Pirates' Andrew McCutchen Stares Down Home Plate Umpire

McCutchen and other Pirates player and coaches let the umpire crew know that they messed up after the game.

McCutchen said after the game that he doesn't like that calls have gone against the Pirates this season and supported Kelly for sticking up for the team.

“Just want the call to be right," McCutchen said after the game. "That’s all in that situation. How many times has [Don Kelly] been thrown out since he’s been a manager here? And I don’t think he’s doing that because he wants to be thrown out of the game. He’s doing it because he feels strongly about, maybe a certain call. Whatever that may be. Felt like that went against us and that leads to him getting ejected.

“Why does that happen? I don’t know, but those situations like that, it can’t happen. It can’t happen in those situations. It’s Major League Baseball. We’re all human at the end of the day, but, seen it more than once against us. So, yeah, tough situation to be put in right there, but DK stepped in front of us before anyone could get ejected and appreciate him stepping up, but, wish we never had to be in that situation.”

McCutchen spoke to the clubhouse following the loss, speaking on lack of respect that they get from the baseball world and that they need to go get it.

“It means calls like that will go for us and not against us and we have to earn it," McCutchen said. "We have to earn it to get those calls and the way you earn it is by going out, playing good baseball and winning games. If you don’t do that, that’s the type of thing that's gonna happen. 

"There’s a joke that goes around when you’re a rookie and you come in in spring training, never been in the big-leagues and you’re wearing No. 95. The umpire, in the seventh inning, if it’s not close, he’s probably going to call it a strike because you're No. 95. 

"So, essentially, that’s the same thing when it comes to us right now and the way that we’re playing. Right now, it’s more, eh, we’re on the road, we’re playing against the Padres, it’s in San Diego, it’s a crucial part of the game. The call goes against us right now.

"So if we want that to go for us, we gotta go out and earn it. We gotta go do our jobs and try to win ball games as much as we can. Obviously we’ve been playing better baseball, but just been on the short end of it. Yeah, just want things to change for us, for the better and then we’ll get that, we’ll get that. Hopefully things will go our way if we keep doing things right and ultimately just win the games."

McCutchen had two hits for the Pirates in the defeat, which puts him at No. 9 all-time in franchise history with 1,709.

He hopes that they learn from this moment and grow from it, while wanting the MLB to make sure they see the call on video, just as they did.

“Yeah because, I mean, at the end of the day, no one’s going to feel bad for you in those situations," McCutchen said. "Obviously you want things to go your way. You want the game to be called the way you feel like it should be called, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. You can use it as trying to feel bad for yourself or get over it and get ready for the next game. We’re all grown men in here. You got to shake it off and get ready for the next game. Obviously we have the video, so we know, so I just hope that they do too.”