- 1996 - RHP Luis Escobar was born in Cartagena, Columbia. He signed with the Pirates as an international free agent. Despite having played just 20 or so games combined at the AA and AAA levels, he was briefly called to Pittsburgh in 2019. Luis, 23, tossed goose eggs in his first three outings while dodging raindrops (he ended up with a 2.471 WHIP) before the Cards roughed him up, and after that he was returned to Indy.
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| Luis Escobar - 2018 Bowman Chrome Refractor |
- 1998 - Jason Kendall hit a walk off, bases-loaded single to cap a three-run ninth and give the Pirates an 8-7 win over the Montreal Expos at TRS. It was Kendall’s third hit of the day and his second RBI. Manny Martinez hit a two run homer and Kevin Young banged out four hits. Three Pirate relievers tossed four goose eggs, with Jason Christiansen earning the victory. 2003 - Kenny Lofton homered against the Cards in a 7-3 win by Jeff Suppan to keep his 26-game hitting streak alive, tying Danny O’Connell’s modern-day mark set in 1953. He would go 0-fer the next day against the Cards Woody Williams and Jeff Fasaro, falling a game short of tying the club record, set by Jimmy Williams in 1899, during a 5-4 Pirate victory tossed by Kip Wells.
- 2004 - The Raul Mondesi saga officially ended when the outfielder signed a $1.75M deal with the Anaheim Angels. He left the Pirates on May 7th after signing as a free agent ($1.15M) to return home to deal with a lawsuit and family safety issues. He never came back; it was all a ploy to get out of the Pirates agreement and head for greener pastures. Pittsburgh could have opted to keep him on the restricted list until the cows came home (and in hindsight, should have; that way they might have gotten some compensation for his flip) but instead washed their hands of him when he failed to report on the team-mandated “drop dead” date of May 18th, terminating his contract the next day.
- 2006 - The Bucs walloped the Milwaukee Brewers 12-1 at PNC Park behind a pair of Jose Castillo homers. Jose added a single and double to chase home six runs while scoring three times. Freddy Sanchez also had four knocks and Jack Wilson added three as the Pirates collected 17 raps, seven for extra bases, to help Victor Santos to victory.
- 2013 - For the second time in three days, the Pirates defeated the Detroit Tigers, 1-0 in 11 innings. The Bucs used four pitchers - Mark Melancon got the W - and a Neil Walker homer to win at Comerica Park on the 28th, then came home to PNC Park and won with Bryan Morris and five other pitchers, cinched by a Russell Martin walk-off single off the wall in left center field. This one was a stolen win as the Tigers stranded 11 runners during the game. The squeaker was the club’s fourth 1-0 win in an 11 game span and their 16th win in the past 20 contests.
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| Jeff Locke - 2016 Topps Heritage |
- 2016 - The Pirates rolled over Miami at Marlins Park 10-0. Gregory Polanco hit his first MLB grand slam, Sean Rodriguez added a two-run blast, and David Freese went 4-for-5 with two doubles, two RBI and two runs scored. The big story was lefty Jeff Locke, who pitched a complete game shutout, the first time he had gone the distance in 101 career starts. It was the Bucs first CG since 2014, when Vance Worley went wire-to-wire. Locke gave up three hits without a walk, and thanks to two DPs, faced the minimum amount of batters until two were gone in the ninth when he was touched for a bloop single. It was a textbook example of pitching to contact; the Pirate southpaw had just one K.
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