9/1 Games: First Team, 5-Game Sweep, Tied For the Top, Quail Slam, Teke & Grant, Clutch Craig, Game Stories

• 1877 - Jim “Pud” Galvin and the Alleghenys edged St. Louis in 15 innings‚ 1-0. Two days earlier‚ they had beat Milwaukee by the same score in 12 innings, per Charlton’s Baseball Chronology. Both games were played in the International Association, making the Alleghenys the first local minor league club; the other area nines were independent teams. The Alleghenys finished the season with a 13-6 record, the second best record in the league. The club consisted of twelve players in 1877, all of which later made it the majors and was managed by Denny McKnight, a lifelong Pittsburgh native who also served as the International Association's president. The team folded the next season, not to return until the 1882 campaign. 

Pud Galvin 1887 Goodwin/Old Judge

• 1890 - On Labor Day at Washington Park, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, later known as the Dodgers, won all three games against Pittsburgh in the first tripleheader ever played. The home team swept the visiting Alleghenys, who were renamed the Pirates next season, 10-9 (The Alleghenys scored nine times in the ninth with Doggie Miller tossed out at home trying to stretch a triple into a game-tying homer), 3-2, and 8-4. Allegheny hurler Dave Anderson went the distance for games two and three and took both losses (ouch). The Alleghenys then lost to them the next day 5-4 to run their losing streak to 23 games. The Pittsburgh franchise would also play MLB’s last tripleheader in 1920 against the Reds, doing a bit better by winning one of the contests. 
• 1917 - The Pirates lost their third straight 1-0 game to the St. Louis Cardinals at Robison Field. The Cards‚ behind the pitching of Red Ames, Oscar Horstmann and Milt Watson‚ won the tag team match against Bob Steele, Wilbur Cooper and Hal Carlson. With the three pack of 1-0 wins, the Cards tied the MLB mark and set the NL standard. 
• 1925 - The Buccos defeated the Philadelphia Phils 10-3 to sweep a five game series at the Baker Bowl. The Pirates outscored Philadelphia 54-18 during the set and scored in double digits in every game. Pie Traynor had four hits while Earl Smith (w/four RBI) and winning pitcher Vic Aldridge added three knocks and homer apiece. That Pittsburgh club won the NL title, the World Series and their 912 runs scored were the most tallied by the franchise in the modern era.(the Pittsburgh Alleghenys of 1893-94 put up 970 & 965 runs, averaging over seven runs per game!) 

Earl Smith 1925 (photo Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

• 1927 - The Pirates tied for the NL’s top spot by beating the Cubs‚ 4-3 at Forbes Field. Joe Harris homered and doubled, with two runs and two RBI, to back Lee Meadows. The Waner brothers cut down Chicago runners at home and third. The Bucs whipped the Cards the next day to take the sole possession of first place and never looked back, winning a sizzling pennant race by 1-½ games. 
• 1963 - The “Quail,” CF’er Bill Virdon, hit a two-out walk-off grand slam off Al Worthington to give the Bucs a dramatic 6-4 win over the Reds at Forbes Field. Willie Stargell drove in the other runs with a homer and double. Earl Francis, the third Buc pitcher, got the win. 
• 1965 - The Bucs laid losses on aces Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale on the same day during a Forbes Field twinbill with last at-bat rallies. The Pirates defeated Koufax, 3-2, in 11 innings in the opener and then beat Drysdale, 2-1, in the nitecap. Joe Gibbon and Vern Law picked up the victories. Jim Pagliaroni doubled home Willie Stargell to claim the opener while Bill Virdon scored on a two-out error in the eighth to take the nitecap. It was the Bucs 12th win in 14 games and moved them within 2-½ games of LA in the NL pennant race. 

Kent Tekulve 1979 Topps

• 1979 - Chuck Tanner sent reliever Kent Tekulve from the mound to left field and brought in southpaw Grant Jackson to face lefty Darrell Evans against the Giants with two down in the ninth. (He wanted Tekulve available in case Evans got aboard.) Evans hit a fly to Teke, who waved his arms although no one was within 100’ of him and made the catch to finish the game, a 5-3 Bucco win in the opener of a DH at Candlestick Park. It was Teke’s only appearance in the field anywhere but on the mound during his entire pro career. Willie Stargell had two homers and Dale Berra added another in support of the Bruce Kison win. Jim Bibby pitched the Bucs to a 7-2 sweep in the nitecap, backed by Lee Lacy’s three hits, including a homer, two runs scored and three RBI. 
• 2004 - The sputtering Bucco offense was rescued by Craig Wilson, who drilled a two-out homer in the ninth off closer Dan Kolb to tie the Brewers 2-2 at Miller Field. The Pirate attack woke up in the 10th when Ty Wigginton’s two-out, bases loaded infield knock plated a run and Jose Castillo provided the insurance with a two-run two-bagger. Ryan Vogelsong started for Pittsburgh, with the win going to Salomon Torres and a save to Jose Mesa. The Pirates first run was scored by Jack Wilson, who was chased home by a Daryle Ward double.