8/22 From 1980: J-Hay Day; Game Stories; HBD Chris & Drew

• 1982 - Charley Feeney of the Post Gazette wrote “Two bloops by the Pirates and one blooper by the Dodgers in the 14th inning capped a 4-3 win for the Bucs at Three Rivers Stadium.” The bloops were by Mike Easler and Dale Berra and the blooper made by LA’s Pedro Guerrero, who let Berra’s dink to get past him, allowing The Hit Man to score the winning run. Easler had three hits while Berra and Jason Thompson had two apiece. Don Robinson, who worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the 14th (LA stranded 13 runners), got the win. He followed Rick Rhoden, Enrique Romo, Rod Scurry and Kent Tekulve in a game that stretched over four hours to finish.

Drew Hutchison - photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates

• 1990 - RHP Drew Hutchison was born in Lakeland, Florida. Drew was the return for Francisco Liriano plus minor leaguers Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez in a 2016 contract-dump deadline deal with Toronto. He got into six games that year with no decisions and a 5.56 ERA, spent 2017 at AAA Indianapolis and then was DFA’ed at the end of the year. He’s bounced around since and now playing indie ball.
• 1990 - RHP Chris Stratton was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. A first round pick of the Giants in 2010, he went 15-14/4.63 for SF from 2016-18, then was traded to the Angels. He was beat up there, DFA’ed, and purchased by the Pirates who were thin in pitching after a rash of injuries.
• 1998 - 45,082 fans jammed TRS to see Mark McGwire and weren’t disappointed; he got a big cheer when he stepped to the plate and an ovation when he sent a Francisco Cordoba offering 477’ for his 52nd homer, the first NL player to hit that mark since George Foster in 1977. With that out of the way, the Bucs rolled to their sixth straight win by a 14-4 count. Jason Kendall (three runs, two RBI) and Tony Womack (two runs, one RBI) had three hits while Kevin Young chased home four runners to pace the attack. Cordoba lasted six frames, giving up three long balls, but had plenty enough support for the win.
• 2007 - The Bucs bashed six homers (Nate McLouth - 2, Freddy Sanchez, Xavier Nady, Jason Bay, Jack Wilson) to bang out an 11-2 decision over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Sanchez had four hits and three RBI to plow the road for Tom Gorzelanny’s win.
• 2014 - Josh Harrison had a career high five RBI, all coming with two outs, to lead the Bucs to an 8-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. He had a double and homer while Andrew McCutchen added another moon shot. Jeff Locke went six innings for the win; he gave up just two hits though he walked an unsightly six batters. The Pirate staff gave up eight free passes, while recording just one strikeout.

Josh Harrison - 2014 Topps Update

• 2015 - In front of a sold-out house at PNC Park, the Pirates took a 3-2 decision from the SF Giants in dramatic fashion. Gerrit Cole gave up a run on a walk, stolen base, error and broken bat single; Joakim Soria gave up the game-tying run on a walk that came around on a two-out wild pitch. The Pirates scored when Jung-Ho Kang homered off Mike Leake and then off Hunter Strickland. George Kontos struck out the first two batters in the ninth, then Starling Marte ripped the Bucs third homer on a first pitch cutter to walk off with the win, claimed by Mark Melancon, who tossed a six-pitch ninth. The Pirates had just four hits, and thanks to a couple of caught stealings, left no runners on base. Kang became the third South Korean-born ballplayer with a multi-homer game, joining Hee-Seop Choi and Shin-Soo Choo.