7/14 Games: Roberto's Granny; Rally Drops Matty; Borbon Bite; Grinder's Delight; Game Stories

• 1910 - The Bucs were down 3-0 going into the ninth against Christy Mathewson and the NY Giants at Forbes Field, but scored four times to take home the win. A walk, error and two singles set the table. Matty then loaded the bases with back-to-back walks‚ and after throwing two balls to Tommy Leach was relieved by Red Ames. Ames lost Leach, forcing home the winning run and giving Deacon Phillippe the victory. 

Tommy Leach 1910 Tip Top

• 1940 - The Pirates won their sixth game of seven by whipping Brooklyn 6-2 at Forbes Field. Rip Sewell got the win and also cracked a homer. They dropped the nitecap of the twin bill 2-0 as the Dodgers’ Freddie Fitzsimmons got the better of Ken Heintzelman. 
• 1946 - Hall of Famer Warren Spahn beat the Bucs at Forbes Field by a 4-1 tally for his first MLB win; he would earn 363 of them in his 21-year career, with 49 coming against Pittsburgh. His only blemish was a solo shot by Frankie Gustine. Spahn could have reached 400 wins, but gave up three years (1943-45) to WW2. 
• 1955 - The Pirates suffered the worst defeat in their history to date when Cincinnati mashed them 19-1 at Forbes Field. Reds Johnny Temple, Wally Post and Smoky Burgess had 13 hits among the three of them. Five Pirate pitchers gave up 21 hits (3 HR), 12 walks and a hit batter while the fielders chipped in with three errors. The whupping stayed in the record books until 2010 when the Brewers laid a 20-0 beat down on the Bucs. 
• 1961 - A two-out grand slam in the bottom of the eighth by Roberto Clemente, a rising liner that carried the center field wall at the 410’ mark, erased a 4-1 deficit and led the Bucs to a 6-4 win over the SF Giants at Candlestick Park. Clem Labine got the win and ElRoy Face the save. 

Monster Mash '74 (NBC Sports)

• 1974 - The nitecap of a twinbill against the rival Reds erupted into a donnybrook. The action started after a fourth inning beanball of Bruce Kison by Jack Billingham, causing both teams to rush the field. When Sparky Anderson stepped on Ed Kirkpatrick's foot‚ the Buc catcher shoved the Reds skipper and was rewarded with a sock from Andy Kosko. The best remembered bit of mayhem was when Cincy’s Pedro Borbon bit Daryl Patterson after a little hair-tugging. Patterson got a tetanus shot after the chomp (Borbon told the media afterward for Patterson not to worry about tetanus, but rabies; Patterson countered by saying Borbon "fights like a woman.") The Pirates won the spirited contest 2-1 after dropping the opener 3-2. The victory began an eight-game Bucco winning streak and the Pirates stormed through the second half of the season to take the NL East title, but lost the NLCS to the LA Dodgers three games to one. 
• 1997 - The Bucs came from behind three times, falling behind 1-0, 2-1, and 4-3, to finally beat the Mets 5-4 at TRS to take their 10th win in 12 games. Steve Cooke left after seven with a 3-2 lead, but New York scored twice off Clint Sadowsky in the eighth to leapfrog ahead. The Pirates tallied twice in the eighth for the victory on four straight hits: doubles by Al Martin, Kevin Young and Jason Kendall sandwiched around a knock by Dale Sveum. Rich Loiselle picked up his 12th save (he finished the year with 29), tying the club rookie record set by Francisco Cordova one year earlier. Ricardo Rincon got the win. 
• 2006 - Seven of the Bucs’ 15 hits went for extra bases (six doubles and a Jose Bautista homer), all hit by different players, as the club spread the offense around in a 7-4 win against the Washington Nationals at PNC Park. Joey Bats, Jason Bay and Jack Wilson each collected three knocks. 

Josh Bell 2017 Topps Bunt

• 2017 - The Bucs spotted the Cards a 2-0 first-inning lead at PNC Park but ground their way to a 5-2 win that was nowhere as easy as the score would indicate. Gerrit Cole recovered nicely after the rough opening. Tony Watson, Juan Nicasio and Felipe Rivero held the fort and allowed the Pirates to tie the game at two going into the ninth. With Adam Frazier on second and an out, Andrew McCutchen was given an intentional pass so that Seung Hwan Oh could face rookie Josh Bell. He got ahead 1-2, then J-Bell went the opposite way for a walk off blast and a 5-2 win. Bell’s homer would be the first walkoff hit of three in a six-day span for the Bucs.