A Good Day For Pitching, Pops On A Tear, Cutch 3-HR Game, Rallies & More...
- 1893 - Pittsburgh crushed St. Louis‚ 25-2 in game one of a twin bill‚ then won the second game‚ 6-1 while banging out 17 hits at Robison Field. Frank Killen won both games against the Browns en route to a 36-win season and even had a homer. Jake Beckley had six hits during the day while Jack Glasscock and Denny Lyons added five more apiece.
- 1904 - Charlie Case gave up 11 hits but shut out the Cubs 4-0 at Exposition Park. The difference was in the fielding; Chicago made four errors, all leading to Pittsburgh scores, while the Pirates played flawlessly and occasionally brilliantly behind Case. Ginger Beaumont had three hits for the Bucs, while Tommy Leach and Honus Wagner each added a pair of knocks.
- 1906 - After pitching 10-2/3 innings of no-hit ball at Washington Park, Brooklyn’s Harry McIntyre was touched for a single by Pirates 2B Claude Ritchey. Only 31 bucs faced McIntyre in the first 10 frames, but Pittsburgh beat the Superbas in the 13th when Bob Ganley singled, went to third on Honus Wagner’s double, and scored on Joe Nealon’s knock to take a 1-0 decision behind Lefty Leifield, who went the distance while tossing a nine hitter.
Claude Ritchey - image from SABR Biography Project
- 1918 - Pittsburgh and Boston played a record 20 scoreless innings before the Pirates won in the 21st by a 2-0 score at Braves Field. Art Nehf went all the way for Boston, while Erskine Mayer worked the first 15 frames for Pittsburgh, followed by Wilbur Cooper. Cooper scored on Max Carey’s two-out knock and Billy Southworth doubled Carey home with an insurance tally.
- 1931 - The Pirates stopped the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 at Forbes Field as Glenn Spencer’s three hitter was the team’s third straight shutout. Paul Waner drove in Pie Traynor in the seventh for the games only run.
- 1943 - Rip Sewell won his eleventh straight start (he did drop a decision as a reliever during that streak) 7-1 over Boston at Forbes Field, tossing a three-hitter. Every game during the skein was a complete game victory.
- 1950 - C Milt May was born in Gary, Indiana. May began (1970-73) and ended (1983-84) his career as a Pirate, batting .261 as a reserve catcher. He was a member of the 1971 World Series club and 1972 pennant winners, and hit .400 (2-for-5) as a pinch hitter in the postseason.
- 1951 - Pete Mackanin was born in Chicago. He never suited up for the Bucs as a player, but spent several season with the club as skipper and coach. After managing the Hickory Crawdads and Lynchburg Hillcats in 2001 and 2002, he became the Bucco bench coach in 2003. After Lloyd McClendon was fired, Mackanin served as the Pirates' interim manager for the last month of 2005, leading the team to a 12–14 record. He spent the next season managing in the Pirates' minor league system at Bradenton before moving on to work for other clubs.
Pete Mackanin - 2005 image from USA Today
- 1951 - The Dodgers took a 7-2 lead after three innings against Murry Dickson at Forbes Field, but it wasn’t enough as Brooklyn lost to the Bucs 12-9. The Pirates scored four in the fourth and four more in the eighth‚ sparked by Ralph Kiner's 27th homer‚ and snapped da Bums’ winning streak at 10 games. George Strickland drove home three and homered. The win went to Bill Werle and the save to Ted Wilks.
- 1970 - Willie Stargell smoked three doubles and two home runs against the Braves at Fulton County Stadium. Captain Willie had six RBI and tied a MLB record with five extra base knocks as the Bucs won 20-10. The team set a club record with 14 extra-base hits. Bob Robertson added five more knocks, making Pops and Big Red the first Bucco duo to collect five hits in a game.
- 1972 - 3B/LF Freddy Garcia was born in La Romana, Dominican Republic. He played for the Bucs in 1995 and then from 1997-99 as bench depth, hitting .221 over that span.
- 2003 - Trailing the Rockies 11-6 with one out and nobody on in bottom of ninth, the Pirates rallied for the win at PNC Park. Four straight runners reached before Abraham Nunez bounced out. With two down, pinch hitter Jeff Reboulet walked, Tike Redman tripled home a pair to tie the game, and Jason Kendall lined a single to left for the win. Deaner Sanchez got the victory.
- 2009 - Andrew McCutchen tied a club record by homering three times in Pittsburgh’s 11-6 victory over the Washington Nats at PNC Park. Cutch became the 10th player in club history to go long three times in the same game, the first since Aramis Ramirez did it on April 8th, 2001, and the first Buc rookie to collect three bombs in a single game. He added six RBI. He hit a solo home run in the first inning to lead off the game against starter Craig Stammen, a two-run shot in the fourth inning off Tyler Clippard and then a three-run homer in the sixth off Logan Kensing, falling a grand slam short of a natural progreesive home run cycle.
Cutch - 2012 image from ESPN
- 2011 - Derrek Lee was the first Pirate August buy since SS Shawon Dunston in 1997, and made his Pittsburgh debut memorable with two home runs at PNC Park in a 5-3 loss to the Cubs. The excitement was short lived as he was injured soon afterward and missed nearly a month of play, but he came back to hit .337 for the Bucs. There would be no triumphant return in 2012; he retired rather than sign again with Pittsburgh.
