Bucs rookie earns 1st career win
CINCINNATI — Rookie Daniel McCutchen needed six starts and big assists from Lastings Milledge's bat and glove to break into the win column.
McCutchen pitched into the seventh inning for his first major league victory and Milledge homered and turned in a key defensive play, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates past the Cincinnati Reds 3-1 Friday night.
"I got some big plays behind me," McCutchen said with Milledge sitting at the next cubicle in the visitors clubhouse. "They gave me a chance."
Pittsburgh was leading 3-0 when Paul Janish led off the sixth inning with a double for the Reds. Joey Votto hit a sinking line drive to left field that Milledge caught knee-high and backhanded on a dead run.
"Defense is the thing I've taken the most pride in," Milledge said. "I just tried to cut the ball off. I could have taken a deeper route, but if it got past me, it would have only been a double anyway, so I went after it."
Said McCutchen: "If he doesn't get it, it's a double, the run scores and it's a completely different ballgame."
Andy LaRoche drove in two runs despite twice being thrown out trying to stretch singles into doubles as the Pirates picked up their fifth win in their last six games. The win guaranteed the Pirates will avoid 100 losses.
"When all is said and done, it is important. But we wanted to finish over .500 this last week or so," Milledge said. "A hundred losses or not, we wanted to finish strong. We're all playing for a spot on the roster. No one has a (guaranteed) job on this team."
McCutchen (1-2) made his major league debut with a no-decision at Cincinnati on Aug. 31 and had been winless in five starts for Pittsburgh. He held the Reds scoreless until Wladimir Balentien's 467-foot home run.
"It shouldn't have taken six starts," McCutchen said. "I guess the sixth time's the charm. It feels good to get it out of the way."
Manager John Russell credited McCutchen's aggressiveness.
"The first nine hitters, McCutchen threw eight or nine first-pitch strikes," Russell said. "We talked to him about getting ahead of hitters. He's thrown the ball pretty well for us. He just hasn't had a win."
