McCutchen four-hits his way into the batting lead

For me the NL batting race isn't professional, it's personal.

There have been 172 games this season in which a batter has had at least four hits in a game and no one has done it more frequently than Andrew McCutchen, who had four hits and drove in three last night to lead his Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-2 win over Houston.

Four-hit game leaders

Rk	Player	#	AB	H
1	Andrew McCutchen	6	27	24
2	Ben Revere	5	24	20
3	Daniel Murphy	5	23	20
4	Austin Jackson	5	27	20
5	Joey Votto	4	18	16
6	Mike Trout	4	20	16
7	Denard Span	4	23	16
8	Derek Jeter	4	19	16
9	Ruben Tejada	3	16	12
10	Justin Morneau	3	13	12
11	Yadier Molina	3	13	12
12	Steve Lombardozzi	3	15	12
13	Omar Infante	3	16	12
14	Torii Hunter	3	15	12
15	Matt Holliday	3	15	12
16	Carlos Gonzalez	3	13	12
17	Yunel Escobar	3	14	12
18	Alejandro De Aza	3	15	12
19	Pedro Ciriaco	3	15	12
20	Miguel Cabrera	3	15	12
21	Melky Cabrera	3	13	12
22	Ryan Braun	3	15	12
23	Elvis Andrus	3	17	12

 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used Generated 9/5/2012.

McCutchen's four hits lifted him into the lead in the NL batting race over Melky Cabrera who is selfishly watching his Giants teammates battle to reach the postseason.

NL Batting Leaders

1. McCutchen (PIT).347
2. Cabrera (SFG).346
3. Posey (SFG).326
4. Molina (STL).324
5. Wright (NYM).313
6. Gonzalez (COL).312
7. Braun (MIL).312
8. Fowler (COL).308
9. Holliday (STL).305
10. Hill (ARI).302

Throughout this season, Andrew McCutchen has been slamming out hits (okay, admittedly he only hit .252 in August, but at least he wasn't juicing). His plate discipline has been assisted by pitchers who have pitched to McCutchen's strengths and McCutchen has responded.

Throughout this season, Andrew McCutchen has been slamming out hits. His plate discipline has been assisted by pitchers who have pitched to McCutchen's strengths and McCutchen responds. 

I want to share four graphics with you: 

1. The first is a heat map that dramatically shows you the location of pitches that has led to McCutchen feasting in a season-long hit buffet.
2. The second, lifts off the top layer to show you the numbers underneath the heat map.
3. The third, illustrates the pitches that McCutchen saw last night.
4. Finally, the four hits that McCutchen had last night

Here's how McCutchen has put together an NL leading .347 batting average.

As you can see, McCutchen loves the ball on the inside lower-half of the plate.

But to truly understand what you are seeing, let's strip away the top layer and see how this heat map above speaks volumes.

Look at the numbers in red on the inside of the plate. McCutchen thrives, like most hitters, on pitches right down the middle, hitting .419. But McCutchen punishes pitchers when their pitches miss by just a few inches inside with McCutchen hitting .459 and .400.

But the real difficulty pitchers have is when they are trying to get to those blue areas in the lower right corner of .118 and .125. When they miss, truly by the size of a baseball, McCutchen is a .552 hitter.

The key to a great hitter is being selective, waiting to get the pitch you want and then pouncing on it.

Here are the 21 pitches McCutchen saw last night against the Astros.

Now, look at the location of the pitches that produced McCutchen's three singles and a double last night.

As you can see, it's not that Astros didn't try to get McCutchen out by pitching to his weak zones, it's just that McCutchen, as he has all season long, took advantage of mistakes...pitches in his wheel house.

McCutchen performed professionally last night to regain a batting lead in a race I take personally.