Manager Clint Hurdle said McCutchen (knee) will return to the starting lineup Friday in St. Louis "unless he misses the flight," Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

EDGE Analysis

Hurdle said that McCutchen's left knee has been bothering him for the last five or six days. Pittsburgh had a chance to bundle two off-days with a Sunday afternoon start and Monday's day off, but instead the team rest August's NL player of the month Thursday.