8/6 From the 80’s Forward: PNC Park Naming; Karsten 2-Hit Debut; Zach Wins 5-In-A-Row; Walk Offs & More

• 1985 - The players staged a two-day work stoppage over a couple of gnawing financial issues. The MLB quickly agreed to increase its pension contribution and the league’s minimum wage, making the players happy, and the games were made up later in the season. 

Jeff King 1989 Fleer

• 1989 - Jeff King smoked an 18th-inning leadoff HR on a 3-1 pitch off the Cubs' Scott Sanderson, who had tossed eight innings of shutout relief, to give Pittsburgh a walk-off 5-4 win. The game took five hours and 49 minutes to play, tying it for the longest game played in Pittsburgh and TRS. Doug Drabek worked the last two frames to earn the win in his only relief outing of the season. 
• 1998 - The Pirates and PNC Bank announced a 20-year marketing deal under which the new home of the Pirates would be named PNC Park when it opened in 2001. Per the agreement, PNC would pay approximately $1.5M a year through the 2020 season. As a side deal, the Sixth Street Bridge would be renamed the Clemente Bridge as a sop to the many who believed the ballyard itself should have commemorated The Great One. 
• 2005 - Zach Duke became the second rookie in Pirate history to win his first five decisions as a starter when the Pirates topped the LA Dodgers 9-4 at PNC Park. The 22-year-old was the first Bucco rookie since Whitey Glazner in 1921 to start 5-0, and none has gone 6-0. Duke’s 0.87 ERA in July was the lowest among all MLB pitchers. Freddy Sanchez and Chris Duffy combined for seven hits and five runs at the top of the order with Jason Bay knocking in three scores. 
• 2008 - Jeff Karstens tossed a gem against the Diamondbacks, a two-hit, 2-0, complete game win at Chase Field. He got all the runs he needed on a Freddy Sanchez homer and RBI double from Doug Mientkiewicz. In his second start for the Pirates, he retired the first 23 Arizona batters he faced before Chris Young doubled in the eighth, and ran his scoreless streak to 15 innings since being acquired from the Yankees. For the cherry on top, JK banged out his first two career hits, both off The Big Unit, Randy Johnson.

Jeff Karstens 2010 Upper Deck

• 2012 - Eric Bedard, Jason Grilli and Chad Qualls combined for a two-hit, 4-0, win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at PNC Park. Andrew McCutchen had a pair of hits and scored twice for the Pirates. Freddy Sanchez added a pair of knocks. It was a tough win; the Bucs needed three eighth inning runs to put the game away, keyed by four consecutive ground ball singles and a sac fly. 
• 2013 - Josh Harrison led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk-off homer to right center off Mike Dunn to give the Pirates and Bryan Morris a 4-3 win over the Miami Marlins at PNC Park. Neil Walker had three hits and Andrew McCutchen added a pair to carry the Bucco attack. 
• 2016 - The Pirates sent RHP Arquimedes Caminero to the Seattle Mariners for a PTBNL and a conditional PTBNL (the Bucs ended up with two low-level minor leaguers). Caminero could touch 100 and went 6-3-1, 3.58 for the Pirates from 2015-16 but was inconsistent, averaging four walks per/9 IP. He’s pitching in Japan now.

Arquimedes Caminero 2015  TSR

• 2017 - Jameson Taillon (after a rocky first) and Juan Nicasio were cruising along with a 4-2 lead over the San Diego Padres after eight frames. But Felipe Rivero blew his first save of the campaign and gave up a pair of runs to send the game in bonus baseball. The Friars had left the bases loaded in the ninth; the Pirates did the same in 10th. A pair of unlikely heroes saved the day for the Bucs. Dovydas Neverauskas, a AAA call up, pitched two scoreless frames and Sean Rodriguez, a former Bucco who was reunited via trade the day before, smacked a walk-off homer to give Dovy his first MLB win and sent the PNC Park crowd of 34,175 home happy.