- 1972 - IF Chance Sanford was born in Houston, Texas and was a 27th round pick of the Buccos in the 1992 draft from San Jacinto College. Chance got into 14 Pirates games in 1998 and went 4-for-28 (.143) as a 26-year-old rookie and was released after the year. He got into five games with the Dodgers the following season and then closed out his career playing indie ball.
- 1987 - Rick Reuschel fired a two-hitter against the Atlanta Braves at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, ending a six-game Pirate losing streak. Andy Van Slyke homered and made a great catch in the ninth to help save the 4-0 victory. Rafe Belliard scored twice. Big Daddy apparently had the Bravos number: the victory was Reuschel’s ninth straight win over Atlanta.
- 1989 - Some dates are special; for Jeff King, June 2nd was that day. He was drafted #1 overall by the Pirates OTD in 1986 and today marked his MLB debut. He pinch hit in the 11th frame at Shea Stadium against the New York Mets in a 1-1 game and doubled up the line on an 0-2 pitch from Rick Aguilera for his first hit. He scored two batters later on Glenn Wilson’s single to give the Bucs the lead. The celebration was brief as Randy Kramer couldn’t hold the lead, giving up a two-run homer to Dave Magadan in the Mets’ half to take the sheen off Jeff’s first outing.
- 1991 - The Pirates scored twice in the ninth inning to win their ninth straight game, 5-3, over the Phils at Veterans Stadium. Barry Bonds doubled home Andy Van Slyke, who had reached on an infield knock, with two away for the lead and Mitch Webster singled BB home with the insurance tally. Barry was the Bucs hitting hero; he had three raps, including a two-run homer to give Bob Patterson, the Pirates fourth pitcher in a match Doug Drabek had started, the victory. The streak ended two days later when the Giants took a 5-3 win from the Bucs at TRS.
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| Randy Tomlin - 1992 Fleer |
- 1992 - Randy Tomlin won his sixth game by getting the LA Dodgers to beat the ball into the dirt for a 1-0 win at TRS. The lefty got 15 of his 21 outs via the grounder, and more importantly, coaxed three Blue DP balls to allow his six-hitter to stand. The Bucs weren’t exactly lighting it up against Tom Candiotti, but with two outs in the seventh, he walked three straight Pirates (one intentionally), finally losing Dave Clark on a 3-1 pitch, to force home the game’s only run. Roger Mason cleaned it up over the final two frames to save Tomlin’s win. For Randy, it was his second victory of a six-game winning streak. He claimed 14 triumphs during the campaign, the only time in his career he reached double-digit wins for a season.
- 1998 - The Pirates beat the Mets, 5-2, at TRS behind Chris Peter’s pitching and a bases-loaded triple by Kevin Young for their fourth straight victory, but the big story was that they earned the win in the midst of a tornado. The game was delayed nearly an hour by the gale, but Peters came back after the break in the third frame to work five innings. The Post Gazette noted that a couple of Pirates gathered up hailstones from the dugout before play resumed. The tornado touched down on nearby Mt. Washington, damaging 1,000+ structures and triggered the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s banner headline that screamed “Torn Asunder.”
- 2011 - Pittsburgh blew a 7-0 advantage to the Mets and lost, 9-8, at Citi Field as Paul Maholm couldn’t hold the lead and left with the game tied. Jose Veras then self-destructed in the eighth, giving up a hit, four walks and a wild pitch. The Buc wasted a homer and four RBI from Neil Walker and a four-hit day, with a triple, two stolen bases and three runs scored, from Xavier Nady.
- 2013 - The Cincinnati Reds raced to a 4-0 first inning lead against Jeanmar Gomez and the righty was yanked after the frame with forearm tightness. But the Pirate bullpen put up 10 scoreless frames, allowing just five hits, while Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Jones homered - Jones became the first Pirate to reach the Allegheny on the fly with his 463’ blast - to send the game into extra innings at PNC Park. The Pirates took it in the 11th on Travis Snider’s soft two-out liner that scored Russ Martin from second base for a walk-off 5-4 win.
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| Josh Harrison - 2014 Topps Update |
- 2014 - The Pirates romped at Petco Park, winning 10-3 as the San Diego Padres ran through seven pitchers and 249 pitches during the longest nine-inning game in SD history at 4:04. Of the 53 men Pittsburgh sent to the plate, 26 reached base. They went 9-for-20 with RISP and still stranded 16 men, loading the bases seven different times. San Diego left 11 runners of their own on the pond, but went 1-for-10 with RISP. Jordy Mercer went 4-for-5 with a homer, four RBI and two runs scored, while Josh Harrison and Neil Walker each added three hits. Charlie Morton got the win, but the Pirates had to call on three relievers of their own to close out the contest. There were six bopped batters without a warning being issued and twelve walks combined during the game. It was only the second time during a National League game of the modern (post-1914) era that each team hit three batters in the same game. The other time it happened was on August 15, 2007, when the New York Mets played, natch, the Bucs.
- 2017 - You wouldn’t expect this kind of game from a Gerrit Cole - Matt Harvey match, but the Bucs and Mets exchanged big innings with the Pirates coming out on top at Citi Field, 12-7. The Pirates put up a three spot in the fourth to take the lead on Elias Diaz’s bases-loaded, three-run double. The New York nine answered in the fifth with five runs off Cole to take a 7-4 advantage. The Corsairs then responded with a seven-spot in the sixth off Harvey and reliever Paul Sewald, keyed by Diaz’s three-run homer, his first as a major leaguer, to jump ahead, 11-7. Then the storm abated; the only other run to score was on Josh Harrison’s solo shot in the eighth. Josh Bell also went long in the victory, and even with the sketchy start, Cole got the win, making up for some early-season hard-luck losses. Diaz ended up with six RBI, the first six-pack by a Pirates rookie since Andrew McCutchen chased home a half-dozen teammates in 2009.
- 2018 - Bruce Kison passed away of cancer at the age of 68. Kison was selected by Pittsburgh in the 14th round of the 1968 amateur draft and made his big league debut on July 4th, 1971. “Buster” was best known for winning Game 4 of the 1971 World Series, the first night game in World Series history, by tossing 6-1/3 scoreless innings of one-hit relief against Baltimore. Kison made more news when he hopped in a helicopter after the Game 7 win at Baltimore to zip home for his wedding, along with best man Bob Moose; a police escort took him from the airport to the church. He was a combative and competitive guy on the mound, once brawling with Mike Schmidt. Bruce spent nine of his 15 MLB years with the Bucs (1971-79; 81-63-6/3.49) and when he retired, he became a minor league pitching instructor for Pittsburgh in 1986, bullpen coach for Kansas City from 1992-93, the Royals pitching coach from 1994-98 and Baltimore's pitching coach in 1999. He then worked as a scout for Baltimore until a few months before his demise.
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| Bruce Kison - 1972 Topps |
- 2020 - The year continued spinning on its crazy trajectory when the Bucs announced that 31-year-old RHP Chris Archer underwent surgery to relieve symptoms of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. He was done for the season (it was an abbreviated 60-game year) and with major surgery and an $11M team option in 2021, he was done as a Bucco after Neal Huntington had sent Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz to Tampa for him in 2018. Archie got 33 Pittsburgh starts, winning six games while posting a 4.92 ERA. He returned to Tampa Bay for two injury ridden seasons, moved to the Twins where he was released and is now a member of the LA Dodgers baseball ops department.
- 2023 - The Pirates overcame a 5-0, sixth-inning deficit against the Cards at PNC Park to rally for a 7-5 win before 24,388 rooters. Roansy Contreras gave up the five spot and a pair of third inning bombs, but five relievers put a halt to any further damage. That allowed Ke'bryan Hayes to deliver a two-out, three-run blast in the seventh inning to put the Bucs ahead after Carlos Santana’s two-run double had closed the gap. Josh Palacios then smacked his first MLB homer to go back-to-back and add an insurance marker. Yohan Ramirez faced one batter in the seventh and was credited with the win; David Bednar earned the save.
- 2023 - The Pirates traded righty reliever Robert Stephenson (0-3/5.54 in 17 outings), sending him to the Tampa Bay Rays for Class AA-Montgomery SS Alika Williams. Stephenson, 30, an eight-year MLB vet, joined the Pirates in August, 2022 after being waived by Colorado and is now with the LA Angels. Williams, 24, was a competitive-balance pick (37th overall) of the Rays in 2020 as a golden glove but a project at the plate. He was assigned to AAA-Indy and was called up to the big team in late July. Alika remained a reserve IF for Pittsburgh this year.
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