- 1978 - The Pirates bullpen imploded in the ninth at TRS, allowing San Diego to score three runs to tie the game at six, rallying from a fourth-inning 6-1 deficit. The Padres tacked on another run in the 10th to take the lead, but the Bucs weren’t quite done. With Rollie Fingers on the hill, Bill Robinson reached on an error and Willie Stargell singled through a shift before Rennie Stennett’s rap tied the game. Ken Macha, who ran for Willie, and Stennett tagged and moved up a base after Ed Ott’s line out to left. San Diego decided to not walk Manny Sanguillen with lefty John Milner on deck, and The Roadrunner made it a bad choice by banging a ball off the left field wall for a long single and walk off win, credited to Kent Tekulve.
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| Manny Sanguillen - 1978 Topps Update |
- 1979 - The NL won its eighth straight All-Star Game, 7-6, at the Kingdome in Seattle. Pittsburgh’s only representative, Dave Parker, threw out runners at home & third and was named the game's MVP. The Cobra went 1-for-3 with an RBI and was intentionally walked once. Future Bucco Lee Mazzilli tied the game in the eighth inning with a pinch-hit home run and then put the NL ahead in the ninth by drawing a bases-loaded walk to become the MVP runner-up to Parker. The ASG was the only one played in the Kingdom. By the time the Midsummer Classic returned to Seattle in 2001, the Mariners were playing in Safeco Park.
- 1982 - RHP Brian Rogers was born in Dallas, Texas. He joined the Pirates in 2006 after a trade with Detroit for Sean Casey and was called up at the end of August. He didn’t fare very well, and was sent to the minors the following campaign, getting just three more not-so-successful outings with the big club and finishing his career with a Bucco slash of 0-0/9.28 in 13 games. Rogers was released in mid-June of 2008 and got short minor-league stints with the Tigers and Mets to end his pro career at age 25. He then went to work for a resort in Hawaii, got his degree and is now an account manager.
- 1983 - The Pirates whipped the San Diego Padres at Jack Murphy Stadium by a 5-4 score, concluding their best-ever west coast trip by taking 9-of-10 games. The Buccaneers ran their winning streak to eight games to reach .500. The Pirate attack was powered by Jason Thompson, who had three hits, including a homer, and three RBI. Dave Parker and Dale Berra also had three knocks to key a 13-hit outing. Lee Tunnell got the win and Kent Tekulve picked up the save. Pittsburgh kept on against the left coasters; right after the trip, LA, SF and SD came calling to TRS and the Bucs took 8-of-11 on home turf.
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| Jason Thompson - 1983 Donruss Action All Star |
- 1988 - The Pirates ran their winning streak to nine games when they held off the Giants, 5-4, at TRS. Pittsburgh jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second on a Mike Dunne RBI grounder and a two-out, two-run knock by Darnell Coles. San Francisco used a pair of homers to tie it up before the Bucs regained the lead in the eighth on Barry Bonds’ long ball, stroked with two outs and two strikes, to take a 5-3 edge. Jim Gott finished it up, though with some drama - a pair of walks (one intentional) sandwiched around a double narrowed the gap to one run, then he survived Harry Spilman’s long drive to center that Andy Van Slyke had just enough room to corral to save the win for Jeff Robinson. The streaky club lost the next day, took three in a row, then dropped 15-of-23 on the way to an 85-75 campaign.
- 1998 - The Bucs traded RHP Esteban Loaiza to the Texas Rangers for RHP Todd Van Poppel and 2B Warren Morris. The Pirates plugged Van Poppel into the rotation to replace Loaiza while Morris was considered the key as a lefty-hitting, power-bat second baseman. It didn’t work out quite as planned. TVP lasted 10 weeks for Pittsburgh while Morris was released after the 2001 season. Loaiza pitched for another 10 seasons, albeit with seven teams, topped by a 21-9/2.90 campaign with the White Sox in 2003 when he was an All-Star and Cy Young runner up. TVP pitched through 2004 while Morris played for five organizations, with his only full-time stop at Detroit in 2003 plus a cup of coffee with Minnesota, before playing his last pro game in 2005.
- 1999 - In a wild 13-10 win over the Cleveland Indians at TRS, Kevin Young homered twice to drive in five runs and Al Martin also went yard two times to plate three more; both had three hits, as did Adrian Brown. The teams combined to bang out 32 hits and together burned through 13 pitchers during the game, played in front of 43,299 fans, many from Ohio for the weekend. The Bucs led throughout the contest, though the Tribe cut the lead to a single run in the sixth and two in the eighth, to net Kris Benson the win, saved by Mike Williams.
- 2003 - The Brewers and Bucs exchanged grand slams in a 7-5 Milwaukee win at PNC Park. Ex-Bucco John Vander Wal clocked a first-inning salami off Kris Benson; Craig Wilson pounded a pinch hit grannie in the fifth off Wayne Franklin.
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| Daniel Moskos - 2011 Topps Rookie |
- 2007 - LHP Daniel Moskos, the Pirates first round draft pick and fourth overall, agreed to a deal including a $2.5M signing bonus. The Clemson junior was selected as a back-end bullpen option for the Pirates bullpen, although he made 10 starts for the Tigers as a junior. He got his only MLB action in 2007, slashing 1-1/2.96 in 312 Pittsburgh outings but with a 1.56 WHIP and just four K’s per nine innings. Moskos pitched through 2018, spending his time working jobs in AAA, Mexico and the indie leagues.
- 2009 - It took the Bucs 14 innings, but they ended a streak of seven losses in eight games going into the All-Star break with a 2-1 win over the Giants. Garrett Jones homered off Bob Lowry at PNC Park for the walk-off winner; he also brought in the first run with a long ball off of Tim Lincecum. The pitching duel, begun by Paul Maholm and Lincecum, featured 13 pitchers between the two clubs, with Evan Meek getting the win.
- 2013 - The International League won the AAA All-Star Game, 4-3, over the Pacific Coast League. The big bop was delivered by Pirates C prospect Tony Sanchez of the Indy Indians who banged a three-run homer in the second inning and won the game MVP. He got a late call to the big club that season, hitting .233 in 22 games. Tony got into 29 games after that over the next two seasons, was released and then bounced around among various organizations in the minors as a depth player through 2019, getting one last MLB at bat for the Bravos in 2017.
- 2016 - Starling Marte went boom against ex-Bucco Ollie Perez in the 18th inning to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 win over Washington at Nationals Park; he had chased home Adam Frazier in the sixth with the Pirates first run. The Pirates took the 1-0 lead into the ninth in a duel between Chad Kuhl and Max Scherzer, but Daniel Murphy homered off Mark Melancon with two outs and two strikes to set up some bonus baseball. The Bucs almost ended it in the 16th when Josh Harrison doubled, but speed-challenged C Eric Kratz (who caught all 18 innings) was cut down at home. The two clubs shuffled through 17 pitchers (Pittsburgh used nine) with Jon Niese getting the win after three innings of work to earn his last MLB victory.
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| Starling Marte - 2016 Topps Bunt |
- 2018 - Closer Felipe Rivero got his first All-Star nod (some thought a year overdue) as the only Pirates AS rep at Nationals Park, the yard where his career started. The AL prevailed in 10 innings by an 8-6 score that saw a record 10 homers belted, but they couldn’t dent Felipe. In his inning of work, he fanned a pair, walked one and gave up a single on a routine fly that was lost in the lights.
- 2021 - MLB teams were not-too-surprisingly 314-0 when leading by six or more runs after eight innings this season, but Jake Stallings and the Pirates put an end to that streak when The Cheetah’s two-out, first-pitch grand slam that hugged the LF line off Edwin Diaz carried Pittsburgh to a 9-7 win over the Mets at PNC Park. Down 6-0 going into the eighth in front of a season-high 27,229 fans, John Nogowski’s double and a grounder made it 6-2 before Wilmer Difo dropped a three-run bomb midway up the Clemente seats to turn it into a one-run game. The Mets rallied to tack on a ninth-inning insurance tally before a hit batter, walk and infield rap filled the sacks with two away for the Bucs, setting the stage for Stallings. Despite giving up the late run, Clay Holmes got the win. Fun fact: It was the third Bucco walk off grannie ever at PNC Park, joining those swatted by Rob Mackowiak (2004) & Brian Giles (2001), and the 10th in Pirates history. Not-so-fun facts: The Pirates jumped to a 6-0 lead in the next day’s game only to lose via a two-run, ninth-inning homer, 7-6, to NY. It was the first time in NL history that opposing teams have blown 6-0 leads in consecutive games.
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