San Francisco Giants: Cutch Has His First Big Day as a Giant

The San Francisco Giants’ new right fielder had his first big day with the team, with Andrew McCutchen coming through in the clutch in a huge way.

Andrew McCutchen was brought to the San Francisco Giants to improve their lineup, to add some pop to a lineup that had been virtually devoid of it for far too long. He was also brought in to be a leader in the clubhouse, to be the guy to inject some life, some fun to a dugout that just hadn’t had much fun recently. He did plenty of both on Saturday.

The new Giants’ right fielder had his coming out party as a Giant against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his seventh game wearing the orange and black. He racked up six hits, a total he had never reached before in his 1,352-game big league career, and sent his new fanbase home happy in the 14th inning. He won a 12-pitch battle against Wilmer Font, unleashing his first home run as a Giant to walk off their archrivals.

Most importantly, McCutchen looked comfortable. Comfortable in his new uniform, comfortable in front of new fans, comfortable to be a Giant. He was comfortable in the batter’s box, as well. He scorched the first pitch he saw against Los Angeles starter Rich Hill, hitting a 106-mph double to left field for his first RBI as a Giant (given by a generous official scorer ruling after Joc Pederson misplayed the ball).

More from San Francisco Giants

• Thank you SF Giants for a fun, wild, surprising 2020 season
• SF Giants lose in heartbreaking fashion and miss 2020 MLB playoffs
• SF Giants: Mike Yastrzemski named 2020 Willie Mac Award recipient
• SF Giants: Chadwick Tromp placed on IL with shoulder strain
• SF Giants: Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners postponed

In the fourth inning, he led off with a line drive single to center field. The next inning, he grounded a ball back up the middle for his third hit. In the seventh, he collected another single, this one down the left field line, but was robbed off an RBI when Logan Forsythe made a great play to keep the ball from going into the outfield.

His fifth hit, the hit that tied his career high, came off Kenley Jansen and McCutchen lashed it the other way for his fourth single. But when the Dodgers pushed a run across in the top of the 14th inning, the Giants needed some of that magic that has seemed to elude them in recent years. And when Kelby Tomlinson and Joe Panik started the inning off with respective singles, it was back to McCutchen.

Font threw a curveball that caught the top of the zone for the first pitch, and got McCutchen to swing through a 1-1 fastball that was also up. McCutchen entered battle mode after that, fouling off four straight pitches, most of which stayed above the zone, before laying off a curveball in the dirt. McCutchen fouled off three more before Font made his mistake.

With catcher Yasmani Grandal set up low and away, Font let his fastball get away from him. It sailed up and in, but didn’t leave the strikezone. McCutchen turned on it and nailed it. He knew it was gone right away. Buster Posey, in the on-deck circle, knew it was gone right away. As Posey raised his arms in celebration, McCutchen dropped his bat and took a few slow steps out of the box before pumping his arms, stomping his feet, and yelling for everyone to “let’s go!”.

McCutchen hadn’t really been going with the pitch very much in his first few games as a Giant. The pitches he hit to center field or right field on Saturday were pitches that he had been rolling over on earlier, resulting in easy groundballs. Even when he did make solid contact, the ball just wouldn’t find grass. Everything worked for him on Saturday.

He even showed the ability to play the tricky right field at AT&T Park, as well. He played a double perfectly off the high wall in right, not getting caught by the hard bounce off the wall. That’s not an easy thing to do, as Dodgers’ right fielder Yasiel Puig can attest to. Puig couldn’t successfully corral a bounce off the wall, allowing a run to score on a Brandon Belt double.

The celebration after the home run might be the pièce de résistance, though. That type of swagger has been missing from the team for a while now. That type of reaction is why he’s here now, and the Giants have themselves a great ballplayer and a great leader.

Next: Giants Minor League Teams Open Seasons

There are many different ways to earn the love of a fanbase, but hitting a walk-off home run as part of a monster night against the team’s biggest rivals? That’s got to be at the top of the list.