6/16 From 1980: Notable Losses; Firsts Day; Game Stories; HBD Arquimedes

• 1986 - The Pirates were behind at Three Rivers Stadium, 4-1, in the sixth inning when it rained; ump John Kibler shooed the clubs in with a pair of short delays before calling the game, giving it to the Cards. The Bucs protested as the NL had guidelines for the time required before a contest can be banged, and Kibler missed the mandated wait time badly (to his credit, he even called the league offices that night to report he had screwed up). And hey, the Pirates won the protest, a rare occurrence, with the game being picked up at that spot the next night (the 18th). It proved to be a moral victory only; the Redbirds hung on to win 4-2. 

Arquimedes Caminaro - 2015 TRS Newbies

• 1987 - RHP Arquimedes Euclides Caminero (named after Archimedes and Euclid) was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The speed demon - he’s hit 100 on the radar gun - had his contract sold to the Pirates by the Miami Marlins in 2015. In 112 appearances with the Pirates from 2015-16, he went 6-3-1/3.73 before being dealt to the Seattle Mariners. He’s now toiling in Japan. 
• 1994 - The Pirates beat the Cardinals, 7-5, in 10 innings. They made it hard on themselves by banging into a NL record-tying seven double plays at Busch Stadium, but put up a three spot in the 10th for the win. The Pirates even scored their last run on a DP; Carlos Garcia’s sac fly brought home Orlando Merced while Gary Varsho, who had started on first base, was thrown out trying to get to third after the play at the plate. 
• 1997 - It was a day for Pirates firsts: It was the Pirates first interleague road game, Mark Smith homered in the first at-bat by a Pirates DH in franchise history, and Kevin Polcovich swatted his first career long fly (both dingers were off Scott Aldred) as the Bucs outlasted the Minnesota Twins, 8-6, at the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome. Kevin Young, who also homered, and Adrian Brown had three hits while Jason Kendall added a pair of doubles. Winning pitcher Jason Schmidt was the beneficiary of the eight-run, 15-hit attack and Rick Loiselle got the save. 
• 1998 - Talk about brutal: the Bucs blew a 7-1 ninth inning lead against the Phillies to lose 8-7 at Veterans Stadium after Philadelphia roughed up relievers Ricardo Rincon and Rich Loiselle. The pair walked three and Loiselle surrendered a two-out, three-run, walk-off blast to Mike Lieberthal. SS Lou Collier also threw away a grounder that allowed two runs to score and made the final tallies all unearned, wasting three-run homers off the bats of Al Martin and Aramis Ramirez. 

Michael Restovich - 2005 Topps Update

• 2005 - Randy Johnson and NY shut down the Bucs pretty easily by a 6-1 score at Yankee Stadium, but Michael Restovich’s fourth inning solo shot left Pittsburgh as the only team with an extra-base hit in every game for the season, with the streak at 64 contests. The skein was stopped after 71 games on June 24th by the Cards Jeff Suppan and Ray King. 
• 2009 - The Bucs visited Minnesota and were clobbered by the Twins, 8-2, in the final season of the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome. That was just one of 99 defeats for the Pirates that season but was marked by a career-ending bit of jakery by Craig Monroe. The FA was hitting .215 and struck out swinging in the eighth with Pittsburgh behind by a boatload. The ball got away and Monroe took a quite leisurely stroll to first; the fact that he was safe on a bad throw didn’t ameliorate the lack of hustle in the eyes of the FO. The 32-year-old took a seat on the pine for the next two weeks and was released July 1st; he never played again in the majors. Then as today, it’s always easier to send the team a message via a bubble player. 
• 2012 - Pedro Alvarez homered twice and Casey McGehee/Alex Presley once each to lead the Pirates to a 9-2 win over the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. McGehee had four RBI and El Toro added three as AJ Burnett picked up the win with Jared Hughes and Doug Slaten mopping up.