The Pirates Finally Made It

What a night.  What a night for the Pirates, what a night for the fans, what a night for Pittsburgh.  If there had been any doubt surrounding whether Pittsburgh was embracing its baseball team, last night cleared it up.  Sure the Pirates have had plenty of cool moments at PNC Park over the past few years. All of those paled in comparison to what occurred last night on the North Shore.  Michael McKenry had his iconic homer in 2011 (accompanied by an even more iconic call from Greg Brown).  That, however, preceded a monumental collapse which all but erased the shine from that memory.  Drew Sutton had a memorable walkoff homer in 2012, only to suffer the same fate as McKenry's blast.  Nothing compares to winning.  Nothing compares to the scene that unfolded last night.

It started hours before the first pitch.  fans flooded Federal Street and the Clemente Bridge starting around 5:00.  There were long lines at the stadium gates, which opened at 6:00.  Fans quickly filled up the standing room sections, and the entire stadium filled out shortly thereafter.  A record 40,547 showed up.  The blackout was pulled off incredibly well. In addition to that, the Pirates handed each fan a black "Raise The Jolly Roger" rally towel.  The place was ready to explode during the announcement of the starting lineups.  Chants of "Let's Go Bucs" drowned out most of the Cincinnati names, save for Brandon Phillips who drew a Baltimore Ravens level of booing.  All that was left was for Andrew McCutchen's mother to nail the National Anthem, and the game was off and running.

It started appropriately enough, with Francisco Liriano striking out Shin Soo Choo in impressive fashion.  The night continued smoothly for "Frank The Tank", who pitched seven innings giving up just one earned run.  The crowd roared with every strike, and exploded with every out made by the Reds.

When the Pirates came to bat in the second inning, you knew times had changed in Pittsburgh. Pirate killer Johnny Cueto took the mound.  Time after time, he had dominated the Bucs in Pittsburgh. This time was destined to be different.  He gave up a solo shot to Marlon Byrd to start things off in the second.  As I said before the game, "if the Pirates score first, the crowd can essentially take it from there". That they did.  They mercilessly chanted "CUEEE-TTOOO, CUEEE-TTOOO" before every pitch.  It obviously got into the Reds' ace's head, because he literally dropped the ball as he was getting ready to pitch to Russell Martin. Just dropped it. He had to walk about five steps off the mound to retrieve it.  It was an embarrassment; he had just let the 40,000+ on hand affect the game. On the very next pitch, Martin launched a towering home run into the left field bleachers.  The Buccos would chase Cueto after just 3 and 1/3 innings.

The Pirates took a 6-2 lead into the top of the ninth inning. Closer Jason Grilli enters from the bullpen. He promptly struck out the first man he faced, induced a shallow flyout on the second, and the third grounded out to the Pittsburgh Kid, Neil Walker.  The dugout, the stadium, and the city erupted after that last out.  It took a while, but the Pirates finally have a memory worth showing off.  Let's be honest, you were sick of seeing the highlight of that McKenry home run.

Note: Am I the only one who was extremely annoyed by TBS showing the clip of Sid Bream's slide in '92 before the 9th inning? Horrible timing.

It's Time

It's here. It's actually here. The Pittsburgh Pirates will play a playoff game at PNC Park tomorrow. It's a very surreal thought. Twenty years of playoff absence is about to be erased. 162 games of joy, depression, thrills, and heartbreak all comes down to this.  On Tuesday, October 1st, 2013, the Pirates will host the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Wild Card game at PNC Park.  It's all or nothing, winner take all, must-see baseball.  No players will be resting to prepare for future games. It's all hands on deck.

Pirate ace Francisco Liriano starts for the home team.  Liriano sports an amazing 1.47 earned run average when playing in Pittsburgh.  He works well against lefties, too, which is a large asset considering Cincinnati's Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, and Shin Soo Choo are all left handed.  Liriano started a game against the Reds nine days ago at PNC Park, and he turned in a fantastic performance with two earned runs, nine strikeouts, and eight innings pitched.

The Reds are sending Johnny Cueto to the mound to try to spoil the Pirates' fun.  This is a daunting development, considering Cueto's history of being very, very good pitching at PNC Park.  However, there is reason for optimism.  Cueto has spent much of this season on the DL, and is only two starts removed from his last injury.  Those two starts came against the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs. In other words, he has yet to be tested by a winning lineup.  Andrew McCutchen has three home runs off of Cueto, however only bats .189 against him.  That shouldn't be too much of a concern, because, well, it's Andrew McCutchen.  One important note is that Marlon Byrd, acquired by the Pirates at the end of August, has terrific career numbers against Cueto (Cueto has not faced the Bucs since Byrd's arrival).  Cueto's health concerns, combined with a bolstered lineup for the Pirates makes me sweat a bit less over the pitching matchup.

It can not be understated how important home field advantage is in this game.  Let's remember, it's the first playoff game in nearly twenty-one years, and the first ever at PNC Park.  Tickets for the game sold out in minutes, and stubhub.com has standing room only tickets listed at over $150.  The players, led by Andrew McCutchen and Michael McKenry, launched a Twitter campaign calling for fans to wear black to the game, to create a unified atmosphere.  You can expect an excitable, Jolly Roger waving, unprecedentedly loud 40,000+ on hand tomorrow night.  You can bet the team will feed off of that.

Let's Go Bucs.

The Pirates Have Freed Themselves

This has been a season full of special moments for Pirates fans. There was Gerrit Cole's exciting debut in June. We saw an amazing five Pirates go to the All Star Game.  Russell Martin has four walkoff hits on the year, which has only added to his amazing season at catcher.  Who could forget that thrilling five game series against St. Louis at the end of July at PNC Park, which saw the Pirates assert themselves as a baseball superpower, taking the first four from the shellshocked Cardinals.  None of these fun moments, however, could compare to what happened last night in Milwaukee.

It wasn't so much the way we won the game that made it so special. That's not to say that Gerrit Cole's superb six IP and Travis Snider's go-ahead homer in the ninth inning weren't impressive.  The reason last night's win mean so much is that it was the Buccos' 81st win of the season. For those that don't know, that means that the win guaranteed that the Pirates will not have a losing season.  That's right, the nightmare is over. The longest losing streak in American pro sports history is over.  It started in 1992 with that slide by Sid Bream, and it was punctuated last year when Homer Bailey no-hit the Bucs in Pittsburgh to guarantee their 20th consecutive losing season.  Between those two dates, Pirate fans had to put up with a lot.

There were countless blown draft picks: Selecting reliever Daniel Moskos over Matt Weiters (Who now plays catcher for the Baltimore Orioles) is a striking example.  There were so many trades that saw star players leave the team.  The prospects that did find their way into the Pirates' farm system were woefully mismanaged.  The team was controversial in its use of Navy Seal training tactics on their players, which ultimately caused players and prospects to avoid signing with the Pirates. All of this combined for a nightmarish 20 years of losing.

But that's all over. We're free. Last year, we couldn't celebrate the progress of the team because we still had the losing streak hanging over us, casting its shadow. Now that it has been vanquished, this team can accomplish anything.  They currently sit two games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in first place in the NL Central Division.  It's September 4th, and the playoff chase is on. Fans celebrated last night's win, as they should have, but the players didn't dare.  They have one goal this year: Win the World Series. And with twenty years of losing lifted off their backs, they can fight to the end and maybe even bring it home. 

In honor of it being fun to be a Pirates fan right now, here's this: