- 1902 - Jack Chesbro pitched a five hit shutout and struck out 11 Giants to beat Christy Mathewson, 4-0 at Exposition Park despite the Buccos losing five straight runners via baserunning errors. With two outs in the third, Ginger Beaumont was on second base and was tossed out trying to advance to third on a grounder to short. In the fourth, Honus Wagner led off with a triple, but was thrown out at the plate on Kitty Bransfield's grounder to first; Bransfield was then caught trying to steal second. Claude Ritchey drew a walk and got picked off first. Jimmy Burke led off the fifth with a double and tried to stretch it into a triple, but was tagged out by Matty, covering the bag.
- 1933 - The Pirates blew an 8-0 lead in the ninth as the Boston Braves rallied to tie the score at Forbes Field, leading to Larry French’s “Soap Game.” Per Bob Fulton’s 1999 Pittsburgh Pirates History: “French figured he could duck out of the bullpen and hit the showers early. Little did he know as he was getting clean that the Braves had rallied to make the score 8-7. When the call came for French to pitch, he didn't even have time to rinse off. He put on his uniform and hustled out to the mound with soap trickling down his neck.” French tossed 1-⅔ IP perfectly and earned the win as the Bucs came back to take a 9-8 decision. Arky Vaughan helped, too - he doubled, banged two triples and drove in five runs.
- 1938 - The Pirates won their 13th straight game, 14-6 over the Cubs at Wrigley Field, as C Al Todd homered and drove home five runs. With their 40th victory in their last 54 games‚ the Bucs were in the NL lead for the first time that season. Ed Brandt got the win and Rip Sewell notched a save.
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| Al Todd (photo retro Images Archive) |
- 1959 - Roberto Clemente kept ElRoy Face’s win streak alive when he cracked a bases loaded single off the right field wall in the tenth to rally the Bucs to a 6-5 win over the Cards at Forbes Field. Face had blown the save in the ninth, but settled down and was on the hill for the win. Dick Groat and Danny Kravitz carried the attack with three hits.
- 1973 - Dave Parker made his Bucco debut in right field, replacing Manny Sanguillen, in a 4-0 Pirate win against San Diego at SD Stadium. He went 0-for-4, but Willie Stargell homered and had three RBI while Bob Robertson added a solo shot. Luke Walker went the distance for the win, spinning a five hitter.
- 1990 - Barry Bonds hit his 100th career home run off Andy Benes in the first inning in a 4-3, 15-inning win over the San Diego Padres. Jeff King drilled a two-out single to right to score Dan Bilardello for the win at TRS after the Friars bullpen had tossed 9-⅔ innings without giving up a run. Bob Patterson got the victory after tossing three scoreless frames; the Bucco relief corps put up 7-⅓ frames of shutout ball.
- 1997 - Mark Smith's pinch-hit, three-run homer in the bottom of the 10th off John Hudek capped a no-hitter by Francisco Cordova (nine innings) and Ricardo Rincon (one inning) against the Houston Astros. (Lanny Frattare’s call: "Home run! No hitter! You've got it all!") It was the first combined, extra-inning no-hitter in MLB history, and the first time that TRS was sold out for a game other than a home opener, drawing 44,119 fans for fireworks night. Little did they know...
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| Francisco Cordova & Ricardo Rincon 1998 Upper Deck |
- 2002 - The Pirates rode two-run homers by Brian Giles, Kevin Young and Jack Wilson to a 9-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. Sean Lowe got the win in relief of Jimmy Anderson, who was yanked in the third after giving up his seventh hit.
- 2008 - The Pirates scored four times in the ninth and twice in the 10th to outlast the St. Louis Cardinals 12-11 at PNC Park in a game. They were losing 9-3 going into the seventh inning, but scored in that frame, the eighth, ninth and tenth to rally for the victory. Nate McLouth hit a three run homer and Jay Bay later drove in the tying run in the final frame on a first-and-third force out that the Cards couldn’t convert into a DP. Jason Michaels ripped a two-run shot in the 10th to walk off a winner. Bay had two long balls and five RBI to lead the offense. Adam LaRoche also had a dinger, as the Bucs launched five balls over the fence during the game.
- 2013 - Pittsburgh scored twice in the first on Pedro Alvarez’s homer (he had been selected to play in the All-Star Home Run Derby as an injury replacement just days before by NY’s David Wright, who was booed mercilessly by the PNC Park crowd for ignoring El Toro the first time around) and then went nine more frames before posting another run, but it all worked out as the Bucs took a 3-2, 11 inning win from the Mets. Jordy Mercer singled home Andrew McCutchen after two outs with the winning run to give the Pirates’ sixth pitcher, Vin Mazzaro, the victory.
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| Petey 2013 Gypsy Queen |
- 2014 - The Bucs blew a 4-0 lead to the Reds at GABP after Charlie Morton was touched up for a five-spot in the sixth inning, but managed to tie the game in the ninth on Andrew McCutchen’s solo homer off Jonathan Broxton and won it in the 11th when clutch Cutch homered again off JJ Hoover to deliver a 6-5 victory. McCutchen had three hits, as did Jordy Mercer and Travis Snider. Six Pirates relievers shut the door on Cincinnati, with Justin Wilson picking up the W and Jeanmar Gomez earning his first MLB save.
- 2015 - In a see-saw game that was tied 3-3 after nine, the Bucs prevailed in dramatic fashion to drop the St. Louis Cardinals 6-5 in 10 innings at PNC Park on ESPN. Frankie Liriano, a .057 hitter, drove home a pair of runs and Gregory Polanco one more, countered by a Jhonny Peralta homer and pair of manufactured scores. In the 10th, things turned gloomy when Randal Grichuk banged a bases loaded double off Arquimedes Caminero, scoring two Redbirds although a third was nailed at the plate. That would prove huge. Trevor Rosenthal, who had thrown 27 pitches the day before, came on. He got two outs after Jordy Mercer’s leadoff blooper, and then the Pirates starting coming. A Starling Marte single brought in Jordy, Jung-Ho Kang’s knock moved him up, and Marte sprinted home on Fran Cervelli’s two strike roller inside the first base line to even it up. A walk brought up Polanco, and he dropped the first pitch into right for the game winner and the Pirates second walk-off win in consecutive nights over St. Louis. Caminero, though battered, earned his first MLB win.
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