9/16: Rennie Goes 7-for-7; 5-40's for Ralph; Rizzo Hits 20; Red Wins 8 Straight; 12 In A Row;

• 1912 - Pittsburgh won its 12th game in a row by beating the Brooklyn Superbas 2-1 at Washington Park behind Rube Robinson’s four hitter. The Bucs got their runs in the second inning when Honus Wagner tripled and jogged home in front of Chief Wilson’s homer.
• 1935 - Mace Brown tossed 5-1/3 frames of one hit, shutout ball from the pen to beat the Boston Braves 5-3 at Forbes Field. Gus Suhr subbed at 1B in the last inning to run his streak of consecutive games played to 619‚ breaking the old NL mark of Eddie Brown. Suhr wouldn’t miss a game until 1937, running his streak to 822 games.

Gus Suhr 1935 Diamond Stars series

• 1938 - Johnny Rizzo became the first Pirate to hit 20 home runs in a season in a 5-4 loss to the Boston Bees’ Dick Errickson. Rizzo, a 25-year old Texan who was hurt the following season and never played regularly for the Bucs again, finished the campaign batting .301 with 23 round trippers and 111 RBIs.
• 1944 - The Reds Tommy de la Cruz spun a one-hitter at Forbes Field to take home a 2-1 win. The Bucs only hit was a first inning triple by Frank Colman, driving in Jim Russell who had walked. Max Butcher took the loss when Steve Mesner drove home Ray Mueller with a ninth inning tally. The Bucs had no answer for them: Mesner had both Cincy RBI and Mueller scored both runs.
• 1950 - Cliff Chambers and Boston's Vern Bickford dueled through 11 scoreless innings before the Bucs broke it open in the 12th at Braves Field. Two walks‚ a wild pitch‚ and four singles gave the Pirates a 4-0 win, with Pete Castiglione’s two run knock the big blow. Both pitchers went the distance, with Chambers tossing a six hitter for the victory.

Cliff Chambers 1950 Bowman series

• 1951 - Ralph Kiner set an NL record by hitting his 40th homer, the fifth consecutive year he reached that mark. The blast came during a DH loss to the NY Giants at Forbes Field, in the seventh inning of the opener against Larry Jensen. The only other player to hit 40 home runs for five or more straight seasons was Babe Ruth, who did it for seven campaigns between 1926-32.
• 1958 - George “Red” Witt won his eighth straight game, 2-1 over the Cards. For Witt, it was his last appearance of the year as he left the club to finish his senior year at Long Beach State. He finished 9-2, and his 1.61 ERA in 106 innings was the NL's top mark. He came to camp next season with a sore elbow and went 0-7 with a 6.96 ERA in 1959. Red won just two more games before retiring in 1962, but did work 2-⅔ scoreless IP in the 1960 World Series.
• 1962 - The San Francisco Giants scored three times off Al McBean and Roy Face in the eighth inning to tie the Bucs 4-4 at Forbes Field. The Pirates then stranded five runners in the eighth and ninth, but finally claimed the win in the 10th frame when pinch hitter Smoky Burgess launched a two run shot off Stu Miller to give Joe Gibbon and Pittsburgh a 6-4 victory. Willie Stargell made his first appearance in this game. It wasn’t very auspicious - he K’ed pinch hitting in the 10th, just before Smoky went long.
• 1975 - Rennie Stennett matched a major league record by going 7-for-7 in a nine-inning game at Wrigley Field (It tied Wilbert Robinson’s 1892 record). He started off with two more hits the next game for nine knocks in a row. The 22-0 romp over the Cubs was the biggest margin of victory in Pirate history.

Seven hits for Rennie (photo Associated Press)

• 1985 - The Pirates were charged with seven errors during an 8-4 loss to the Cards in front of just 3,601 at TRS. It was a bad day all around; the Bucs also lost the second game of the doubleheader 3-1 to be swept by St. Louis. The defeats dropped Pittsburgh to a 47-94 mark on their way to a last place finish and 104 losses.
• 2013 - Andrew Casher faced the minimum 27 Bucco batters as he one hit the Pirates 2-0 at PNC. Jose Tabata broke up the perfect game with a seventh inning leadoff single; he was erased an out later on a 6-4-3 DP off the bat of Andrew McCutchen. The game was a scoreless duel into the seventh when three ground ball singles off AJ Burnett led to the Padres pair of runs.