9/11 From 1950: Face Finally Loses; Gott Gets Seven; Steven's First; Game Stories; HBD Sluggo & Nik

• 1958 - C Don “Sluggo” Slaught was born in Long Beach. He came to the Bucs in 1990 and platooned during the pennant years with Mike “Spanky” LaValliere. Slaught was the primary catcher in 1993-94, then injuries in 1995 led to his release. Sluggo hit .305 as a Pirate. He was a hitting coach for Detroit in 2005-06, and then began his own private school for hitting instruction in California. 

The Baron of the Bullpen - 1959 Kahn's Wieners

• 1959 - The LA Dodgers beat Pittsburgh and Elroy Face‚ 5-4, who lost the save and game in relief of Bob Friend in the ninth at Memorial Coliseum by giving up a pair of runs. It was Face's first loss after a record-setting 22 straight wins. The defeat was Face's first to the Dodgers since September‚ 1956, with his last loss to any team going back to May 30th, 1958, at the hands of the Milwaukee Braves, a run of 99 straight outings w/o a defeat. He finished the campaign 18-1, the best winning percentage ever posted by anyone with a minimum of 15 decisions. In an understatement, the Baron of the Bullpen told AP’s Alan Robinson "It was one of those years when nothing went wrong.” Junior Gilliam’s ninth-inning triple was the key blow against the Baron of the Bullpen in the defeat after Roman Mejias and Dick Stuart homers off Sandy Koufax built the slim edge. Chuck Churn beat the Baron; he had been a Pirate in 1957 and the victory was his second MLB triumph (he’d win one more in what was his final big league year). It was a bad day all around; the Bucs were shutout 4-0 in the second game of the twin bill. 
• 1974 - The Pirates lost to Philadelphia 8-5 at TRS as the Phils Bill Robinson’s three-run shot off Ramon Hernandez in the eighth won the contest and cut the Pirates lead to 2-½ games with 20 remaining. Worse for the Pirates, Dock Ellis’ hand was broken after he was drilled by Willie Montanez’s liner. The righty had won eight consecutive games and nine out of ten, tossing seven complete games in that ten-game span. He missed the remainder of the season (the Bucs hung on to win by 1-½ games over the Cards) and the NLCS against the Dodgers, who took the set three games to one. Dave Giusti’s bad back continued to hold him back (he was bombed in the playoffs) and his iffy status made manager Danny Murtaugh’s job tougher in trying to juggle the needs of both the rotation and bullpen; Bruce Kison was the preferred fill-in for both Ellis and Giusti. 
• 1982 - Bill Madlock opened the ninth inning with a walk off home run, hitting Ron Reed’s first and only pitch, a hung slider. His blast gave the Pirates a see-saw 10-9 victory over the Phillies at TRS. The Bucs had started out up 6-0, but had fallen behind by the sixth. The Pirates regained the lead in the eighth on a two-run, two-out double by Willie Stargell, but the Phils tied it with a two-out RBI single off Dale Berra’s glove, setting the stage for Mad Dog. Omar Moreno added a pair of triples for the Pirates. Kent Tekulve got the blown save/win combo. 
• 1983 - It was bad enough that the Bucs lost to the Phils 5-3 at TRS to fall two games behind the Expos, but a fan in the cheap seats tossed a transistor battery at Dave Parker in right field, bouncing off the turf and past his head in the eighth inning, a frame after he made an error that allowed a run to score. Chuck Tanner said “It punctured our balloon. It’s a shame that an individual has to do that to get his kicks when everyone else is enjoying a great ballgame.” Parker, who had two hits, stayed in the game, saying “They’re not going to chase me out of there.” They may not have chased him from the game, but he did jump to his hometown of Cincinnati in the off season. 

Gott was good - 1987 Donruss

• 1987 - Jim Gott set a club record with a save in seven consecutive outings as the Pirates beat the Phillies, 4-2, at Veterans Stadium. Gott entered the game with runners on first and third and one out in the ninth inning and retired the final two batters of the game on grounders for the save, his 10th. Doug Drabek got the win behind homers by RJ Reynolds and Bobby Bonilla. 
• 1989 - LHP Nik Turley was born in La Canada, California. Turley had a cup of coffee with the Twins, but most of his experience has been in the minors with stops in the indie league and DWL. The Pirates claimed him off waivers in the 2017 offseason, and a few weeks later he was suspended for PED usage. But the Bucs stuck with him, kept him mostly in extended spring training in 2019 and he broke camp with the big league team in 2020, used mainly as a seventh-eighth inning bridge. 
• 1990 - Randy Tomlin, Neal Heaton and Ted Power combined on a seven-hit, 5-1 victory over the Phillies at Veterans Stadium. Lloyd McClendon broke the game open with a two-run, two-out pinch homer in the seventh. For the Bucs, it was their ninth win in 11 games and upped the division lead to 3-½ games. They went into a six game tailspin after the victory and saw their lead dwindle to ½ game, but then won 10-of-11 to take the title comfortably. 
• 2013 - The Pirates completed a three-game sweep of the Rangers with a 7-5 win in Arlington’s Globe Life Park. AJ Burnett won while Kyle Farnsworth, the Bucs fifth pitcher, rang up his first save in almost two years with Pittsburgh’s back-end relievers Jason Grilli (performance) and Mark Melancon (workload) both on ice. Justin Morneau led the attack with four hits, Marlon Byrd chased home a pair of runs and Clint Barmes went deep while each starting position player reached base safely. For the local nine, it was their ninth consecutive interleague road victory as they finished 15-5 against AL teams. The win kept Pittsburgh one game behind the NL Central-leading St Louis Cardinals and two ahead of the Cincinnati Reds for the wildcard.
• 2014 - Francisco Liriano punched out a season-high 12 batters as the Bucs beat the Phils 4-1 at Citizens Bank Park. Frankie went eight shutout innings giving up three hits - two were infield singles - and two walks while never allowing a runner past second. Pittsburgh iced the game in the fifth against old teammate AJ Burnett when Travis Snider, Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker had consecutive hits. Walker's double scored Snider, Cutch scored on a Russ Martin sacrifice fly and Walker scored on Gregory Polanco’s knock. 

Steven Brault - photo 2017 Pittsburgh Pirates

• 2017 - Steven Brault, making just his second start of the year, earned his first MLB win as the Pirates snapped a five-game losing streak by a 7-0 tally over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. In his six innings, Brault outhit the Brew Crew two-to-one and had a run and a pair of RBI, backed by homers from Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Jordy Mercer. Steven and relievers AJ Schugel, Daniel Hudson, Dan Runzler (in his first MLB appearance since 2012 with the SF Giants) and Felipe Rivero matched a feat that was last performed by a Bucco (Randy Tomlin) in 1991 of not allowing an opposing runner past first base.