6/9 From 1980: Rally Cappers; Brant Bops; Draft: K-Man, K'Bryan, Craig, Sanchez

• 1988 - The Pirates were looking hapless at TRS against Jamie Moyers and the Cubs bullpen. They went into the ninth down 3-1 facing Goose Gossage, a decade removed from his Bucco days. Darnell Coles and Sid Bream opened the frame with doubles to cut the lead to a run and chase the Goose. A groundout and walk of Denny Gonzalez by Frank DiPino left Bucs on the corners. RJ Reynolds’ grounder to third cut down Bream, who was off on contact, at the dish. But the slow-footed Sid did a little boogaloo before allowing the tag to be applied, and it proved key, allowing the Pittsburgh runners to get to second and third. Barry Bonds slapped a soft liner into right with two outs to plate the pair, and the Pirates had a walk off win for Jim Gott. 

Sid's soft shoe set up the final act - 1988 Donruss

• 1989 - Pittsburgh scored in the bottom of the ninth to tie the Mets after they had gone ahead in the top half, and then plated again in the tenth to take a 4-3 win at TRS. Gary Redus’ two-out single-and-error bouncer to short scored Rafael Belliard to knot the game. Another Met miscue led to the winner. Andy Van Slyke’s single to right was misplayed into a three-bagger, and after a pair of intentional walks, Benny Distefano’s ground ball was the walk off at-bat that earned Bill Landrum the W. 
• 1999 - The Pirates beat up on the Tigers‚ 15-3‚ as Brant Brown smacked out five hits, including a double and homer, scored four runs and chased home five. Ed Sprague and Jose Guillen each added a bomb and three RBI at Tiger Stadium while Francisco Cordova picked up the win. It was the first time the Pirates ever played in that ballyard. 
• 2009 - C Tony Sanchez was the Pirates first selection (#4 overall - $2.5M signing bonus) in the draft. RHP Vic Black ($717K bonus) was the second round pick, and IF Brock Holt was chosen in the ninth round; both were later traded. There was a great gnashing of teeth over the Pirates cheap ways in selecting Sanchez, tho it wasn’t a notably deep draft with few solid guys available, though a couple of franchise players were around: Stephen Strasburg was taken #1 while prepster Michael Trout was the #25 overall choice. Sanchez never quite made it; he got into 51 games with the Pirates (.259 BA) but is out of the organization and has mostly bounced around in AAA. 
• 2015 - The Pirates chose Arizona SS Kevin Newman (#19 overall, $2.175M bonus), Texas prep 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes (#32; $1.855M bonus) and UCLA SS Kevin Kramer (#62; $850K bonus) in the opening two rounds of the draft. Newman made it to the show in 2018 and became the starting SS next season while KK has been up-and-down the past couple of campaigns. 

Kevin Newman - 2019 Finest

• 2016 - The Buccos took Wake Forest 3B Will Craig (#22 overall; $2,257,700 bonus), one of the top college sticks on the board, followed by HS pitchers lefty Nick Lodolo from California (#44; he rejected $1.75M and instead honored his commitment to TCU) and Florida’s RHP Travis MacGregor (#68; $900K bonus) on the first day of the draft.