5/9 From 1960: '21 Skidoo; Neil's Triple Play; 1st Place; Bravo Ball & Brawl Fest; Come-Backs; Game Tales; HBD Buddy

• 1963 - Worms beware: The Bucs beat Dick Ellsworth’s slider into the dirt all day as Ernie Banks became the first NL first baseman to post 22 putouts in a game (with an assist). The Cubs whipped Pittsburgh, 3-1, at Wrigley Field as Ellsworth allowed Pittsburgh just two singles. 

John Milner - 1979 Topps

• 1979 - Four bench-clearing brawls, four beaned batters and two grand slams were the highlights of a 17-9 Bucco victory over the Braves at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. Substitute umpires ejected five players‚ both managers and a coach. As for the game itself, the Pirates headed into the ninth inning with a slim 10-9 lead before exploding for seven runs. John Milner’s grand slam off Gene Garber highlighted the big frame. Earlier, Bill Robinson had hit two home runs off Phil Niekro to give the Pirates the lead while Tim Foli added four more RBI. 
• 1983 - Jason Thompson picked a fine time to break out of his 3-for-27 slump, banging out a career-best five hits at Jack Murphy Stadium to lead the Pirates to a 5-3, 14-inning win against San Diego to snap a five game losing string. The Pirates collected 18 hits, but had a tough time cashing in - in the 12th inning, they left runners at second & third with one out and in the 13th, they loaded the sacks with no outs and still couldn’t push a run home. With two gone in the 14th, Johnny Ray doubled and Richie Hebner was intentionally walked, then the Friars brought in lefty Gary Lucas to face JT. Thompson got ahead 2-0 and was hunting a heater; he got it and banged it off the left center wall for a two-run two-bagger. The Bucs fourth pitcher, Manny Sarmiento, got the win while Ray collected four hits and Lee Mazzilli homered. 
• 1988 - LHP Buddy Boshers was born in Huntsville, Alabama. Boshers, who had pitched for the Angels and Twins, was claimed off waivers from the Astros by the Bucs in 2018. He was called up for eight games in August without making an appearance before being optioned back to Indy. He last pitched MLB for Toronto in 2019 and spent the next two seasons in the Dominican and Mexican leagues. He retired before the 2021 season. 

AVS - 1993 Leaf (reverse)

• 1993 - For the second consecutive time, the Pirates were down by a run with two outs in the ninth and the bases empty against Montreal with closer John Wetteland on the hill at TRS, and for the second consecutive time, they pulled a victory out of that hat. Andy Van Slyke homered in yesterday’s match, then Tom Foley’s single won it in 10 frames by a 10-9 count. Orlando Merced and Carlos Garcia also went long while Stan Belinda got the W. Today, it was Al Martin who went downtown to knot the score and AVS was clutch again, banging a two-out double in the 11th to give the Bucs and Blas Minor a 6-5 victory. The two wins made the Pirates 5-1 in extra innings, but in the first year of their core deconstruction, they sputtered and finished the campaign with just 75 wins and in fifth place in the NL. 
• 1997 - Prior to the game with Atlanta, Pirate players had an impromptu meet-and-greet inside the TRS gates to shake hands and pose for pictures with the fans. The up close and personal vibes worked as they proceeded to beat the Braves, 9-0, behind Francisco Cordova, who struck out eight and lowered his ERA to 1.53. Jose Guillen homered and drove in three runs while Al Martin and Tony Womack added three knocks. The win put the Pirates, picked to finish last in the Central, in first place by themselves, and even though the Bravos took the next three games from Pittsburgh, the Bucs stayed in the race until late September. 
• 1999 - Two of Pittsburgh’s bigger disappointments showed what coulda been. The Pirates almost blew a 10-5 lead, but hung on to beat the Cards, 12-9, behind SS Pat Meares’ five hits and OF Brant Brown’s three-run, inside-the-park homer at Busch Stadium. Meares ended up on the DL for most of his Pittsburgh stay and never played after 2001, while Brown hit .232, with 2000 being his MLB swan song. Jose Silva was spanked as a starter, but Chris Peters, who got the win, Marc Wilkins, Jeff Wallace, Brad Clontz and Mike Williams, who earned a save, cleaned it up behind him. 

Brant Brown - 1999 Bowman

• 2011 - The Pirates beat the Dodgers, 4-1, at PNC Park, to move their record to 18-17, the first time they were above .500 this late in the season since 2004. With the score tied in the eighth, Jose Tabata made a diving catch in left, then doubled a Dodger off first. Jose Uribe and manager Don Mattingly were bounced for arguing that the ball was trapped (and TV replays seemed to agree with them), but the Bucs made it moot by putting up a three-spot in their half with back-to-back-to-back doubles by Neil Walker, Lyle Overbay and Ryan Doumit. Jose Veras got the win in relief of Jeff Karstens with Joel Hanrahan notching the save. 
• 2015 - Neil Walker began and ended the first 4-5-4 triple play in MLB history. He leapt to snag Yadier Molina’s bases-loaded liner and threw to third, doubling off the lead runner. Jung Ho Kang at the hot corner apparently lost track of the outs; he started toward the dugout before a little prompting from his mates got him to toss the ball back to Neil, standing on second, to complete the trifecta. It was a game full of big innings; the Bucs scored three in the second inning, then the Cards answered with a five spot in the fourth frame before Pittsburgh put up another trio of runs in the sixth to take a 7-5 win at PNC Park. The Pittsburgh Kid added a homer while Jordy Mercer chased home three runs to earn Rob Scahill, the first of four Pirate relievers to toss a scoreless frame, the win. 
• 2018 - For the second straight game, the Bucs spotted the Chicago White Sox a four run lead at Guaranteed Rate Stadium and came back to claim the win. The Sox jumped on top 4-0 against Trevor Williams and held on to a 5-2 edge going into the ninth. Elias Diaz made it a one-run game when he chased home two runs with a double off Nate Jones and two pitches later, Colin Moran dropped a shot into the right center field stands to give the Bucs the improbable win. Rich Rodriguez earned his first MLB win and Felipe Vazquez picked up the save with Steven Brault adding two scoreless innings. Jordy Mercer and Gregory Polanco had solo shots to put the Pirates on the board earlier. 

Captain Redbeard - 2018 photo/Pirates

• 2021 - The Pirates made a slew of May moves. First, 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes (wrist), out since April 4th, was moved from the 10-day to the 60-day IL, 1B Colin Moran (groin) was placed on the 10-day IL and OF Bryan Reynolds (lower body) was listed as day-to-day. OF Gregory Polanco was already out of action due to the Covid protocol (he returned later in the week), so four of the eight Opening Day starters were on ice. The Pirates called up OF Troy Stokes Jr. and RHP Geoff Hartlieb from Indy, claimed OF Ben Gamel from the Indians, DFA’ed RHP Michael Feliz and (the next day) 1B/3B Todd Frazier. The team rode out the changes, though, and even with just a handful of starters, defeated the Cubs, 6-5, behind Wilmer Difo’s three-hit, three-RBI day and strong starting pitching by lefty Tyler Anderson. A ninth-inning bullpen meltdown allowed three runs to make the score close at Wrigley Field; it was the first time relievers Richard Rodriguez and Kyle Crick were scored upon in 2021. And the beat went on - two days later, Crick went on the IL with a strained triceps and Shreven Chase was recalled. A couple of days after that, 1B Phil Evans went on the IL with a bad hammy and Will Craig was called up, with RHP Sean Poppen DFA’ed to make it an unforgettable week for roster keepers.