5/24 From 1970: Historic K-Fest; Manly Gentlemen; Sports City Telethon; Fraze Sixer; B-2-B-2-B; Romps, Rallies & Game Tales

• 1978 - The Mets banged out 13 hits and had the lead three times, but couldn’t hold off the Pirates. Pittsburgh scored twice in the 10th inning to flip Kent Tekulve from a loser after giving up a dinger to a winner in a 6-5 victory at TRS. Rennie Stennett’s bases-loaded bloop into right was the game winner; Frank Taveras scored the final run uncontested as RF’er Bruce Boisclair inexplicably threw the ball to second instead of home; third base coach Joe Lonnett and Taveras were both expecting a close play at the dish. Stennett had three RBI on the day and Dave Parker added two doubles that chased home a pair of runs, offsetting two homers by NY’s Willie Montanez. 

Rennie Stennett - 1978 Topps

• 1981 - A lot of little oddities occurred in the Bucs 7-1 win over the Phils at TRS: the Pirates drew four intentional walks, stole five bases in six tries and got a two-run homer from pitcher Jim Bibby. With all that, they didn’t put the game away until the eighth when one of the intentional walks backfired. They went into the frame up 2-1 on the strength of Bibby’s bomb and added another on Phil Garner’s one-out triple and a Dale Berra single. With runners on second and third and two gone, Philadelphia put Lee Lacy aboard to get to Omar Moreno. The Antelope singled home a pair off Sparky Lyle and Bill Madlock followed with a two-run two-bagger to ice the game. Bibby got the win and Victor Cruz worked two innings for the save in front of 21,771 fans. 
• 1983 - The Bucs built a 6-0 lead on the strength of Larry McWilliams arm and two-run shots by Lee Mazzilli and Jason Thompson (Lee’s left the yard; Jason’s was a two-bagger), then hung on as the Braves scored five times in eighth after blowing earlier chances when they left the bases loaded with an out in the second and fourth frames. Kent Tekulve nailed it down in the ninth thanks more to the baseball gods than good stuff; Atlanta ripped three bullets off him, but two of them found gloves to send the 17,447 fans at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium home frustrated. 
• 1991 - WPPT, in conjunction with San Francisco and New York stations hooked up by satellite, held a Roberto Clemente Sports City telethon with Vera Clemente, Bob Prince, Bill Mazeroski, Manny Sanguillen, Nellie King, Steve Blass, Bob Friend, Dick Groat, Jerry Lynch, Jim Rooker, Nellie Briles, Dave Giusti and Willie Stargell leading a variety of active players to the studio after the Pirates game at TRS. 
• 1998 - Relievers Marc Wilkins (who was on the DL with rotator cuff damage) and Jeff Tabaka, road roomies, allegedly got into an argument over a card game while tippling postgame at Milwaukee’s Pfister Hotel. The discussion grew heated, and Wilkins punched Tabaka. He broke his jaw, sending him to the DL until early July. The two were buds who shared an apartment in Pittsburgh during the season, and made up shortly after the brawl. GM Cam Bonifay brushed it off, telling the Associated Press that “Each other took a stance, as manly gentlemen sometimes do.” 

Jeff Tabaka led with his jaw - photo Rick Stewart/Allsport

• 2006 - When Craig Wilson flew out to the fence with Freddy Sanchez on first base in the ninth, it was the frustrating end to an 8-7 Pirates loss to Arizona at Chase Field. Pittsburgh finished two months of being baseball’s sacrificial lamb on the road - although a competitive 10-11 at PNC Park, the Bucs were 4-22 away from the Allegheny. They played more respectably as visitors after that set, but still finished 24-57 away from the North Shore and finished the year 67-95, despite a winning slate (43-38) at home. 
• 2008 - The Pirates blew a late lead, rallied to tie the contest in the ninth and eventually claimed the win after 14 innings by a 5-4 tally at PNC Park. Phil Dumatrait and two relievers had left Tyler Yates a two-run lead in the eighth, but he was rattled for three scores by the Cubs to lose the edge. Pittsburgh tied it in the last frame when Doug Mientkiewicz led off by being bopped, worked his way to third and scored on Luis Rivas’ sac fly. Matt Capps and John Grabow, the ultimate winner, took over and each tossed three scoreless frames before the Pirates finally plated in the 14th. Freddy Sanchez reached when a soft roller was thrown away; a wild pitch and grounder moved him to third. Nate McLouth was intentionally walked and Jason Bay’s gapper chased Steady Freddy home with the game winner. That duo came up big; the Buccos’ early lead was largely the result of a Bay homer that scored Nate the Great ahead of him. 
• 2015 - Francisco Liriano capped a sweep of the Mets by K’ing 12 batters in six innings on the way to a 9-1 win at PNC Park, aided by homers off the bats of Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte. It was historic work at the franchise level, as Liriano followed Gerrit Cole and AJ Burnett, who both fanned 10 in the series first two games, to become the first trio of Pirate starters to notch three straight double-digit strikeout games since September 11-12th, 1969, when Bob Veale, Bob Moose and Dock Ellis did the deed. It's only the third time since 1900 that Pittsburgh put together such a stretch. The swing-and-miss fest also set an MLB record, per Elias Sports: "It is the only time in modern major league history (from 1900 to date) that a team's starting pitchers won three straight games within one series while recording a double digit strikeout total in each game." 
• 2016 - The Pirates romped over the Diamondbacks 12-1 at PNC Park as Gregory Polanco homered, doubled, scored twice, and had five RBI. The first 11 Bucs in the lineup that got at bats had hits, with the streak ending after Arquimedes Caminero, in his first MLB at-bat, grounded out in the seventh inning. Frankie Liriano got the win, but was a wild child, giving up just four hits but walking five. He wasn’t as wild as Caminero, who hit two Snakes in the head as a reliever, not as a matter of bad blood but of bad control. After the game, Arizona manager Chip Hale questioned if Arquimedes should even be in the league with command that poor. 

Arquimedes was a very wild child - 2015 Topps

• 2017 - It looks like a runaway score, but the Bucs 12-5 win at SunTrust Park came down to the last out of the ninth. The Pirates jumped ahead 3-0 on Adam Frazier’s second-inning homer, but Atlanta rallied for four runs in the sixth and carried a 5-3 lead into the ninth. With two outs and the bases filled, rookie Jose Osuna laced a two-run knock into left to knot the game. In the 10th, Josh Collmenter had a nightmare frame as the Buccos rang up a seven-spot on the Bravos, with the cherry on top being back-to-back-to-back homers by David Freese, Osuna and Jordy Mercer. Adam Frazier reached base six times on two hits and four walks. He became the first Pirates leadoff man with at least three walks and two hits that included a homer since Barry Bonds on May 28th, 1988, against the Reds at Riverfront Stadium. Fraze also was the first Buc to reach base six times in a game via hit/walks since Neil Walker (5-for-5, walk) on August 12th, 2012, v the Padres at PNC Park.