Monday, June 1, 2020

6/1 From 1990: Kendall #1; Mo Moved; Frankie & Wags K-Men; Streaks; Game Stories

  • 1992 - Prep C Jason Kendall was selected in the first round (#23) of the draft and signed for a $336K bonus in one of Pittsburgh’s more enlightened picks. He spent nine of his 15 MLB seasons with the Pirates, hitting .306 and earning spots on three All-Star teams. After him came a group of reserves - OF’ers Adrian Brown and Trey Beamon, pitcher Marc Wilkins, and infielders Lou Collier and Kevin Polcovich. 
  • 1996 - Paul Wagner tossed a one-hitter with ten K for seven innings at TRS, but lost to Colorado 2-0. He couldn’t find the plate in the third; two walks followed by a wild pitch cost him as Dante Bichette hit a ball through the shortstop hole to score the pair. The Bucs had nine hits, but stranded 10 in the whitewash. 
Paul Wagner - 1996 Fleer Ultra (reverse)
  • 1998 - Jason Schmidt won his seventh straight game, 4-3, against the Mets at TRS, breaking a nine-game string of victories by New York. The righty scattered six hits and fanned eight, with ninth inning help from Ricardo Rincon, who earned a save. The Bucs were led at the plate by Tony Womack, who had two hits and a homer; Al Martin and Mark Smith also had a pair of knocks. Schmidt was 8-1/3.59 at this point but would go on to drop his next eight decisions. He wouldn’t win another game until August 12th and finished the season 11-14/4.07. 
  • 2005 - Florida lost its ninth straight game at PNC Park‚ 9-1. Rob Mackowiak hit his second career grand slam and Jack Wilson went 4-for-4 to pace the attack behind Josh Fogg and Salomon Torres’ pitching. The last Marlin win in Pittsburgh was September 8th‚ 2002; they snapped the streak the next day by a 6-3 count. 
  • 2006 - The Pirates swept the Milwaukee Brewers in a four-game set by scoring twice in the ninth to take a 4-3 decision at PNC Park. With two away, Jose Castillo doubled home Jeromy Burnitz, followed by the game winning knock by Ryan Doumit, both off Derrick Turnbow. The Pirates outscored the Brew Crew 34-8 in the series. 
  • 2010 - Pittsburgh fell behind Chicago 2-0 on a two-run, third-inning blast by ex-Pirate Xavier Nady. A homer by Garrett Jones in the next frame halved the lead and in the eighth inning, a blast to left center by Neil Walker off Ted Lilly with Cutch on ahead of him was enough to give Joel Hanrahan a 3-2 win over the Cubs at PNC Park. Octavio Dotel earned the save for his set-up man (and future closer) Hanny thanks to The Pittsburgh Kid’s first MLB homer. 
  • 2013 - Francisco Liriano tied the franchise record by striking out seven consecutive Reds, but Mike Leake won the duel at PNC Park by a 2-0 count. Liriano went six innings, giving up a run on four hits and a walk, punching out 11. Not a ball left the infield in the inning he surrendered the run, and only a disputed two-out call at first allowed Cincy to score at all. 
ryan Morris - 2013 Panini Prizm
  • 2014 - Miami got righty reliever Bryan Morris for a competitive balance selection (#39) that turned into first baseman Connor Joe, who was flipped to the Braves in 2017 for Sean Rodriguez. Morris retired in 2017 while Joe is in the Dodgers system. 
  • 2015 - A left coast Bucco fan helped his boys during their 4-3 win over the Giants at AT&T Park. In the eighth, with two gone and the G-Men within a run, a foul ball drifted down the right field stands and was snagged by a fan decked out in a Pirates cap and tee. He leaned over, snagged the ball over a low railing and bumped into Gregory Polanco, who was tracking the fly. After an ump review, Pittsburgh was awarded the third out and the fan was awarded an unceremonious ejection from the park. In the game, the Giants had jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead; the Bucs answered with three in the fifth, capped by Neil Walker’s two-run, two-out double off of former and future Pirate Ryan Vogelsong. Chris Stewart collected three hits and Andrew McCutchen had the other pair of RBI. Gerrit Cole took home the win and Mark the Shark Melancon earned the save.

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