Perrotto on the scene: Cutch shakes it off ⁴⁰

Andrew McCutchen, out since March 12 with a lower-body injury, went 0 for 2 in his return today. — GETTY

BY JOHN PERROTTO

BRADENTON, Fla. — Sights, sounds and the scene at McKechnie Field today …

• Andrew McCutchen is over his ‘lower-body soreness.’

It was easy to wonder if the Pirates’ star center fielder had an injury — perhaps a serious one — when the team pulled out an old hockey term to describe his condition. There was speculation McCutchen had a left knee injury because of the way his leg was wrapped in ice from thigh to ankle.

As it turns out, it really was just “lower body soreness,” at least according to McCutchen.

“It was just general tightness in my lower body,” McCutchen said today after returning to action for the first time since March 12. “I just never had felt like that before.”

McCutchen went 0 for 2 with a strikeout as he played 4 1/2 innings of the Pirates’ 9-2 loss to the Orioles.

Asked if he would have been playing over the past week and a half if it were the regular season, he answered without hesitation: “No doubt. I played with a broken rib last year. This is spring training, and there is no sense pushing anything. The regular season is a whole different thing. If it counted, I’d absolutely would have played the entire time.”

Indeed, McCutchen played in much greater pain that he let on publicly during the stretch run last season after being hit by a pitch from the Diamondbacks’ Randall Delgado on Aug. 3. His teammates marveled at his pain tolerance after spending just the minimum 15 days on the disabled list.

The only concern now is that McCutchen has accumulated just 16 plate appearances this spring. That leads to the question of whether he can have his timing down at the plate by April 6 when the Pirates open the season at Cincinnati.

He doesn’t see that as a problem, either: “If I need to get 10 at-bats in a day to make up for what I’ve missed, I’ll just go over to Pirate City and get 10 at-bats. That’s not a problem. I’m not worried about that at all.”

Of course, everyone over the past six years has come to realize there is never a reason to be concerned about McCutchen.

• Despite playing such a key role in the Pirates reaching the postseason for the second straight year last season, Jared Hughes could possibly begin the season at Class AAA Indianapolis because of a combination of a roster crunch and poor performance.

Hughes gave up five runs and six hits while retiring only one of the seven batters he faced today. His spring ERA now stands at 11.37.

Furthermore, Hughes has a minor-league option remaining, and the Pirates are trying to find a way to cram out-of-options relievers Arquimedes Caminero, Radhames Liz and Stolmy Pimentel into the bullpen, so they do not have to expose any of them to a potential waiver claim if they try to send them to the minors.

• While prefacing this by admitting spring training statistics are mostly meaningless, it is interesting to note that Pirates middle infielders turned five double plays, even though Korean rookie Jung-Ho Kang played second base while Neil Walker served as the designated hitter. Kang was a shortstop in the Korean Baseball Organization.

• While prefacing the spring stat thing again, Walker seems poised to show that his career year in 2014 wasn’t a fluke. The switch-hitting second baseman went 3 for 4 and is 12 for 34 (.353) with five doubles and a home run in Grapefruit League play.

• Reserve catcher Chris Stewart, who has been out for two weeks with a strained right hamstring, returned to baseball activities before the game but is still likely to begin the season on the disabled list. Tony Sanchez looks more than capable of being the No. 2 catcher while Stewart heals as he continued his torrid spring with two doubles in three at-bats to raise his average to .464 (13 for 28) with five doubles and two home runs.

John Perrotto, veteran of four decades of Major League Baseball coverage in Pittsburgh, is a freelance writer for DKonPittsburghSports.com.