1973 - Jim Rooker was a one-man wrecking crew, spinning a five hitter and going 3-for-3 at the dish (he hit .245 during the campaign, not too shabby for a hurler) as the Pirates beat San Francisco and Juan Marichal 5-0 at Three Rivers Stadium. Richie Hebner also smacked three hits. He and Al Oliver went back-to-back with long balls in the first frame to grab a quick lead for Rook, and Manny Sanguillen iced the cake with a two-run double in the sixth inning.
1973 - RHP Britt Reames was born in Seneca, South Carolina. Britt spent parts of six years in the show with his final campaign as a Bucco in 2006, getting into five games and putting up a 9.82 ERA. He became the pitching coach for Furman and moved on to his alma mater, The Citadel, where he’s a member of the Bulldogs Hall of Fame. Reames is now head coach of Oceanside (SC) Collegiate Academy.
1976 - Two red-hot Pirates led the Buccos to a 1-0 win over the Giants at Candlestick Park. John Candelaria went the distance for the win, giving up nine hits but rarely in hot water while picking up his eighth straight victory. Candy scored the game’s only run when Richie Zisk plated him in the fifth to post his eighth RBI in the past four games. Candelaria, 22, in his second season, went 10-2/2.94 from June first through August and finished the year with a 16-7/3.15 slate. Zisk, in his final Bucco year, ended the campaign with a .289/21/89 line.
1979 - The Pirates blanked the Dodgers at TRS, 2-0. Bill Madlock claimed it for the Bucs with a two-run, two-out walkoff bomb in the ninth as John Candelaria (eight IP) & game winner Kent Tekulve teamed up on a four-hit shutout. Bert Hooton went the distance for LA to take the tough loss.
1983 - The Pirates traded Steve Nicosia to the Giants for Milt May and cash in a swap of backup catchers. May retired after the 1984 season and Nicosia, who was unhappy as Tony Pena’s caddy, played a bench role for three teams before giving up the tools of ignorance after the 1985 campaign. It was a close-the-circle deal for May, who started his career in Pittsburgh in 1970 and stayed through ‘73.
 |
| Gary Redus - 1989 Topps |
1988 - The Pirates swapped 1B/OF Mike Diaz, sending him to the Chicago White Sox for OF Gary Redus. Rambo ended the year with the Windy City before heading to Japan to finish his career. Redus played first and some outfield for the Bucs through 1992, hitting .255 with 24 homers, 96 RBI, 157 runs scored and 69 stolen bases, although hampered by injuries following the 1988 campaign. He spent his last two seasons with Texas before he retired.
1985 - Bill Madlock was named the NL Player of the Week after going 9-for-22 (.409) and banging out four homers; he was the first Bucco to win the award this season. Unfortunately for the team, he was pretty much a one-man show on the field as the club went 2-5 over the week.
1997 - OF Travis Swaggerty was born in Covington, Louisiana. A 2018 first rounder (#10) of the Bucs taken from the U of South Alabama, he got his first (and so far only) taste of the majors in 2022, going 1-for-9 in five games before being returned to Indy. Swags was a speedster who could steal a base and played excellent outfielder, but carried a .250 BA in five injury and illness plagued minor league campaigns. The Pirates cut him loose in midseason of 2023, and he’s now playing ball in Mexico.
1999 - Cincinnati defeated Pittsburgh 1-0 at Cinergy Field, as Pete Harnisch and Scott Williamson combined for a one-hitter while whiffing 13 Bucs with Harnisch surrendering just a seventh inning single to Mike Benjamin. Kris Benson pitched a dandy of his own, scattering seven hits and punching out eight. He had a shutout going until one out in the eighth, when Sean Casey, in the midst of his breakout year, homered for the game’s only run.
2012 - The Bucs outlasted the Cards at Busch Stadium to take home a 19-inning 6-3 victory. The teams ran through 16 pitchers before it was decided on a Pedro Alvarez homer; El Toro became the first player in Pirates history to hit a home run in the 19th inning or later. Wandy Rodriguez, usually a starter, was called on to work the last two frames and notched the win after both teams swapped runs in the 17th to keep the game rolling. It was the first Pittsburgh road win of 19 innings or more since beating San Diego in 1979, and the first time the Pirates put up three+ runs in the 19th or beyond since 1912 against the Boston Braves.
 |
| Wandy Rodriguez - 2012 Topps |
2013 - Francisco Liriano, Justin Wilson and Mark Melancon teamed up to strike out 17 Padre batters in Pittsburgh's 3-1 win at Petco Park. The whiff-fest tied a club record for a nine-inning game (originally set in 2012 and matched in 2023), with Frankie doing the heavy lifting, posting 13 of the strikeouts in seven frames, while Wilson and Melancon each fanned a pair in their inning of work. The Pirates pitchers gave up six hits total, with Liriano getting his 14th victory and The Shark earning the save. Pedro Alvarez banged his 31st homer and scored twice in the 3-1 win over San Diego.
2018 - The Pirates salvaged a hard-earned four-game split against the Cubs with an 11-inning 2-1 victory at PNC Park. Jameson Taillon (he struck out eight in six innings) and Jose Quintana left it up to the bullpens to decide a 1-1 draw. Both sides ducked some bullets and blundered on the basepaths. The Bucs were especially egregious, having two runners thrown out at home and going 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. After Richard Rodriguez left the bases full in the 11th, Brandon Kintzler got two easy outs before falling behind Adam Frazier 3-0; he grooved a fastball and Fraze wasn’t taking but hunting. He blasted the ball 413’, completely out of the park and onto the Riverwalk, for his second career walkoff homer. The Pirates had lost the first two games 1-0, then took the last pair by 3-1 & 2-1 tallies. Chicago set a quirky MLB record; all four of their runs came on solo homers, neatly meted out at one per game.
2022 - Kevin Newman played his 400th game as a Buc the day before, but he partied on by going 2-for-4, scoring twice (including both the first and the winning runs) and driving home a pair (the second being the game-tying tally) to lead the Corsairs to a 5-4 walkoff victory over the Reds at PNC Park. Cincy jumped ahead 3-0, with Pittsburgh knotting the score in the seventh. The Bucs gave up an unearned run in the eighth, setting up the ninth inning heroics. Bligh Madris singled, was bunted up and Newman doubled him in. An intentional walk and bopped batter juiced the sacks before a single to left by Michael Chavis ended it; his hit gave the Pirates the lead for the first time in the game. Ben Gamel added three hits to help Wil Crowe to the victory, following starter Bryse Wilson and Duane Underwood Jr. on the bump.
2023 - After the Pirates went 1-for-14 w/RISP to lose the series opener against the Minnesota Twins, Andrew McCutchen made sure there wasn’t a repeat. His two-out, two-strike, two-run single in the sixth inning plated a pair to tie the game and his three-run, 438’ blast into the second deck of Target Field (his first long ball since June 30th) in the final frame iced the 7-4 victory. The Pirates had been no-hit for five innings by Sonny Gray, but Mitch Keller hung with him, fanning 12 Twinkies and holding the Twin Cities to two runs through six frames. It was Kell’s 10th win; he only had 12 career dubs over four years coming into the campaign. Inspired by the clutch Cutch performance, the Bucs reversed direction and batted 5-for-11 w/RISP.
No comments:
Post a Comment