Andrew McCutchen to undergo further evaluation on side injury
By Hayden Kane
The Arizona Diamondbacks carried out an especially idiotic brand of vigilante justice this past weekend when they had pitcher Randall Delgado plunk Pittsburgh Pirates’ outfielder Andrew McCutchen in the middle of the back.
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The action was in response to an unfortunate fastball that hit Paul Goldschmidt on the hand in the previous game. Nobody thought it was intentional, not even Goldschmidt himself, and the Diamondbacks carried out the hit on McCutchen the next night anyway. That’s Kirk Gibson for you.
On the very next day after he was hit, McCutchen was forced to exit the game early because of side pains. Due to the location of the issue and the proximity to the incident in question, one cannot help but wonder if it has to do with that hit-by-pitch.
McCutchen will undergo further evaluations on Monday to determine the extent of the injury. He had the following to say about the situation (courtesy of MLB.com):
"“I hope not, but it did hit me right in the spine,” McCutchen said of the Randall Delgado fastball ostensibly delivered as payback for Ernesto Frieri having fractured Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt’s left hand the night before. “So it was tight, stiff a little bit. And I had to get a little bit of [pregame] treatment.“But I went through my warmups fine, no issues, hitting and all that. It wasn’t a major issue besides being bruised. But the side has never been a problem ever in my life, so I’ve never had to deal with this, so who knows.”"
That direct connection cannot reasonably be drawn yet, which is why McCutchen did not go so far as to make such a claim.
We have reached the point in the season where a team like the Pirates can focus on winning and a team like the Diamondbacks can choose to focus on other things. In both cases those statuses are indicative of the states of the respective franchises.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, the Diamondbacks might be affecting their playoff run because of their interest in stupid retaliations and proving to everybody that they are gritty and tough.