5/24 From 1970: I-Mac Inning, Fraze Sixer, El Coffee Clutch, K-Sweep, Fisher-Man, Odd Ball; Big Finishes, Game Tales; Manly Men

• 1978 - The Mets banged out 13 hits and held the lead three times, but the New Yorkers couldn’t hold off the Pirates at TRS. Pittsburgh scored twice in the 10th inning to flip Kent Tekulve from a loser after giving up a dinger to a winner in a 6-5 victory. Rennie Stennett’s bases-loaded bloop into right was the game winner; Frank Taveras scored the final run uncontested as RF’er Bruce Boisclair inexplicably threw the ball to second instead of home; coach Joe Lonnett and Taveras were both expecting a close play at the dish. Stennett plated three Pirates on the day and Dave Parker added two doubles to chase home a pair of runs, offsetting two homers by NY’s Willie Montanez. 
• 1981 - A lot of little oddities occurred in the Bucs 7-1 win over the Phils at Three Rivers Stadium: the Pirates drew four intentional walks, stole five bases in six tries and got a two-run homer from pitcher Jim Bibby. And even with all that, they didn’t put the game away until the eighth when one of the intentional walks backfired. They went into the frame up, 2-1, on the strength of Bibby’s bomb and then added an insurance tally on Phil Garner’s one-out triple and a Dale Berra single. With runners on second and third and two gone, Philadelphia put Lee Lacy aboard to get to Omar Moreno. The Antelope singled home a pair off Sparky Lyle and Bill Madlock followed with a two-run two-bagger to ice the game. Bibby got the win and Victor Cruz earned a two inning save in front of 21,771 fans. 
• 1983 - The Bucs built a 6-0 lead on the strength of Larry McWilliams arm and two-run shots by Lee Mazzilli and Jason Thompson (Lee’s left the yard; Jason’s was a two-bagger), then hung on as the Braves scored five times in eighth after blowing earlier chances when they left the bases loaded with an out in the second and fourth frames. Kent Tekulve nailed it down in the ninth, thanks more to the fates than good stuff; Atlanta ripped three bullets off him, but two of them found gloves and the other was a two-out single that delayed the inevitable, sending the 17,447 fans at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium home frustrated by the baseball gods. 

Barry & Bo - 1987 Topps Team Leaders

• 1987 - Brian Fisher did it all at Riverfront Stadium in the Bucs 7-2 win over the Reds. He tossed a complete game five-hitter against Cincy and belted a three-run homer (it was his first hit of the year), the first of two dingers he hit during his career, with the other coming a month later v the Expos. Bobby Bonilla banged a pair of solo shots and Barry Bonds doubled home a pair of runs with Mike LaValliere adding three knocks and John Cangelosi chipping in at leadoff by swiping three sacks. It was the Pirates fifth straight win and got them within five games of the top spot, but they mostly sputtered afterward and finished at 80-82, 15 games behind the East titleists, the Cards. 
• 1988 - People remember Barry Bonds’ big bat as part of the Killer B’s, but it wasn't until 1990 that he moved off the leadoff spot in the lineup. Today was a prime example of why. Opening the ninth with the Bucs down, 4-3, to the Astros at TRS, Bonds laid down a drag bunt for a small ball single. Base hits by Andy Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla plated him to knot the match, and Sid Bream’s sac fly chased home the game winner. AVS had four hits, including a homer and three runs scored while Bobby Bo had a pair of hits and two RBI. The final frame heroics turned Jim Gott from a loser to victor after he had given up the go-ahead tally. 
• 1991 - WPPT, in conjunction with San Francisco and New York stations hooked up by satellite, held a Roberto Clemente Sports City telethon with Vera Clemente, Bob Prince, Bill Mazeroski, Manny Sanguillen, Nellie King, Steve Blass, Bob Friend, Dick Groat, Jerry Lynch, Jim Rooker, Nellie Briles, Dave Giusti and Willie Stargell, with the active Pirates popping in after the game at TRS. 
• 1998 - Relievers Marc Wilkins (who was on the DL) and Jeff Tabaka, road roomies, allegedly got into an argument over a card game while tippling postgame at Milwaukee’s Pfister Hotel. The discussion grew heated, and Wilkins punched Tabaka. He broke his jaw, sending him to the DL until early July. The two were buds who shared an apartment in Pittsburgh during the season, and made up shortly after the brawl. GM Cam Bonifay brushed it off, telling the Associated Press that “Each other took a stance, as manly gentlemen sometimes do.” 

Marc Wilkins - 1998 Collector's Choice

• 2006 - When Craig Wilson flew out to the fence with Freddy Sanchez on first base in the ninth, it was the frustrating end to an 8-7 Pirates loss to Arizona at Chase Field as Pittsburgh finished two months of being baseball’s sacrificial lamb on the road - although a competitive 10-11 at PNC Park, the Bucs were 4-22 away from the banks of the Allegheny. They later played more respectably as visitors, but still compiled a 24-57 mark away from the North Shore and finished the year 67-95, despite a winning home (43-38) mark. 
• 2008 - The Pirates blew a late lead, rallied to tie the contest in the ninth and eventually claimed the win after 14 innings by a 5-4 tally at PNC Park. Phil Dumatrait and two relievers had left Tyler Yates a two-run lead in the eighth, but he was rattled for three scores by the Cubs. Pittsburgh tied it in the last frame when Doug Mientkiewicz led off by being bopped, worked his way to third and scored on Luis Rivas’ sac fly. Matt Capps and John Grabow, the ultimate winner, took over and each tossed three scoreless frames before the Pirates finally plated in the 14th. Freddy Sanchez reached when a soft roller was thrown away; a wild pitch and grounder moved him to third. Nate McLouth was intentionally walked and Jason Bay’s gapper chased Steady Freddy home with the game winner. That duo came up big; the Buccos’ early lead was largely the result of a Bay homer that scored Nate the Great ahead of him. 
• 2015 - Francisco Liriano capped a sweep of the Mets by K’ing 12 batters in six innings on the way to a 9-1 win at PNC Park, aided by homers off the bats of Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte. It was historic work at the franchise level, as Liriano followed Gerrit Cole and AJ Burnett, who both fanned 10 in the series first two games, to become the first trio of Pirate starters to notch three straight double-digit strikeout games since September 11-12th, 1969, when Bob Veale, Bob Moose and Dock Ellis put together three K-fests. It's only the third time since 1900 that Pittsburgh put together such a stretch. The swing-and-miss fest also set an MLB record, per Elias Sports: "It is the only time in modern major league history (from 1900 to date) that a team's starting pitchers won three straight games within one series while recording a double digit strikeout total in each game." 

Frank Liriano - 2015 Topps Museum Collection

• 2016 - The Pirates romped over the Diamondbacks, 12-1, at PNC Park as Gregory Polanco homered, doubled, scored twice, and had five RBI. The first 11 Bucs in the lineup that got at bats had hits, with the streak ending after Arquimedes Caminero, in his first MLB at-bat, grounded out in the seventh inning. Frankie Liriano got the win, but was a wild child, giving up just four hits but walking five. He wasn’t as wild as Caminero, who hit two Snakes in the head as a reliever, not as a matter of bad blood but of bad control. After the game, Arizona manager Chip Hale questioned if Arquimedes should even be in the league with command that poor. 
• 2017 - It looks like a runaway score, but the Bucs 12-5 win at SunTrust Park came down to the last out of the ninth. The Pirates jumped ahead, 3-0, on Adam Frazier’s second-inning homer, but Atlanta rallied for four runs in the sixth and carried a 5-3 lead into the ninth. With two outs and the bases filled, rookie Jose Osuna laced a two-run knock into left to knot the game. In the 10th, Josh Collmenter had a nightmare frame as the Buccos rang up a seven-spot on the Bravos, with the cherry on top being back-to-back-to-back homers by David Freese, Osuna and Jordy Mercer. Adam Frazier reached base six times on two hits and four walks. He became the first Pirates leadoff man with at least three walks and two hits that included a homer since Barry Bonds on May 28, 1988, against the Reds at Riverfront Stadium. Fraze also was the first Buc to reach base six times in a game via hit/walks since Neil Walker (5-for-5, walk) on August 12, 2012, versus the San Diego Padres at PNC Park. 
• 2023 - RHP Johan Oviedo tossed an immaculate inning against the Texas Rangers at PNC Park, joining Colin Holderman in achieving the rare feat during the ‘23 season. He K’ed Jonah Heim, Robbie Grossman and Josh Smith in the fourth inning on nine pitches, part of a streak of 12 straight batters that he retired. Unfortunately, he also got off to a slow start, giving up three runs on three hits in the opening frame, and that fast start propelled Texas to a 3-2 victory. Holderman’s immaculate inning also came during a 3-2 loss earlier in the month to the Tampa Bay Rays. Prior to Holderman and Oviedo, Jeff Robinson, Ross Ohlendorf and Juan Nicasio had tossed immaculate innings for the Bucs.