9/13 From 1975: Cutch Joins 200 Club; B-2-B-2-B; Bucs Roll 7; Pups Spin Sweep; Coonelly CEO; Gems & Game Tales; RIP Hooly; HBD Alfonso & Andy

• 1978 - The Pirates only got three hits against the Cards at TRS, but two of them were three-run homers by Willie Stargell & Bill Robinson and were more than enough to carry Bert Blyleven to a complete-game win at TRS by a 7-1 tally. The Pirates didn’t get very many good pitches to swing at; the Redbird hurlers walked 11 batters and tossed three wild pitches. 
• 1983 - 3B Andy LaRoche was born in Fort Scott, Kansas. Part of the Jason Bay deal, the much ballyhooed prospect LaRoche came to Pittsburgh from LA at the 2008 trade deadline, joining brother Adam. He was a Pirate until 2010, but hit only .226 during that time. He played briefly for Oakland and Toronto after his Buc tour of duty and last played in the indie leagues in 2015-16. 
• 1987 - The Pirates won their seventh in a row and 15-of-18 as they dropped the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1, at Veterans Stadium. Bobby Bonilla and Sid Bream had three knocks each to lead a 15-hit attack that eventually wore the Phils down. Brian Fisher tossed a complete game five-hitter with 10 K for the win. Despite catching fire late, Pittsburgh ended the year with just 80 wins. 

Brian Fisher - 1987 Topps Traded

• 1988 - Bob Walk hooked up with Doc Gooden in a dandy duel, with Walkie’s eight-inning five-hitter taking the marbles in a 1-0 win at Shea Stadium. The game’s only run came in the fourth when Andy Van Slyke singled, stole second and came home on Bobby Bonilla’s double. Jim Gott earned the save but made it exciting by loading the bases (single, hit batter, walk) with two out against Howard Johnson. Johnson had bested Gott earlier in the year with a two-out, ninth-inning homer off a fastball and this time, Gott made sure Johnson saw three sliders. As Bob Hertzel of the Pittsburgh Press wrote “Strike one, strike two, take a seat.” 
• 1991 - It was a tough day for the Pirates; they left their hotel at 6AM to fly home from Philadelphia to attend equipment manager John “Hooly” Hallahan’s funeral, said their goodbyes, then turned around and flew back to the Vet. Not surprisingly, they quickly found themselves in a 5-1 hole after the game started and then lost skipper Jim Leyland early when he was given the thumb in the fourth inning arguing an iffy Philly catch. But they kept grinding, and thanks to a five-run sixth, the Pirates found themselves in a 6-6 tie in the ninth. Mitch Williams took the ball for the Phils and got two fast outs, then walked a pair to set up Steve Buechele, who knocked a 2-2 pitch into the corner for a two-bagger to make it 8-6. It was Buechele’s third hit of the day and gave him three RBI. Rosario Rodriguez set Philadelphia down in their half to save Stan Belinda’s win, Pittsburgh’s 32nd come-from-behind victory of the year. 
• 1996 - 1B/OF Alfonso Rivas was born in Chula Vista, California. Rivas was part of the 2023 Rich Hill/Ji Man Choi trade with San Diego. He was a fourth-round pick of Oakland in 2016 out of Arizona before being traded to the Cubs and then signing with the Padres in 2023. Rivas is a good-glove guy with not much power who the Cubs released in the off season. He batted .245 in 310 ABs w/Chicago and the Friars since 2021 with a .313 career BA in AAA ball. In two months with the Bucs, Alfonso has struggled to raise his average above the Mendoza line. 

Post Gazette 9/13/2007

• 2007 - The Pirates officially announced that Frank Coonelly was the team’s new CEO (a post usually held by the owner), replacing Kevin McClatchy, who had announced in July that he was stepping down. Coonelly, an attorney, previously served as a Senior Vice President in the Commissioner's Office, where he was in charge of various matters including arb hearings and draft bonuses. 
• 2010 - The Pirates lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to the Mets at Citi Field in 10 innings, wasting three leadoff doubles and stranding 10 runners. James McDonald went eight frames of five-hit ball, but the Mets finally plated off reliever Chan Ho Park, who took the walkoff loss. 
• 2013 - Pedro Alvarez, Russ Martin and Garrett Jones hit back-to-back-to-back homers in the fourth inning off the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta, but a pair of two-run Chicago blasts carried the day as the Pirates fell, 5-4. It was the first time that the Bucs had hit three consecutive homers at PNC Park and had an improbable degree of difficulty as Pedro’s was a stand-up inside-the-park shot. (He later told Root Sports that it was the first he could remember since “...little league.”) 
• 2015 - Josh Harrison drove in Pedro Florimon with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning for a walkoff win over the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park in front of 34,170 fans. Pittsburgh trailed 6-1 entering the bottom half of the fourth inning before producing their deepest-in-the-hole comeback win of the season. The key early blow was Travis Snider’s two-run double in the fourth and back-to-back RBI knocks by Andrew McCutchen and Jung Ho Kang in the seventh to tie the match. The victory went to the Pirates eighth pitcher of the game, Jared Hughes, and put the club 30 games above .500 with a record of 86-56. 

J-Hay - 2015 photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates

• 2017 - Andrew McCutchen joined Willie Stargell (475), Ralph Kiner (301) and Roberto Clemente (240) as a member of the Pirates 200 home run club (Cutch has 215 long balls and counting as a Bucco). The first-inning blast to center was the Bucco highlight at Miller Park, with the Milwaukee Brewers romping, 8-2. 
• 2022 - Rookie RHP Luis Ortiz, 23, was called up from Indy to make his MLB debut as the 29th player in a twin bill against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. He showed pretty well, too, going 5-2/3 innings of one-hit, shutout ball, striking out five and walking three. The bullpen didn’t allow any knocks afterwards, and it was the Bucs first one-hitter at Cincy since Randy Kramer’s gem in 1989. Ortiz tossed six heaters that were clocked at 100 MPH+ to become the first Buc hurler to fire that many in a game since Gerritt Cole threw seven in 2013; he and Cole are the only Pirate hurlers of the Statcast era (2015>) to hit triple figures. The Pirates only managed three hits themselves, but Kevin Newman’s seventh-inning, two-out flare into left scored Rodolfo Castro, who had doubled, and it was just enough for the 1-0 sweep. Chase DeJong earned the win and Duane Underwood Jr. was credited with his first MLB save. The Bucs took the opener, 6-1, behind the arm of Johan Oviedo, 24, and homers from Bryan Reynolds, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Cal Mitchell.