Pittsburgh right now. There have been times when we put more money on the table (than other teams) but we still haven't gotten the guys. That's the state we're in right now, and I understand that."
Changing the way players look at the franchise will take time. Winning games — actual sustained success, not the few appearances atop the division standings — will help.
"We've got to win some more games, so we get a little more attractive as this thing moves forward," Hurdle said. "It's not about setting a number of wins. We'll talk about winning the National League Central. People can laugh, but we're going to start with that thought."
Hurdle, his staff and the players must keep fulfilling their end of the bargain. The front office must keep being patient and creative, with expanded financial support from ownership.
If all that continues, impact players such as Beltran won't snub their noses at the Pirates anymore.
MINOR-LEAGUE REPORT: Altoona's Starling Marte
Pirates fans on Twitter were aflutter when news broke that Starling Marte had been pulled out of Wednesday night's game at Double-A Altoona.
It wasn't injury-related, so speculation began immediately that it must be because he was about to be traded, despite cautions against drawing such conclusions. As it turns out, Marte was benched because of the way he was playing.
"Marte was removed from the game for not playing the game the way we expect it to be played," Pirates director of player development Kyle Stark said. "I'm not going to discuss the details of it. We've handled the situation and moved on."
Marte, who played in this year's All-Star Futures Game and went 1 for 3 batting leadoff, is batting .307 with 24 doubles, five triples, seven home runs and 33 RBI in Altoona, with a .343 on-base percentage and a .452 slugging percentage.
He was back in the lineup on Thursday, batting leadoff.
— Karen Price
