9/20 From 1970: 200 For Kell, Frankie's #1,000, Larry's Gem, Late/OT Wins, Game Tales, MLB Drug Bust; HBD Steve & Jay

• 1973 - With Richie Zisk on first in the top of the 13th inning at Shea Stadium, Dave Augustine banged a two-out drive to the left field wall. As Cleon Jones turned to watch, the ball grazed the top of the wall, just barely staying in the yard, and it bounced straight into his glove. His relay nailed the speed-challenged Zisk at the plate by 15’. Following the "Ball on the Wall" play, the Mets scored in their half to win, 4-3, and moved within half a game of the first place Bucs. As beat writer Charlie Feeney of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette noted “The Pirates, stunned, bewildered, are a sinking...club” as the Bucs were in the midst of losing 4-of-5 and finishing 6-11 down the stretch. NY eventually won the division, the NL title, and took Oakland to a seventh game in the World Series before calling it a season. The Pirates never recovered and finished 2-1/2 games behind. 
• 1974 - The Pirates scored three times in the ninth at TRS to drop the NY Mets, 4-3. After keeping the Bucs on ice in the eighth, Ray Sadecki walked Art Howe and Tug McGraw took over. A wild pitch, whiff and back-to-back singles by Paul Popovich & Rennie Stennett cut the lead to one, with Bucs lurking on the corners. A short passed ball allowed Rennie to get to second, and the Met infield stayed back, willing to concede the tying run. Manny Sanguillen hit a sharp grounder and SS Ted Martinez tried to catch a hustling Stennett steaming toward third but was late; without the passed ball, The Roadrunner’s worm-burner would have been a likely game-ending DP. Al Oliver was intentionally walked to load the bases. Willie Stargell hit a hopper to John Milner at first; he stepped on the bag, removing the force at home, and fired to the plate, but Rennie beat the tag. So the Bucs put up a game-winning three-spot on two hits, two walks, and two gift plays in the field. It was a big win for Ramon Hernandez and the Pirates, who won the division that year by a slim 1-1/2 game margin over the St. Louis Cards before the Los Angeles Dodgers ended their year in the NLCS. 
• 1978 - Jason Bay was born in Trail, British Columbia. In his six years as a Pirate, his line was .268 BA/219 HR/715 RBI and he was an All-Star twice. In 2004, he set the Pirate record for rookie home runs with 26 and was The Sporting News NL Rookie of the Year, the second Pirate player to win the award after 2B Johnny Ray in 1982 and the first Canadian player to win the honor. He was traded to Boston at the 2008 deadline and played well there through 2009 before signing a monster contract with the Mets. That didn’t work out so well; Jay was hit with a string of rib & concussion-related injuries to go with a chronically grumpy knee. He hit .234 with 26 homers in three years and he retired before the 2014 campaign after a comeback with the Seattle Mariners flopped. 

Jason Bay - 2006 Flair Showcase

• 1979 - The Bucs lost, 2-1, to the Phils at Veterans Stadium, but it could have been worse. Philadelphia C Keith Moreland hit a loud foul up the left field line with two aboard that third base ump Eric Gregg lost in the lights. The story goes that the Philly ball girl went into a dance, thinking it a home run, and after seeing her celebration, Gregg accepted her call. Chuck Tanner protested, and the umps got together and made the right call. That set Dallas Green off; he littered the field with equipment after being ejected, and Mike Schmidt added his helmet to the debris. Green also protested the game, but it was all for show; the Phils squeaked it out as the Bucs squandered nine hits, and ended the game when Manny Sanguillen bounced into a twin killing with one away and runners on the corners. The loss cut the Buccos lead over the Expos to 1/2 game. Pittsburgh would eventually hold off Montreal by a two-game margin to capture the pennant. 
• 1983 - Larry McWilliams tossed a two-hitter with a career-high 11 whiffs to tame the NY Mets, 2-0, at Shea Stadium. Jason Thompson atoned for a game-blowing error the night before with four hits, Dave Parker added three more, including a 450’ homer, and Mike Easler doubled & tripled to drive in a pair of scores. The win kept the Pirates two games behind the Phillies, although a late slide dropped them to six games off the pace when the final gun sounded. 
• 1984 - With a crowd of 33,651 Cub fans at Wrigley Field, Chicago passed the 2M mark in attendance for the first time in its history. But Pittsburgh ruined the big day as the Pirates overcame a four-run deficit to rally past the Bruins by a 7-6 score. Jim Morrison was the offensive spark plug, hitting a homer, driving in a pair and scoring a pair to lead a balanced Bucco attack. Lee Smith lost to Kent Tekulve with John Candelaria chipping in with the save. 
• 1985 - A federal jury in Pittsburgh convicted Curtis Strong of 11 counts of cocaine distribution after hearing evidence in the “Pittsburgh Coke Trial.” Prominent players who dodged a bullet by being granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony included Dave Parker, Lonnie Smith, Keith Hernandez and Tim Raines. Peter Ueberroth, the commissioner, pushed through the beginnings of MLB drug testing because of the trial and its stain on MLB. 

Jim Gott - 1988 Topps

• 1988 - It took Jim Gott one pitch to set the Pirates save record in a 5-1 win over the Cards at Busch Stadium. He came on with Redbirds at second & third with two outs, and Pedro Guerrero bounced Gott’s first offering to short. It was his 32nd save, besting Kent Tekulve’s previous team mark (Mark Melancon holds the current record with 51 saves). “I felt cheated,” he said of the easy save chance, though it had been a tight battle until the Bucs scored four times in the eighth to break up a 1-1 duel between Dave LaPoint and Scott Terry. RJ Reynolds and Andy Van Slyke had two-run singles in the decisive frame to key a cobbled-together small ball rally, with three singles, two Card errors, two bunts and an intentional walk. St. Louis had plenty of chances - they had nine hits, drew five walks and swiped five bases, but they stranded a dozen runners. 
• 1988 - IF Steve Lombardozzi Jr. was born in Fulton, Maryland. Then a six-year vet, with a couple of seasons of regular time with the Nats, Lombardozzi was purchased by the Pirates in 2015. The jack-of-all-trades played mostly at AAA Indy, but did see some big league time with the Bucs, going 0-for-10. He got a sip of coffee at Miami in 2017, spent more time in AAA, then played indie ball from 2019-22. Junior is the son of former MLB 2B Steve Lombardozzi. 
• 1992 - It was a struggle, but the Bucs finally dispatched Philadelphia by a 3-2 tally after 13 innings at TRS. The Phils scored twice on solo homers while the Bucs cashed in on a pair of sac flies. Jeff King brought home the winner when his two-out single off Keith Shepherd plated Cecil Espy to give Roger Mason, the Pirates sixth pitcher, the win. The Phillies blew a couple of opportunities, going 0-for-8 w/RISP. The Bucs trumped them despite 2B Mickey Morandini’s unassisted triple play, the first in MLB since 1968 (SS Ron Hansen of Washington v Cleveland) and the first in the NL since 1927 (Cubs SS Jim Cooney v the Bucs. Before that, SS Glenn Wright of the Pirates pulled one off in 1925 v SL). He snagged a line drive off the bat of King, touched second to force Andy Van Slyke, and tagged out Barry Bonds, who was on the move from first base. 

Roger Mason - 1992 Donruss

• 2000 - The Pirates scored three times in the 10th inning thanks to long balls by Emil Brown and Adam Hyzdu, then hung on for dear life to escape with a 7-6 win at Veterans Stadium. With two runs in for the Phils, runners on the corners and one away in the 10th, Mike Williams got 2B Marlon Anderson to bang into a game-ending 4-6-3 DP to finally put it to bed. 
• 2002 - Jack Wilson had his first career walk-off hit, a one-out single in the ninth, to plate Armand Rios, whose double brought home the tying run earlier in the frame as the Pirates topped the Cubs by a score of 5-4 at PNC Park. Scott Sauerbeck got the win after Brian Boehringer had lost the lead in the eighth inning by giving up a pair of runs. BB was saved from worse when Rios threw out Alex Gonzalez at home to end the inning and keep the deficit at one run. 
• 2007 - For the second straight night, Nyjer Morgan led off the game against San Diego with a triple, the first time in five years that feat had been pulled off in the NL. Though he scored both times (he had four hits and plated four times in those two games), the Pirates couldn’t hold either lead and lost the two games by 5-3 and 6-3 tallies to the Padres at Petco Park. 
• 2013 - The Bucs started off on fire when Jose Tabata and Neil Walker led off the game with homers for the fourth time in club history, and the Pirates were cruising along when Francisco Liriano K'ed Chris Heisey in the eighth for his 1,000th career strikeout, also setting the franchise record for K's in a season at 1,193, breaking last year's mark. But the 5-2 lead wasn’t enough to hold off the Cincinnati Reds, who scored three unearned runs in the ninth thanks to a two-out error by Jordy Mercer. Cincy won in the 10th on a wrong-way home run by Joey Votto that just dropped over the fence and a few feet inside the LF pole to stun the Bucs at PNC Park, 6-5, tying the teams for second place in the NL Central and the home wildcard spot with eight games left in the season. 

Frankie Liriano - 2013 Topps Chrome

• 2022 - In an embarrassing 100-loss season, today may have been the nadir. The Pirates, fresh from being swept by the Mets in a four-game set at Citi Field, looked like they had flipped their New York luck, leading the Yankees, 8-4, with three outs to go. It wasn’t to be as Aaron Judge ominously opened the frame with his 60th homer, equaling the Bambino and one shy of tying Roger Maris’ AL record. Closer Wil Crowe then gave up two more hits around a walk to set up Giancarlo Stanton, who unloaded a walk-off grand slam; the Pirates couldn’t even get an out in the ninth while suffering a 9-8 loss at Yankee Stadium. Buc bangers Bryan Reynolds, with four hits including a homer, Rodolfo Castro, who stroked a three-run long ball, and Jason Delay, who doubled in a pair of runs, couldn’t provide enough firepower to counter the Big Apple’s bad juju. 
• 2023 - Mitch Keller became the sixth modern era Pirates pitcher to post 200 strikeouts in a season (Ed “Cannonball” Morris fanned 298 batters in 1885 and 326 in 1886 for the American Association Alleghenys; Bob Velae’s 276 whiffs in 1965 set the modern record)), joining Veale (1964-'66, '69), Ollie Pérez (2004), AJ Burnett (2013), Francisco Liriano (2015) and Gerrit Cole (2015). Kells fanned six even though it was one of those outings that almost got away from him. He earned his 13th win, but nearly blew an 8-1 cushion, giving up seven runs in 5-2/3 IP before the Bucs assault put it away, 13-7, at Wrigley Field, only their second win in 12 tries against the Cubbies. The Corsairs put together a seven-run fourth inning, built on six straight singles and a Josh Palacios three-run blast; Jared Triolo and Connor Joe also went deep later in the contest to pad the lead after Chicago rallied to make it an uncomfortably close game. The slugfest was not on most bingo cards; the match-up was anticipated to be a duel between two young aces, All-Star pitchers Keller and Chicago’s Justin Steele.