300 game: Pirates star Andrew McCutchen starts season sitting 1 home run shy of milestone

After a season of meeting milestones — his 2,000th hit, 1,000th walk and 400th double — Andrew McCutchen came up one short of joining the 300-home run club last year.

The Pittsburgh Pirates designated hitter, a five-time All Star, four-time Silver Slugger and 2013 NL MVP, is sitting at 299 homers as the Pirates open the season Thursday at the Miami Marlins. After suffering a season-ending partial tear in his left Achilles, McCutchen is now healthy but would prefer to remain mum about this impending milestone.

So Cutch was ready to end the conversation before it began.

“I don’t want to talk about it. When it happens, I’d rather talk about it then,” McCutchen told TribLive. “I’ve sat on 299 for a long freaking time. I was stuck on 1,999 hits, and I didn’t want to talk about it. I ended up talking about it, and it took me 10 games to get one hit. I don’t want to even think about it.”

McCutchen was beaten to the 300-homer mark by six players last season. St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado entered with 299 homers before hitting one in his eighth game, on April 9. Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman joined Ruben Sierra to become only the second player in MLB history to hit a grand slam for his 300th on May 18. DH J.D. Martinez joined his then-Dodgers teammate June 27, and San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado hit his July 15.

After hitting 10 homers through the first three months of the season, the middle of the summer was brutal for McCutchen. He batted .115 in July and .212 in August. Even worse, he endured a 27-game homerless stretch between July 1 and Aug. 19, when he hit a three-run shot off Minnesota Twins reliever Jordan Balazovic in the ninth inning of a 7-4 win at Target Field.

Meantime, Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper hit 10 homers in August, including three consecutive games for his 300th on Aug. 30.

Finally, McCutchen hit his 12th homer of the season against Adam Wainwright, a two-out, two-run shot in a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Aug. 22. That put McCutchen at 299 for his career.

McCutchen wouldn’t say he was swinging for the fence over his final 11 games, but he was barreling the ball. His final two hits were for hard contact, with exit velocities of 107.4 mph and 102.5 mph.

“I just wanted to end on a good note for the rest of the season,” McCutchen said. “At the end of August, I was struggling. September came around and tried to turn the page on a new month. I started off the month well. Then the injury happened. I don’t know about hitting the (300th) homer. I just wanted to finish strong. You know eventually the homer is going to come.”

And he came so close.

After hitting his 100th and 200th career homers against the Brewers, McCutchen almost pulled off another milestone moment against Milwaukee on Sept. 4. He hit a pair of doubles off 2021 Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, the first a 367-foot blast in the fourth inning that looked like it had a chance but short-hopped the left-field wall.

The second was a low liner down the third-base line that ricocheted off the corner wall. When McCutchen felt something while rounding second base, trainers checked on him and he was removed from the game.

“To be able to hit two doubles in that game against Corbin Burnes, that gets you feeling really good about yourself,” McCutchen said. “It felt good. Then the body just didn’t want to cooperate. That was the story of 2023. When my body was in a good place, I played well. When it wasn’t, I didn’t. That’s why this year …”

McCutchen’s voice trailed off. After dealing with nagging right elbow, left knee and Achilles injuries, the 37-year-old is just hoping to stay healthy this season. Even Carlos Santana, who played for the Pirates before being traded to the Brewers in late July, reached the milestone before McCutchen by hitting his 300th home run Sept. 23.

After being traded by the Pirates in January 2018, McCutchen returned last year after five seasons with four teams and received a warm welcome at PNC Park at the home opener and every at-bat thereafter.

“It just made too much sense,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said on MLB Network’s Hot Stove in November. “We were so lucky, really, to be able to do it. The reaction from fans, the team, himself, people that work for the team for a long time and have been there, it was just amazing. Credit to him for just how important it was to him, how genuinely he wanted to come back.”

Pirates manager Derek Shelton was impressed by the effort and energy McCutchen continues to play with, calling it “unbelievable to watch” and found his charisma in the clubhouse to be contagious.

After he led the team with a .369 on-base percentage and tying for the most walks (75) while hitting 19 doubles, 12 homers and 43 RBIs in 112 games, the Pirates made it clear all offseason that they wanted McCutchen back for an encore. He signed another one-year, $5 million contract in December but has resisted calling this his swan song.

First baseman Rowdy Tellez, a former teammate in Milwaukee, rattled off the list of McCutchen’s career accomplishments during an in-game interview with SportsNet Pittsburgh on Sunday and called it “an honor to play beside him” with the Pirates.

“I would say it’s an honor to be part of an organization where he’s on their Mount Rushmore,” Tellez said. “It’s an honor to take the field with No. 22. It’s going to be really special watching him hit No. 300.”