Andrew McCutchen has been hit by pitches eight times this season, with two of them coming over the past three days, and it sounds like the former National League MVP has had enough.
During Friday’s game against the Braves, McCutchen was hit by pitch thrown by Williams Perez. In the first inning of the next game, McCutchen was hit by Julio Teheran on his elbow. He was forced to leave the game and underwent X-rays, which came back negative.
After the game, McCutchen joked that he may need to take matters into his own hands so pitchers stop throwing at him.
“I don’t know, maybe I need to drop-kick a pitcher,” McCutchen said via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Maybe that’ll scare them into not throwing me in.”
“I hate getting hit, but worse than that I guess pitchers don’t like getting their ERAs run up with a fastball over the middle of the plate I can do damage with. I’m sure they’d rather hit me than do that.”
McCutchen was hit by pitches a career-high 10 times last year in 146 games. He’s just two shy of that total through 73 games this season, so his frustration is certainly understandable.
McCutchen wore an elbow guard during Sunday’s game. However, he may have to step up the armor the ball keeps finding him.
Elbow guard✔️, Rib and Back guard ✔️, Shin guard ✔️, RoboCop outfit??? #WorkingOnIt
— andrew mccutchen (@TheCUTCH22) June 28, 2015
A Robocop suit would be a good way to ensure McCutchen doesn’t end up on the disabled list from getting beaned.
