You might be saying, "Return? Where was Andrew McCutchen? Did he go on vacation?"
Heck no! and I'm offended that you asked!
Cutch was on the Disabled List (DL) for the first time in his 6 year career. McCutchen suffered an avulsion fracture from his rib after hitting a sacrifice fly in Arizona on July 4th. A WHAAAAATTT? Basically, his ligament ripped off a piece of his bone during the swing. Now you are intelligent person (despite your previous couple of questions) and you are thinking, "Wait, this guy swings a bat for a living. He has never been injured as a professional. And when he does get injured, it is a freak AVULSION FRACTURE OF THE RIBS?????"
Very strange, I know. If there was only more to the story....
OH WAIT THERE IS MORE TO THE STORY!
Exhibit A: The Precursor: Cutch gets hit in the back one day before his injury. To be clear, it is the same location of his avulsion fracture.
http://m.mlb.com/video/v35038931/?query=cutch%2Bdrilled%2Bby%2Bdelgado
This is a frame shot showing Arizona's catcher Miguel Montero using his middle finger to point at the MVP of before the hit by pitch. (not a typical catching sign fyi)
Why did this happen??? Is Cutch throwing bats at the Diamondbacks third basemen?
The night before a Pirates pitcher hit Paul Goldschmidt in the hand and it was later found out that his hand was fractured. Unfortunately for everyone, Goldy is out for the year because of it. The incident happened in the 9th inning on the eve of "Eff-Cutch gate" (official name still in pending).
Here is Goldy getting hit and it is obvious that Frieri did not intend to hit Goldy. In fact, Goldy swung into the pitch.
http://m.mlb.com/video/v35015681/?query=goldy%2Bhand
The Diamondbacks were more than dissapointed about the Goldschmidt injury. They were out for blood. They even claimed that the Pirates broke an unwritten rule when leading by 5 runs late in the game. Tony LaRussa, now a Diamondback executive, defended "Eff-Cutch Gate" by saying , "I don't see where the Diamondbacks should catch all this (expletive) they're catching." Later he basically stated that only Greg Maddux should be allowed to pitch inside, "So what's happened is some teams have developed this idea that they can pitch in and up. Well it's got rewards because I don't care if you're a right-hander or left-hander, that spot right there nobody gets to that pitch. So it's a hole for everybody. The problem is, unless you have Greg Maddux pitching, that's very risky area to throw in."
According to LaRussa, now that Greg Maddux is now in the hall of fame there should be no inside fastballs ever again in the history of baseball. Or maybe there should be an Inside Strike Proficiency Exam that MLB pitchers will have to register for and pass in order to have a chance against the best hitters in the world.
It's all a bunch of crap. The Diamonbacks petty and unreasonable retaliation is one of the reasons for the Pirates recent slide. And Major League Baseball has done nothing about this clearly intentional injury.
Hopefully, the Pirates can overcome these shenanigans to make a playoff push. If not, the Diamondbacks are blame.
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