10/6 From 1960: '13, '71 Postseason Wins; '92 '74, '60 Postseason Losses; 20 For Smiley; HBD Radhames, Hanny & Jeff

• 1960 - RHP Jeff Zaske was born in Seattle. Jeff was a 27th round pick of the Pirates in the 1978 draft out of high school, and made just three big league outings, pitching five shutout innings for the Bucs in 1984. He was noted for a 1980 incident when as a 19-year-old in camp, bored teammates egged him on to pitch Bill Madlock tight. He did, nicking him in the arm and earning a punch in the puss from a sore Mad Dog (who later apologized). Zaske spent most of his time as a AAA pitcher for four organizations, spending a decade on the farm, with six of those campaigns at the top level until leaving the game after the 1988 campaign. 

Jeff Zaske - 1984 photo George Gojkovich/Getty

• 1960 - The Yankees roared back from their opening defeat to win, 16-3, and knot the World Series at a game apiece. Mickey Mantle put on a show with a pair of blasts, one measured at 478’ that was thought to be the first homer that a right-handed batter hit out of Forbes Field to the oppo side of dead center. The Mick had five RBI and three runs scored as the Bronx Bombers pounded out 19 hits. Mantle was the only player to have a multi-homer playoff game in Pittsburgh until 2013 when Russell Martin hit a pair against the Reds at PNC Park in the famed Johnny Cueto Wild Card game. 
• 1971 - The Pirates rolled over the Giants, 9-5, at TRS to take the NLCS three games to one. The Gravedigger, Richie Hebner, and Al Oliver both homered and had three RBI, while Roberto Clemente drove in the other three runs. Bruce Kison took the win and Dave Giusti earned the save as they twirled seven innings of scoreless relief after Steve Blass was rocked by the G-Men in the second frame. The game was tied, 5-5, after the second inning as the Bucs banged Gaylord Perry early, too, before knocking him out of the box in the sixth frame. 
• 1974 - The Pirates tied the Dodgers in the seventh inning on RBIs from Richie Hebner and Al Oliver, but LA rattled off four straight eighth-inning hits off Dave Giusti, who took the loss, and another off Larry Demery, scoring three times to take a 2-0 lead in the NLCS at TRS with a 5-2 victory. 

Hanny - 2009 Topps Heritage 

• 1981 - RHP Joel Hanrahan was born in Des Moines, Iowa. A second round pick of the Dodgers, he was the Nat’s closer and hit a rocky patch, so in a mid-season change-of-scenery deal, he was traded to Pittsburgh in 2009. Pitching coach Joe Kerrigan pushed the right buttons and Hanny became the Pirates closer in 2011, earning two All-Star nods while collecting 76 saves from 2011-12 (his Pittsburgh line was 10-8-82/2.59, with 265 K in 229-1/3 IP). After the 2012 season, he was shipped to Boston (the FO was dumping his arb-year salary) for Mark Melancon. That worked out; Jason Grilli held the fort until The Shark was ready to claim the closer role. A string of injuries derailed Hanny after that and Joel returned to the Bucco flock in 2017 as a minor league pitching coach, leaving after the 2021 season and moving on to the Washington Nats organization. 
• 1983 - RHP Radhames Liz was born in El Seibo, Dominican Republic. Liz tossed for three years for the O’s, then worked out of Korea for three more years. The Bucs signed him as a free agent for $1M in the 2014 off season. He went 1-4/4.21 for the Pirates in 2015, striking out 27 batters in 23-1/3 IP, but walked 12 and bopped three during that span. He spent 2016 in Japan, 2017 pitching in the Dominican Winter League and then signed with the Brewers in ‘18 but was released in May. Liz spent a year in China, took off the 2020 campaign with a herniated disc and pitched in the Mexican League for the past two campaigns to add to his international resume. 
• 1991 - In the last game of the year, John Smiley tossed a five-hit shutout with help from the pen to beat the Expos, 7-0, at TRS. It was Smiley’s 20th win of the year for the Pirates and capped a dog days run - he went 8-1/2.69 in 13 outings from August onward. He was backed by three RBI from Jose Lind and another pair from Barry Bonds, who also scored twice. In other news of the day, Jim Leyland announced his 25-man playoff roster; pitchers Neal Heaton and Vicentes Palacios were left off, along with catcher Tom Prince. The club also set an attendance record for the third time in four years with a total of 2,065,302 seats sold. The record was a little misleading, as they got three extra home dates because of an accident shutting down Olympic Stadium. That shifted the final Montreal series to Pittsburgh, and those bonus matches put them over the top. Finally, Jay Bell finished off a strong season - his 67 RBI and 90 runs scored were the most production by a Pirates shortstop since Arky Vaughan (95 RBI, 113 RS) in 1940. 

Chico - 1992 Studio

• 1992 - John Smoltz and the Braves won the opening game of the NLCS at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium by a 5-1 count over Doug Drabek and the Pirates. The Bucs bats were silenced by Smoltz with just five hits, with the only run coming in on Chico Lind’s eighth-inning homer. 
• 2013 - PNC Park had another record breaking crowd of 40,489 to watch the Pirates take a two-to-one lead in the best-of-five NLDC against the Cards, winning by a 5-3 score. St. Louis rallied from behind twice against the Pirates, but the last comeback belonged to Pittsburgh. The Bucs went up 2-0 on a two-out, two-run Marlon Byrd single in the first, and the Redbirds tied it in the fifth on Carlos Beltran’s two-run single. The Pirates went ahead, 3-2, an inning later on Russell Martin’s sac fly. Beltran tied it again in the eighth with a homer to right center off Mark Melancon. Pittsburgh put up two in their half off Carlos Martinez, with RBI singles from Pedro Alvarez and Martin. Jason Grilli then closed out the see-saw game, with Melancon initially blowing the hold and then getting the win. Francisco Liriano and Joe Kelly started the game, but neither made it to the seventh inning.