5/15 From 1980: Bucs No-Hit - & Win, Not Exactly Textbook, Denny Hot, Rick Rolls, Game Days, Kell POTW; HBD Luis & Justin

• 1981 - 1B Justin Morneau was born in New Westminster, British Columbia. He joined Pittsburgh during the 2013 deadline to fill a hole at 1B in a trade with the Twins for OF Alex Presley and RHP Duke Welker. In 25 games for Pittsburgh, he hit .260 with no homers and only three RBI. Morneau had a solid playoff run, reaching base twice in the win over the Cincinnati Reds in the Wild Card Game, then went 6-for-20 with four runs scored against the Cardinals in the NLDS. His lack of power dimmed the Bucs interest and he signed a FA deal with the Rockies, going on to win the NL batting title with a .319 average in 2014 to finish ahead of Josh Harrison (.315) and Andrew McCutchen (.314). 
• 1982 - Talk about helping yourself...pitcher Rick Rhoden doubled and homered in a nine-run third inning, with Johnny Ray generating five runs, three with a long ball in that decisive frame. The Pirates held off a late Cincinnati push - the Reds scored eight times in the last two innings against Rhoden and Enrique Romo - to hold on to a 12-9 victory at Three Rivers Stadium. 
• 1984 - Astros pitcher Frank DiPino balked with two outs in the 10th, allowing Johnny Ray to advance to second base. Tony Pena then singled home Ray to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 walkoff win at TRS. The balk wasn’t the only one-off circumstance of the game - Rick Rhoden and Mike Scott, the starters, gave up four runs, but only one was earned. Enos Cabell was cut down in the ninth inning when he tried to score on a suicide squeeze that ended up suicidal for Houston. And Rod Scurry was making his first outing since returning from drug rehab. Not so odd were Pena’s three hits and Scurry/Cecilio Guante (the winner) tossing two scoreless frames to finish out the contest. 
• 1991 - The Pirates put up a six-spot in the eighth inning at the Astrodome, keyed by pinch hitter Don Slaught’s two-out, bases-jammed triple, and turned a 5-2 deficit into an 8-7 victory, surviving a shaky bullpen and a Houston attack that amassed 18 hits. Bob Kipper got the win in a match that featured a John Smiley start, a save by Bill Landrum, and Andy Van Slyke’s two-run homer. A key was the ‘Stro’s failure to put the game away by making a couple of early miscues while navigating the basepaths; a Space City pitcher was thrown out by three steps at home with one away and a bases-loaded hot shot turned into a dead-ball out when the ball deflected off an Houston runner’s foot. 

Sluggo - 1991 Topps 40th

• 1996 - Denny Neagle blanked the Braves at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on four hits through seven innings to win his fifth contest in a row 3-0, backed by Jeff King’s two-run homer off Steve Avery. The lefty lost his next outing, then rang up three more victories to sit at 8-2 in early June. Also, the Pirates traded CF Jacob Brumfield, pushed out by Midre Cummings, to the Toronto Blue Jays for minor league 1B DJ Boston. Jacob played through the 1999 campaign as a reserve while DJ, Daryl’s brother, played AAA, Mexican and indie ball through 2006. 
• 1999 - RHP Luis Oviedo was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. He came to the Bucs in a roundabout way, being plucked by the Mets from the Indians in the 2020 Rule 5 draft and then flipped to Pittsburgh for cash. He was a long shot to make the team, having never pitched above Class A, but the Pirates liked his ceiling as a big league starter and carried him on the Opening Day roster, albeit in the pen. He won his first MLB game in relief against the Giants in mid-May. Luis ran into some rough patches, but thanks to several weeks on the IL with a quad injury, managed to make it through his Rule 5 year as a member of the MLB roster. It was to no avail: he was waived in April of ‘22 and was reclaimed by Cleveland. He left there to pitch in Mexico and has spent the past couple of winters in Venezuela. 
• 2005 - The Pirates were still debating whether minor league star RHP Ian Snell’s future lay in the bullpen or rotation (at 5’-11” & 180 lbs, the brass were unsure he’d have the physical stamina to start regularly), but Snell made a strong pitch to remain a starter when he threw a no-hitter against Norfolk. The 23-year-old Indy righty used 101 pitches to tame the Tide, tossing his third offering, a change up, with great success. It was the first Indy no-no since 1974, when they were affiliated with Cincinnati. Snell ultimately proved to be a AAAA hurler: he spent six years as a Bucco with 116 starts and 12 bullpen outings, but only had one campaign when he posted an ERA south of 4.74. 
• 2006 - The Pirates and Cincinnati Reds got in just three innings before rain canceled their Hall of Fame exhibition, but it did mark the first MLB outing for the Bucs 2005 top pick and future MVP/All-Star Andrew McCutchen. He was added to the roster for the game and he popped out in his only at-bat before returning to the Low Class A Hickory Crawdads. Cutch said it wasn’t time wasted. He explained that “To get some experiences from the outfielders, Jason Bay and (Jeremy) Burnitz, I learned a lot.” He made his big league debut with Pittsburgh in 2009. 

Jake HR cut - 5/15/2021 AT&T Sports Network

• 2021 - The Pirates gave up three homers, hit into three DPs, had two guys thrown out at home, let a pop drop that cost them a pair of runs and lost two hits to challenges. But their sticks came alive late to take an 8-6 win from the Western Division-leading Giants at PNC, led by Jake Stallings, who doubled home two runs with two outs in the seventh to tie the game and then whacked a two-out, two-run homer to walk it off in the ninth. He and Bryan Reynolds each had three hits while Chasen Shreve, Chris Stratton and winner Rich Rodriguez kept the San Francisco bats quiet at the end. It was the Bucs second straight walkoff against the G-Men, their first two sudden-death wins of the season at PNC Park. 
• 2022 - The Pirates were no-hit by the Reds’ Hunter Greene and Art Warren at PNC Park - and won! Greene and Jose Quintana were locked in a duel, with the two twirlers going mano-a-mano to spin scoreless ball. Greene was tossing a no-no, finishing with five walks, while Q had a four-hit, one-walk effort. After Chris Stratton was called on to work the eighth and stranded a pair of Redlegs, Greene walked the eight-nine batters after an out, with a work day of 118 pitches. He was yanked and Warren came on, losing the next Bucco to load the sacks. Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a chopper to second and hustled to easily beat the attempted DP relay to give the Pirates an unlikely 1-0 lead and win after David Bednar took the ball and worked a 1-2-3 ninth to close it out in front of 10,559 fans. It was only the sixth time since 1901 that a team has won with no hits. 
• 2023 - RHP Mitch Keller was named the National League Player of the Week. Kell went 2-0 (the Pirates only two victories in their past 13 games), giving up eight hits and no runs while fanning 21 batters and walking one in 16 frames with a complete game. His YTD slash was 5-1/2.38 in nine starts.