5/9 From 1970: Meares, JT Quintets; Neil Triplet; Brawl Ball; May Moves; Game Tales; HBD Buddy

• 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 runaway frame. Earlier, Bill Robinson had banged two home runs off Phil Niekro to give the Pirates the lead while Tim Foli added four more RBI. 

John Milner - 1979 Topps

• 1983 - Jason Thompson picked a fine time to break out of his 3-for-27 slump, smacking a career-best five hits at Jack Murphy Stadium to lead the Pirates to a 5-3, 14-inning win against the San Diego Padres 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 game-winning two-run two-bagger. The Bucs fourth pitcher, Manny Sarmiento, pocketed 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 the Blue Jays in 2019 with on the hill in the Dominican and Mexican leagues. He retired before the 2021 season and is now a coach in a training facility. 
• 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 win. Today, it was Al Martin who went downtown to knot the score and AVS banged a two-out double in the 11th to give the Bucs and Blas Minor a 6-5 victory. The 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. 

Jose Guillen - 1997 Pinnacle Select Rookie

• 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 flashed what coulda been. The Pirates almost blew a 10-5 lead, but hung on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 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. 
• 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 inning, Jose Tabata made a diving catch in left, then doubled a wandering 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 a moot point by putting up a three-spot in their half of the frame after banging 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. 

Jose Veras - 2011 photo Justin Aller/Getty

• 2015 - Neil Walker began and ended the first 4-5-4 triple play in MLB history. He went airborne to snag Yadier Molina’s bases-loaded liner and threw to third, doubling off the frozen 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, the win. 
• 2018 - For the second straight game, the Bucs spotted the Chicago White Sox a four run lead at Guaranteed Rate Stadium and then roared 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 frame. 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 lead and an 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 added solo shots. 
• 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. But the beat went on - two days later, Crick went on the IL with a strained triceps and LHP Shreven Chase was recalled. A couple of days after that, 1B Phil Evans went on the IL with a bad hammy and 1B Will Craig was called up, with RHP Sean Poppen DFA’ed to make it an unforgettable week for roster keepers. Hayes and Reynolds are the only players still rostered. 

Ke'Bryan Hayes - 2021 Topps Inception

• 2022 - A couple of ugly streaks were on the line when the Bucs hosted the Dodgers at PNC Park. Los Angeles had won 16 straight from Pittsburgh, dating to 2018, and the Pirate starters had gone 27 consecutive games without earning a win to open the season, the longest such stretch in MLB history. Both strings came to an overdue end as the Bucs rolled to a 5-1 victory in front of 8,527 fans. Jose Quintana spun six scoreless frames to earn his first victory since 2019 while Michael Perez and Jack Suwinski homered; it was Suwinski’s first MLB bomb. Ke’Bryan Hayes added three knocks to lead a 15-hit attack; the 1-6 batters all had multi-hit nights. As an added bonus, the scoreboard vid showed action from the Penguins’ playoff game being played simultaneously across town at PPG Paints Arena. They won too, so all of the City’s sports fans went home happy.