Monday, May 6, 2019

5/6 From 1980: Late Rallies Galore; Cool Chad; JHK Returns; Game Stories

  • 1988 - Sid Bream doubled his RBI count for the year by chasing home four runs, including a 12th-inning three-run homer, to propel the Buccos past the Padres in front of 25,045 fans at TRS. With two gone, Andy Van Slyke singled and Bobby Bonilla walked ahead of Bream taking Mark Davis’ heater over the RF wall. He drove in the first run in the opening frame with a bad-hop single, then stranded five more runners until his homer ended it. But the pitchers were the evening’s heroes - Bob Walk, Jeff Robinson and winner Barry Jones limited the Friars to six hits. 
Chico 1992 Stadium Club
  • 1992 - Jose Lind’s 16th-inning single over a drawn-in infield drove in Don Slaught, who had tripled ahead of him, with the winning run as the Pirates bested the Braves 4-3 at TRS. Bob Patterson claimed the win, being the last in a chain of five relievers who worked 11-⅔ innings of near zippo ball, giving up just one unearned run. The Pirates twice rallied with two down, getting hits from Cecil Espy in the ninth and Jay Bell in the 13th to erase Brave leads. 
  • 1994 - The Bucs proved to be a good luck charm to Chicago, ending a couple of Chi-Town losing streaks. The Cubs' 10-1 victory over the Pirates ended pitcher Anthony Young's personal 27-game losing streak and also snapped Chicago’s record 14-game winless string at Wrigley. 
  • 2000 - The Pirates put up six runs in the ninth inning to rally past the Cubs at Wrigley Field by an 11-9 count. With two down in the final frame and still down a run after scoring three times, Wil Cordero tripled on a 1-2 pitch to tie it, Pat Meares doubled in the go-ahead run and Mike Benjamin’s single added an insurance tally. Brian Giles and Luis Sojo homered earlier in the contest and had five RBI between them to help counter three Cub homers. 
  • 2014 - The Pirates won the first-ever MLB walk-off victory by review against the SF Giants at PNC Park. A taut pitching duel duel between Tim Hudson and Charlie Morton went to the wire. After reliever Tony Watson left G-Men on the corners in the ninth, Starling Marte batted against Hudson with two gone and banged a ball high off the Clemente Wall. He raced to third and steamed home when the throw skipped by the base. In a bang-bang play at the dish, ump Quinn Wolcott called Marte out. Clint Hurdle challenged the decision, and the replay showed that C Buster Posey had missed the tag, giving the Bucs a 2-1 win. 
Frankie 2016 Topps
  • 2016 - The Pirates held on to beat the St Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium 4-2. Frankie Liriano’s 10 strikeout effort and the return of Jung Ho Kang led the charge to victory. Liriano’s dominating outing was marred only by a two-base wild pitch, which brought home the first run and set up the other. Kang had missed almost eight months to a gruesome leg/knee injury and was making his first MLB appearance since the prior September. He started inauspiciously, hitting into a DP and then popping out. But he found his seas legs quickly, hitting homers in back-to-back at bats and driving in three runs in a triumphal return. 
  • 2017 - Josh Harrison hit a walkoff single in the 10th inning, plating Gift Ngoepe to give the Pirates a 2-1 win over the Brewers at PNC Park. Josh Bell, Fran Cervelli and J-Hay each chipped in with two hits while Gerrit Cole worked the first seven innings, giving up a run on two hits w/eight strikeouts. Felipe Rivero struck out the side in the eighth and Tony Watson pitched the final two frames for his first win of the season.  
  • 2018 - Chad Kuhl’s last outing featured four homers surrendered in 4-2/3 frames, but today he was a different hurler, tossing seven innings of one-hit/eight-whiff ball against the Brewers at Miller Park as the Pirates breezed to a 9-0 win. Richard Rodriguez came in for the mop-up; he gave up a single while striking out everyone else. Adam Frazier, Josh Bell and Jordy Mercer launched solo home runs among the Bucs 13 hits. Mercer and Corey Dickerson had three hits and Frazier two to lead the batsmen in a team effort; six Pirates drove in runs and seven touched home.

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