9/15 Games: Cannonball Zippos; Waners B-2-B; Garner Granny; Sweeps; Ohlie Had A Day; More

• 1888 - Ed Morris of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys tossed his fourth consecutive shutout‚ a 1-0 win over the NY Giants, setting a NL record that lasted until 1968 when Don Drysdale threw six straight shutouts. Morris began his streak with 2-0 and 1-0 victories over the Phillies and a seven inning, 2-0 win over the Senators. And Cannonball did it in a hurry; it took him eight days to pitch four complete game whitewashes, all at Exposition Park. Morris went 29-23 on the year with a 2.31 ERA. 
• 1938 - Big and Little Poison homered in the same match for the third time, but it was the first time in MLB history that brothers went long back-to-back in a game (off Cliff Melton in the 5th inning).The deed wasn’t matched again until 2013 when the Upton brothers (Justin and BJ) lost consecutive balls with the Braves. The Lloyd & Paul Waner dingers highlighted a 7-2 Bucco win over the NY Giants and Cliff Melton at the Polo Grounds. Jim Tobin took home a complete game victory. The Waners had two hits and two RBI each; Johnny Rizzo and Arky Vaughan led the attack with three knocks apiece, with Rizzo and Pep Young also adding four-baggers. Mel Ott got some rude treatment from winning Bucco hurler Jim Tobin during the action, who beaned him three times for another record. But it didn’t cause Master Melvin too much damage, though - the soft-tossing Tobin was a knuckleballer. For Lloyd, it was a timely blast - it was the last homer Little Poison hit in the show although he hung on for six more seasons. Bucco siblings wouldn’t homer in the same game again until 2009 when Adam and Andy LaRoche connected against the Twins. 

The Waner Bros (photo via 90 Feet of Perfection)

• 1934 - The Pirates swept the Phils 6-1 and 4-1 in a Baker Bowl twin bill. Five Bucs had multiple hits in the opener, led by Tommy Thevenow and Tom Padden with three each. Arky Vaughan added a homer to back up Larry French’s six-hitter. In the nitecap, five Pirates again had multiple hits with Thevenow, Lloyd Waner, Arky Vaughan (he added another round-tripper), Gus Suhr and Earl Grace swatting a pair apiece to support Waite Hoyt’s four-hit outing. Pittsburgh outhit Philly 30-10 over the day. 
• 1951 - The seventh-place Bucs defeated the league-leading Brooklyn Dodgers, an oddly regular occurence in an otherwise down year for Pittsburgh. As Les Beiderman of the Pittsburgh Press wrote “Johnny Merson, playing in just his second major league game, staged a one-man riot at Forbes Field as the Pirates made the league-leading Dodgers dance to an 11-4 tune to the accompaniment of cheers of the 11,098 faithful. The 27 year old Merson...fired two singles, a double and a triple and drove in six big runs as the Pirates became the only team in the league to wind up with a seasons edge on the Dodgers, 12-10.” Frank Thomas added three hits including a homer to back up Mel Queen, who got the win with some strong relief work by Ted Wilks. The Bucs finished the year 64-90 and their showing against da Bums (the Dodgers were one of just two teams the Bucs had a winning campaign against) probably cost Brooklyn the pennant as they finished one game behind the NY Giants after losing the Bobby Thompson “shot heard ‘round the world” playoff game. As for Merson, he hit .360 in 13 games as a September call up, but batted just .246 the following season and after one game in 1953 was out of major league baseball. 
• 1962 - The Pirates beat the Giants’ Jack Sanford, 5-1, at Forbes Field to hand the righty his first loss after 16 straight wins. Sanford and Bob Friend were locked in a 1-1 duel until the Bucs broke it open with a four-run eighth inning, with the key blows being a Roberto Clemente double and Bob Bailey triple; the rookie had a three-RBI day. Friend tossed a five-hitter with nine K; Sanford served up a six-hitter, but eight walks eventually sunk him. 

Scrap Iron 1978 Hostess

• 1978 - Phil Garner hit his second grand slam in two games. Today’s was in the first inning off Woodie Fryman as the Pirates beat the Expos 6-1 at TRS. Yesterday’s was against Bob Forsch as the Bucs beat the Cards 7-4, also at TRS. Garner was the first player to hit slams in consecutive games since Brooks Robinson in 1962. Bruce Kison took the win with late help from Ed Whitson and Kent Tekulve. 
• 1992 - Alex Coles used the old Roberto Clemente trick and threw out St. Louis pitcher Mark Clark at first base from right field as the Bucs edged the Cards 4-2 at Busch Stadium. Helping the cause were homers by Jeff King, Barry Bonds, and Andy Van Slyke. Paul Wagner got the win in relief of Randy Tomlin, with Danny Cox picking up a save. 
• 1996 - The Pirates took a twin bill from the Giants by 4-1 and 11-9 scores at 3Com Park, sweeping the G-Men in a five-game set, a feat the Bucs wouldn’t repeat again until 2018 when they broomed Milwaukee at PNC Park. Jon Lieber scattered nine hits for the win with help from Matt Reubel. Orlando Merced and Carlos Garcia had a pair of hits, but the key blow was John Wehner's two-out, two-run, two-bagger. The offensive fireworks in the second game were provided by Tony Womack and Carlos Garcia, each with a pair of hits and three RBI; Jermaine Allensworth added four raps as the Bucs banged out 16 hits. Marc Wilkins, the fifth of seven pitchers, got the win. It was a wild finale - the game was tied 5-5 after nine; the Bucs hung on by outscoring the Giants 6-4 in the 10th inning, with San Fran bringing the go-ahead run to the plate with two outs before Joe Boever whiffed Kim Batiste to book it. The sweep was the start of an 11-game winning streak, but they still finished with just 76 wins in what would be Jim Leyland’s last Pirates campaign. 

Ohlie 2011 Topps Gold

• 2011 - Ross Ohlendorf recorded his first win of the year and also whacked his first (and only) career homer in a 6-2 win over LA at Dodger Stadium. The Pirates trailed 1-0 after the first inning before scoring four times in the second, highlighted by a two-out, three-run blast by Ohlie who did it all in the City of Angels. 
• 2016 - The Buc bats erupted for a 15-2 beatdown of the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. The Pirates hits five homers (Andrew McCutchen - 2, John Jaso, Sean Rodriguez & Jordy Mercer the others) and scored an amazing 15-of-17 RISP. One was caught stealing, so Pittsburgh tied an MLB record that's been on the books since 1913 by leaving just one man LOB when scoring 15+ runs. The Bucs eight-run ninth matched their best inning of the year while 15 runs were the high water mark for runs scored in a game that season. Talk about using all three outs: the last 12 runs the Corsairs plated came with two away. The 15 runs were the most for the Bucs in a game against the Phils since June 1967.