8/23: Spoiler Josh, Mid-Muscle, Adam Slam-zu, Zisk Sixer, Super Scoop, Roberto - 5 B-2-B, Baron's 16th, Drysdale Double Dropped, Howie's Short No-No, Game Tales, Starg Surgery; HBD Tyler, Denny & Mississippi Mudcat

• 1901 - RHP Guy “Mississippi Mudcat” Bush was born in Aberdeen, Mississippi. Guy worked in 1935-36 for Pittsburgh toward the end of his 17-year career, posting a line of 12-14-4/4.46 in 57 outings. He started in his first season and was converted to the pen in his second; that didn’t go so well and he was released in July. He did make the record books with the Bucs, though - he served up Babe Ruth’s final two home runs at Forbes Field in 1935 with the Bambino’s last dinger being the first ever to clear the right-field roof. He got his nickname from Chicago sportswriters who liked to describe him as a homespun backwoods boy. 
• 1907 - Howie Camnitz threw a five-inning, complete game no-hitter (although not even earning an asterisk as it didn’t go the required nine innings) with four walks against the New York Giants Mike Lynch, who only surrendered two singles, at the Polo Grounds. The game was the nitecap of a doubleheader. After the first match went extra innings (the Pirates won 4-2 in 10 frames behind Sam Leever and Honus Wagner’s three hits), the teams agreed to the shortened, five frame second game. Pittsburgh took the truncated nightcap by a 1-0 tally. 
• 1910 - Despite manager and LF’er Fred Clarke’s four assists from the outfield, the Bucs fell, 6-2, to the Philadelphia Phillies at Forbes Field. Clarke’s four toss-outs - one at home, another at third, and two more at second - set an individual NL record. He also made a neat running catch in the eighth inning to take away extra bases from John Titus. Chief Wilson joined in with an assist from RF, bringing the team's total to five, which tied the NL single-game mark. 
• 1959 - The Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Dodgers, beating Don Drysdale in both games. As a starter, Drysdale lost the opener, 9-2, lasting 2-2/3 frames, then relieved in the nitecap, taking a 4-3 loss in the 10th inning. ElRoy Face won his 16th of the year without a loss in the second game, equaling Cal Hubbell's (1936) and Ewell Blackwell's (1947) record streaks. Bill Virdon had six straight hits, went 6-for-8 and scored & drove in three runs during the day. 

ElRoy Face - 1959 Topps

• 1970 - Roberto Clemente had his second straight five-hit game against Los Angeles, the first 20th century major leaguer to collect 10 hits in consecutive games (per Bill Christine of the Press, skipper Danny Murtaugh said: “Ten hits in two games! When I was playing, it would take me three or four weeks to get that many.”) Clemente banged a homer, double, three RBI and scored four runs in the 11-0 win at Dodger Stadium. Bill Mazeroski added four raps while Freddy Patek, Matty Alou and Manny Sanguillen each had three knocks as the Buccos collected 23 hits against the Angelinos. Steve Blass cruised to the victory, tossing a complete game four-hitter with eight whiffs. 
• 1971 - Al Oliver was hot, going 5-for-6 against the Braves with two homers, four runs scored and five RBI in a 15-4 Pirates romp at Atlanta Stadium, falling a double shy of the cycle (in the ninth, he swatted his second homer instead of a two-bagger; we suspect that he considered it a fair trade-off). Roberto Clemente added three hits, including a long ball, while four more Bucs had two raps each. Bob Moose got the win though Nellie Briles had to pick up the final four frames. The Bravos returned the favor the next day by romping, 15-5. 
• 1975 - Richie Zisk went 4-for-4 with a homer, a double and a sac fly to drive home six runs, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Pirates gifted the Giants seven unearned runs in the fifth inning to drop a 12-7 decision at TRS. With two outs and two on, Joe Morgan’s grounder ticked off Rennie Stennett’s mitt and the floodgates opened - three pitchers, three walks, two hits and a wild pitch later, the G-Men had overrun Bruce Kison and company. 
• 1977 - It was a back-and-forth game to the end: up by a run with Goose Gossage on the bump in the ninth, Padre Gene Tenace launched a two-out solo homer to tie the game after the Pirates had rallied for the lead in the eighth. But Al Oliver had an answer when he led off the Bucco half with a blast off Rollie Fingers to give the Pirates a 7-6 win over San Diego at TRS. Scoops and Dave Parker had a pair of hits each and Bill Robinson added a two-run long ball to give the Goose a blown save/victory. It was also announced that Willie Stargell would have surgery on his elbow and he’d be lost for the rest of the season after having already spent six weeks on the DL. He bounced back after the procedure during the next campaign, landing an All-Star berth in ‘78. 

Willie Stargell - 1977 Hostess

• 1980 - RHP Denny Bautista was born in Sanchez, Dominican Republic. He was the epitome of a journeyman, tossing for six teams in seven MLB years while slashing 11-15/5.88. The Pirates traded with Detroit for him in 2008 in exchange for a minor leaguer, and from 2008-09, his Pittsburgh line was 5-4/5.89 in 49 outings. The 6’5” reliever moved on to the Giants in 2010 for his last big league campaign, and closed out his pro years in Korea and Mexico. 
• 1988 - Dave LaPoint tossed a five-hitter and Andy Van Slyke drilled a two-run homer in the seventh to carry the Bucs to a 2-0 win over Cincinnati at TRS. LaPoint and Norm Charlton traded zeroes until the seventh. After the Bucs scored, the Red staged a two-out rally in the eighth to chase LaPoint, but Jim Gott came on to save the day. LaPoint ended up a rental who went 4-2/2.77 for the Bucs in the stretch, with this being his sole shutout start. 
• 1993 - RHP Tyler Glasnow was born in Newhall, California. Glasnow was the Pirates 5th round pick in the 2011 draft and the prep star gave up a ride to the University of Portland by signing for a $600 K. Tyler dominated in the minors and was a consensus Top 25 Prospect, getting his first call to the show in 2016. He broke camp with the club the following year but was sent back to Indy in June after being batted around in the rotation and got 13 starts with the big club in 2017. He was sent to Tampa Bay in 2018 as part of the Chris Archer deal after working out of the Bucco bullpen and became a poster boy for change-of-scenery swaps. 
• 2001 - The Pirates defeated the Diamondbacks, 5-1, in front of 30,784 at PNC Park, despite a 16-strikeout performance by Randy Johnson, who became the first pitcher in history to fan 300 batters in four straight seasons. Johnson only gave up six hits, but he walked nine batters in the loss to Tony McKnight and the bullpen. The big blows off the Big Unit were a two-run homer by Kevin Young and two-run pinch-hit double by Keith Osik, both in the seventh. 

Tony McKnight - 2002 Fleer

• 2002 - The Pirates were down, 3-2, in the seventh against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park, and it had been a frustrating day - they had left the bases loaded with two gone in the first and with nobody out in the sixth. They looked destined to fall into the same trap once again when Pittsburgh juiced the bases with no outs, then Craig Wilson and Kevin Young fanned. Adam Hyzdu came to the rescue; he popped an 0-1 pitch into the stands for his third long ball in four games (Adam’s granny broke a string of 11 straight solo bombs by the Pirates) to give the Bucs a lead they wouldn’t lose. The bullpen was nearly flawless; Mike Lincoln got the win, Brian Boehringer the hold and Mike Williams notched his 36th save as they tossed four scoreless frames, giving up just two hits, to carry home the 6-3 victory. 
• 2014 - The Pirates 4-5-6 hitters (Neil Walker, Russ Martin & Pedro Alvarez) went 7-for-11 with three walks, two doubles, three homers, six runs scored and 10 RBI to help rough up the Milwaukee Brewers 10-2 at Miller Park. Alvarez hit a pair of opposite field homers after a six week long ball drought, one of them coming back-to-back following Martin’s blast into the bullpen. Edinson Volquez got the win with clutch pitching - he gave up 11 hits in 5-2/3 IP, but stranded runners at second and third with no outs once and later in the game worked out of a bases loaded jam with one out against Ryan Braun & Aramis Ramirez coming up. 
• 2016 - The first six Pirates batters hit safely against Houston’s Joe Musgrove - Adam Frazier (single), Matt Joyce (double), Andrew McCutchen (double), Gregory Polanco (single), David Freese (single) & Josh Bell (single) - before Bell was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double, and the Bucs scored four times on the way to a 7-1 victory at PNC Park. Ivan Nova tossed a complete game six-hitter on 98 pitches, losing a shutout in the ninth inning, while Polanco launched a pair of home runs. It was the first time since 1975 that the Pirates strung together that many knocks to open a game when the first eight Buccos banged out hits. Despite that soft rookie outing, Musgrove joined the Pirates as a major piece of the 2018 Gerrit Cole trade package with the ‘Stros, then in turn becoming the centerpiece of a 2021 swap with San Diego. 

Gregory Polanco - 2016 Topps Bunt

• 2017 - The Dodgers Rich Hill took a perfect game into the ninth inning at PNC Park and a no-hitter into the 10th; both went by the wayside as the Pirates prevailed in an unlikely 1-0 victory. The perfecto was lost on Logan Forsythe’s error while the no-no, shutout, and game were deep-sixed by Josh Harrison’s leadoff, walk-off homer in overtime. Trevor Williams matched zeroes with him through eight innings without the style points - he gave up seven hits, four walks and bopped a batter, but stranded nine runners thanks to a pair of DPs and a throw-out on the bases. Felipe Rivero and Juan Nicasio kept the Trolley Dodgers at bay for the win. Game factoids: J-Hay is the first and so far only player to end a no-hit bid with a walkoff HR. On the bump, Hill became just the second pitcher to lose a no-hitter via a walk off hit, joining the original Heartbreak Kid, the Pirates’ Harvey Haddix, who lost his perfect game in 1959 in the 13th inning. Going into the game, the Pirates had scored five or more runs in seven straight games for the first time since 1996, so Hill was spinning his magic against a team that was on a roll. 
• 2019 - A couple of “up” outings by a pair of Pirates pitchers who had decidedly up-and-down seasons and a ninth-inning uprising carried the Bucs to a 3-2 win over the Reds at PNC Park. Mitch Keller struck out nine in six innings, but left runners on first and third with no outs during a 1-1 game for Michael Feliz in the seventh. It took Feliz 12 pitches to retire the next three Redlegs swinging. Cincy edged ahead in the eighth, but the Pirates lit it up in the ninth. Four of the five batters hit safely - the only out was a sac bunt - with Adam Frazier’s rap tying the game and Pablo Reyes walking it off with a single to give Felipe Vazquez the victory.