Pirates' McCutchen finally crosses grand slam off bucket list

It finally happened. Andrew McCutchen hit a grand slam.

Back in June, the Pittsburgh Pirates superstar made it clear that hitting a grand slam was at the top of his baseball bucket list.

Entering Tuesday, he'd amassed 201 career home runs and not one of them had come with the bases loaded. That made him just the sixth player in MLB history to require 200 or more long balls before finally cranking one with the bases juiced.

On this evening, McCutchen smacked a 95-mph fastball from Baltimore Orioles right-hander Kevin Gausman deep into the night at PNC Park. That gave McCutchen five RBIs out of the Pirates' six runs through two innings of play, following a run-scoring double in the first.

He wasn't done there. After opening the game 3-for-3 with three runs scored, McCutchen came to the plate again in the bottom of the sixth with two runners on base, and he did this:

Apparently, he didn't want to hit a triple for the cycle.

With the three-run jack, McCutchen became the first Pirates player since Jason Bay in 2004 to drive in eight runs in a single game, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune's Rob Biertempfel.

One thing that does remain on McCutchen's to-do list is to steal a home run from an opponent with a dazzling outfield play - something that's also eluded him through all 1,342 games he's played since his 2009 rookie campaign.

McCutchen, who was a perennial top-5 finisher in NL MVP voting from 2012 through 2015, kicked off the current season in horrible fashion. He was batting .203/.274/.360 with six home runs on May 24, but has since been a .300 hitter and has swatted 22 home runs - including the pair of dingers on Tuesday.