6/16 From 1970: Road Firsts; Wet 'n' Wild Win; Hit Man PoW; DP Day; Game Tales; HBD Arqy & Chris

• 1971 - Dock Ellis went from the penthouse to the outhouse in a hurry as he carried a no-hitter and 4-0 lead into the sixth inning against Houston in the Astrodome when the ‘Stros erupted for five hits and tied the game. But the Bucs answered quickly when Roberto Clemente homered with Gene Clines aboard in the next frame, and the Docktor recovered his form, giving up two singles over the next three innings to claim the complete game victory. Clines had four hits and Clemente a pair with three runs plated; Al Oliver banged a big triple that drove in a run while he later scored. 
• 1971 - IF Chris Gomez was born in Los Angeles. Chris closed out his 16-year big league career in Pittsburgh, hitting .273 for the Buccos while playing all four infield positions. He was released after the campaign and then was cut by the Orioles out of camp in 2009. He retired a season later after playing nearly 1,500 MLB games and batting .262. He’s been a special assistant for the Pirates since 2014, working with developing players. 

Chris Gomez - 2008 Topps Update

• 1980 - Mike Easler was named the NL Player of the Week. He hit for the cycle against the Reds on the 12th and overall went 13-for-23 (.619) with two homers in six games. It was a strong campaign for The Hit Man, who finished batting .338 w/21 HR and 74 RBI. 
• 1986 - The Pirates were behind at Three Rivers Stadium, 4-1, in the sixth inning when it rained; ump John Kibler shooed the clubs in with a pair of short delays before calling the game, giving it to the Cards. The Bucs protested as the NL had guidelines for the time required before a contest can be banged, and Kibler missed the mandated wait time badly (to his credit, he even called the league offices that night to report he had screwed up). And hey, the Pirates won the protest, a rare occurrence, with the game being picked up at that spot the next night (the 18th). It proved to be a moral victory only; the Redbirds hung on to win 4-2. 
• 1987 - RHP Arquimedes Euclides Caminero (named after Archimedes and Euclid) was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The speed demon - he’s hit 100 on the radar gun - had his contract sold to the Pirates by the Miami Marlins in 2015. In 112 appearances with the Pirates from 2015-16, he went 6-3-1/3.73 before being dealt to the Seattle Mariners. He later went to Japan and at last look was tossing in Mexico. 
• 1990 - The Pirates outlasted the Mets in a see-saw contest, taking an 11-6 victory at TRS in front of a Saturday crowd of 43,653. It was a one-run contest in the eighth, but Sid Bream iced the contest when he lifted a two-out, 1-2 delivery by Julio Machado into the RC seats for a three-run blast. The Bucs banged out 15 hits, led by Barry Bonds, Jeff King and Sluggo Slaught with three raps apiece. Bob Kipper got the win in relief of Doug Drabek, with the last frame going to Bill Landrum. 
• 1994 - The Pirates beat the Cardinals, 7-5, in 10 innings. They made it hard on themselves by banging into a NL record-tying seven double plays at Busch Stadium, but put up a three spot in the 10th for the win. The Pirates even scored their last run on a DP; Carlos Garcia’s sac fly brought home Orlando Merced while Gary Varsho, who had started on first base, was thrown out trying to get to third behind the play at the plate. 

Mark Smith's historic homer - 6/17/1997 photo AP/Post Gazette

• 1997 - It was a day for Pirates firsts: It was the Pirates first interleague road game, Mark Smith homered in the first at-bat by a Pirates DH in franchise history, and Kevin Polcovich swatted his first career long fly (both dingers were off Scott Aldred). The result was a quick 8-0 Pirates lead, and the Bucs managed to outlast the Minnesota Twins, 8-6, at the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome. Kevin Young, who also homered, and Adrian Brown had three hits while Jason Kendall added a pair of doubles. Winning pitcher Jason Schmidt was the beneficiary of the eight-run, 15-hit attack and Rick Loiselle got the save. 
• 1998 - Talk about brutal: The Bucs blew a 7-1 ninth inning lead against the Phillies to lose 8-7 at Veterans Stadium after Philadelphia roughed up relievers Ricardo Rincon and Rich Loiselle. The pair walked three and Loiselle surrendered a two-out, three-run, walk-off blast to Mike Lieberthal. SS Lou Collier also threw away a grounder that allowed two runs to score and made the final tallies all unearned, wasting three-run homers off the bats of Al Martin and Aramis Ramirez. 
• 2004 - The Pirates snapped a nine-game losing streak by scoring five times in the fifth inning, capped by Daryle Ward’s two-out, three-run bomb, to drop Anaheim 5-3 at PNC Park, also snapping a 14-game losing streak against AL West clubs. Josh Fogg got the win; he also the last starter to earn a W before the streak started. Jose Mesa notched his 15th straight save, although he left runners at second and third before turning out the lights. 
• 2005 - Randy Johnson and NY shut down the Bucs pretty easily by a 6-1 score at Yankee Stadium, but Michael Restovich’s fourth inning solo shot left Pittsburgh as the only team with an extra-base hit in every game for the season, with the streak at 64 contests. The skein was stopped after 71 games on June 24th by the Cards Jeff Suppan and Ray King. 
• 2009 - The Bucs visited Minnesota and were clobbered by the Twins, 8-2, in the final season of the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome. That was just one of 99 defeats for the Pirates that season but was marked by a career-ending bit of jakery by Craig Monroe. The FA was hitting .215 and struck out swinging in the eighth with Pittsburgh behind by a boatload. The ball got away and Monroe took a quite leisurely stroll to first; the fact that he was safe on a bad throw didn’t ameliorate the lack of hustle in the eyes of the FO. The 32-year-old took a seat on the pine for the next two weeks and was released July 1st; he never played again in the majors. Then as today, the MLB’s MO is to send the team a message via a bubble player. 

Mosey'ing Craig Monroe - image Fox Sports

• 2012 - Pedro Alvarez homered twice and Casey McGehee/Alex Presley each went long once to lead the Pirates to a 9-2 win over the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. McGehee had four RBI and El Toro added three. AJ Burnett picked up the win with Jared Hughes and Doug Slaten mopping up. 
• 2020 - Perhaps the Pirates fans’ most anticipated regular-season series of 2020 was lost when the Yankee set was canceled thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and the MLB’s fudging. The contest at PNC Park was slated to be Bill Mazeroski’s Gold Glove Bobblehead Night and a celebration to honor the 60th anniversary of the Pirates’ 1960 World Series championship. As an added bummer, the capricious Pittsburgh weather cooperated beautifully as it was sunny and in the low 80’s. The party was pushed back to the annual fallback date of October 13th, when the Game 7 Gang partied hardy once again to toast the Greatest Home Run in baseball history at Schenley Plaza by the old Forbes Field wall.