Andrew McCutchen is Winning Games by Himself

The title is obviously a bit facetious, but Andrew McCutchen is nearly as hot as a baseball player can be this month. In the month of May, McCutchen is hitting .420/.500/.900 with seven home runs and 13 RBI. He's the only guy hitting on the team and without his production this month, we're not sure where the Pirates would be record-wise, but it probably wouldn't be pretty.

Let's look at the games the Pirates have won in May and see what McCutchen has done in each of those games, just to get a feel for how many of them could have been lost without his influence. Some of the things I'm going to say here may not be true, because you just don't know what would have happened if McCutchen would have done something different. The whole butterfly effect comes into play, but let's just ignore it for the time being (you'll see what I'm saying, just keep reading).

May 3: Pirates 6 Cardinals 3
McCutchen: 0/2 (was pulled from game due to sickness)
The Pirates won this game without McCutchen plain and simple. Pedro Alvarez had himself a day with a two run homer in the sixth and the team got an RBI from Nate McLouth's, Cutch's replacement.

May 5: Pirates 3 Reds 2
McCutchen: 1/3, BB
The runs came from the bats of Neil Walker and Alex Presley who both homered, McCutchen was not on base for either run, so the Pirates would have been just fine without him in there as well.

May 8: Pirates 5 Nationals 4
McCutchen: 1/2, HR, R, RBI, 2 BB
This is when McCutchen really started to heat up. He hit a solo home run in this game, which was huge in the one-run walk off win. McCutchen led off the 4th inning with that home run, and Garrett Jones would homer with two outs in that inning as well. If McCutchen records an out, Jones doesn't get to bat and the Pirates get two less runs in this game.

May 9: Pirates 4 Nationals 2
McCutchen: 4/4, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI
Andrew homered late in this game to give the Pirates an insurance run that they actually wouldn't need, but his RBI single in the 3rd certainly helped the team win. Not only did it drive in a run, but it extended the inning and McCutchen would come around to score on a Casey McGehee weak ground ball. McCutchen had no business scoring but Ian Desmond triple clutched and Cutch went 180 feet on an infield single. That's two runs he created right there. I'm confident in saying that without McCutchen the Pirates don't win that game.

May 8: Pirates 5 Astros 2
McCutchen: 4/4, 1 R, HR, 1 RBI
McCutchen's only direct influence on the scoreboard this night was the solo home run in the 3rd, but he also started a two run 6th inning with an infield single. The Pirates probably still win this game without McCutchen's help.

May 13: Pirates 3 Astros 2
McCutchen: 1/4, 1 RBI, 1 BB
McCutchen kicked off the scoring in this one with an RBI double in the first inning. He was also intentionally walked in the 9th inning which allowed Pedro Alvarez to drive in the tying run on a sacrifice fly. Who knows what would have happened if he wasn't intentionally walked, but in this case the fear of Cutch worked in the Pirates favor. The RBI double was certainly huge in the one run win, but you can't say for sure that they would have lost in extra innings without it. Tough call here.

May 14: Pirates 3 Marlins 2
McCutchen: 1/3, 1 R, 1 RBI
McCutchen had a sacrifice fly in the first to score Tabata and scored the winning run in the 6th inning after singling ahead of Pedro Alvarez who drove him home with a double. Nobody else would register a hit in the inning after the Alvarez double. That's two runs McCutchen created, so I'm going to go ahead and chalk it up to him.

May 17: Pirates 5 Nationals 3
McCutchen: 2/4, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI
Without McCutchen's two solo home runs, this one would have gone into extra innings. McCutchen didn't factor into any of the other runs the Pirates scored, so this one is a toss-up too. They could have won in extras without him.

May 19: Pirates 4 Tigers 3
McCutchen: 2/4, 2 HR, 2 R, 4 RBI
This is an absolute no doubter. McCutchen drove in all four Pirates runs while the rest of the team picked up just seven hits, all singles. Without McCutchen the Pirates lose this one. Just from that you can see the hug influence that McCutchen has had on the Pirates record this month, which stands at 9-9. I don't know exactly where the team would be without their center fielder, but I'm sure they wouldn't be anywhere near the .500 mark that they have been flirting with recently.