1973 - Pittsburgh swept San Diego 3-1 and 13-7 at TRS. Willie Stargell hit two homers and chased home five runs during the twin bill while rookie Dave Parker smacked his first MLB bomb in the opener. Nellie Briles went seven innings, giving up six hits to win the lidlifter with help from Ramon Hernandez and Dave Giusti with Willie’s two-run double being the key blow. Stargell’s two long balls primed the attack in the nightcap; Bob Robertson also went long. The Cobra had three raps, with Willie, Robby, Al Oliver and Manny Sanguillen adding two knocks each while Richie Zisk iced the game with a bases-loaded, bases-clearing double. Behind that firepower, Luke Walker took home the win with Bob Moose and John Lamb holding down the fort at the finish.
1977 - RHP Ryan Vogelsong was born in Charlotte, NC. He worked five years for the Pirates (2001, 2003-06), going 10-19 with a 6.00 ERA. He then took a hiatus to Japan, but came back in 2011 to his original team, the San Francisco Giants, and pitched strong ball for the G-Men, earning an All-Star spot in 2011. He rejoined Pittsburgh in 2016 as a long man/spot starter, but missed a two-month chunk of the campaign after a brutal beaning that nearly cost him his eye. Vogey went 3-7/4.81 for the Bucs in that campaign, then signed with the Twins in 2017 but was released in camp. A fan fave in the Bay, he retired as a Giant.
1979 - Kent Tekulve saved both ends of a doubleheader as the Pirates swept the Braves 5-4 and 3-2 at Three Rivers Stadium. Teke scattered four hits over three scoreless innings in the first game of the twin bill, closing out Don Robinson’s win (which Robby helped along with two RBI and a run scored), then tossed the final inning in relief of Jim Bibby (who was also a hitting hero with a two-run homer) in the second game for his 16th save of the year. With the sweep, the Pirates pulled within 1/2 game of front-running Montreal. It was a long day at the ballyard; rain delays added four hours to the games, which stretched out over 10 hours. And there was no rest as the Bucs and Bravos had a twilight doubleheader on tap for the next evening. They split that night, with the Bravos taking the second match to end a Bucco winning spell of 13-of-14 games.
1982 - Lloyd “Little Poison” Waner passed away at age 76. The 18-year veteran (all but one in a Bucco uniform, at least in part) batted .316 and teamed with his brother, Paul - known as ''Big Poison'' - to lead the Pirates' attack in the late 1920's and throughout the 1930's. Lloyd, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1967, had 2,459 career hits. The speedy Waner was Pittsburgh’s long-time center fielder and leadoff hitter with an eagle eye at the dish. In 8,333 plate appearances, he struck out just 173 times. After retiring as a player after the 1945 campaign, Waner worked as a Pirates scout from 1946-49 before retiring to Oklahoma City to work for the city.
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| Rick Reuschel - 1987 Fleer |
1987 - The Pirates turned some strong pitching from Rick Reuschel and some shoddy Giant play into a 4-0 win over San Francisco at Candlestick Park. Both teams bats were quiet as the clubs traded five hits, and the Bucs were nursing a 1-0 lead going into the ninth inning when a single, an error, three walks (two intentional) and a wild pitch netted them three runs to put the contest away. Big Daddy went the distance, needing just 91 pitches to dispatch the G-Men.
1989 - The Pirates released starting SS Rey Quinones just 71 games after sending RHP Mike Dunne and prospect OF Mark Merchant to Seattle for his services. He had held out with the Mariners and was off to a slow start before the Pirates, aware that he was considered a reclamation project owing to performance and attitude (GM Larry Doughty said the club knew that Quinones “marched to his own drummer.”) They thought that Jimmy Leyland, known as a player’s manager, could unlock Quinones’ potential, but the 25-year-old hit just .209 and made 19 errors in Pittsburgh. He had no takers on the trade market and went unclaimed after he was released; Quinones never played in MLB again.
1992 - It took the Pirates 13 innings, but they outlasted Houston at the Astrodome by a 10-7 count. There was plenty of hitting - 11 Bucs had hits, including all eight starters, with Alex Cole and Gary Redus collecting three each - but ultimately pitching won the contest for Pittsburgh. Denny Neagle (the starter), Stan Belinda (the winner) and Bob Patterson (the save) put together six innings of no-run, one-hit ball to keep the ‘Stros quiet until Orlando Merced’s RBI single and Jose Lind’s bases-loaded ground-rule double cashed in the winning runs.
1993 - The Bucs scored four times in the ninth to rally past the Braves 8-7 at TRS. Jay Bell drove in the first run in the final frame, and with two outs, Dave Clark’s single got the Bucs within a run. The next hitter, Kevin Young, dropped a soft liner into right center that flicked off David Justice’s glove and wildly deflected away, plating Lloyd McClendon and Clark, who scored all the way from first. Blas Minor claimed the victory, although he gave up a pair of two-out, run-scoring singles to the Bravos in the ninth inning to make the big comeback necessary. The middle of the order - Jeff King, Dave Clark and Young - came through in spades with six hits and seven RBI.
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| Bronson Arroyo - 2000 Upper Deck |
2009 - The Pirates traded Adam LaRoche to the Boston Red Sox for two minor leaguers, SS Argenis Diaz and RHP Hunter Strickland. LaRoche remained in the show until 2016 when he retired, while Diaz played for Pittsburgh briefly in 2010 and is now a coach at Florida’s TNXL Academy. Strickland tossed for eight teams and was released by the Los Angeles Angels in May.
2009 - The Bucs used a season-high five home runs to hold off the Brewers 8-7 at PNC Park. Brandon Moss went long in the ninth for his first walk-off homer; Ryan Doumit added a pair of blasts while Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones each had one. Delwyn Young and Jones had three hits apiece. Paul Maholm started and was chased in the fifth after giving up all seven runs; Joel Hanrahan, John Grabow and eventual winner Matt Capps then shut the gate.
2013 - Jason Grilli was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the poster boy for Ben Reiter’s story “The Strangest But Truest Story of the Summer: The Playoff Bound Pirates and Their Sharknado Bullpen.” It was purely coincidental that Grilled Cheese was injured pitching the same day, put on the DL, and out of action until September 3rd (Jinx? What jinx?). It was also the first time in 21 years, since Barry Bond’s 1992 appearance, that a Pirate graced the cover of SI.
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| Colin Holderman - 2024 Pirates graphic |
2022 - The Bucs sent DH Daniel Vogelbach, who they had signed as a free agent in the preseason, to the Mets for RHP Colin Holderman. Vogey was hitting just .228, but alluring power with a dozen dingers and 34 RBI. Rookie Holderman, 26, slashed 4-0/2.04 in 15 outings and was a strikeout per inning guy, although a bit on the wild side, averaging four walks per nine, but has grown into a dependable back-end role for the Bucco bullpen. A deal with the Mets was in the air for days and finally reached fruition when the Mets surrendered Holderman, who was the Pirates chief target all along. Holderman’s now in Cleveland and Vogey rejoined the club in ‘25 as a hitting coach, moving on to the Brewers staff in ‘26.
2025 - The Jekyll and Hyde Pirates, who had just been swept by the AL’s cellar-dwelling White Sox, took their second game from the Detroit Tigers, 60-win high-flyers, by an 8-5 score at PNC Park. Spencer Horwitz, Bryan Reynolds and Tommy Pham went 9-for-14 with five doubles, six RBI and five runs scored. Mitch Keller got the win and the Renegade, David Bednar, earned his 15th save. The two-bagger outburst was the first time the Pirates had eight doubles with three players smacking a pair each since Pokey Reese, Brian Giles and Abraham Nunez banged away in a 17-10 win at Milwaukee v the Brewers on 8/24/2002.
2025 - The Pirates signed first round (sixth overall) prepster pick RHP Seth Hernandez ($7.25M/slot $7,558,600), the highest bonus ever paid for a high school pitcher. Earlier, they had inked second rounder (comp) pick SS Murf Gray ($997,500/slot $1.13M) of Fresno State. Both players cracked 2026’s MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospects list.
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