This was.
The Pirates fell behind from the get-go, with Brandon Phillips coming around to score on a Ryan Ludwick single after being walked by Liriano. Those walks always come back to bite you.
That first inning, and a fifth inning home run by Todd Frazier were the only blemishes on an outstanding start by Francisco Liriano, who was stellar over 8 innings, and only needed 94 pitches.
Then the bottom of the first happened.
BOOM. Tabata HR. Tie ballgame.
BOOM. Walker HR. 2-1 lead.
Wow.
The crowd was fired up and the atmosphere was amazing. The Pirates were gonna fight tooth and nail for their hometown crowd, and everyone loved it.
Fast forward to the 9th inning of the game. The score is now 5-2 Pirates.
It seemed like Liriano could've easily come out for the ninth, but Hurdle opted instead to bring in Mark Melancon to finish the ballgame. A move I 100% agreed, and still agree, with. Liriano was quoted after the game saying that he took himself out, feeling that he was done, though that is mostly irrelevant.
Mark struck out Joey Votto on four pitches. The Reds' biggest hitter is out, and you have to be thinking we've got this in the bag.
Ludwick singled to right, again showing Mark's recent struggled avoiding opposite way hits to righties (he's actually way better against lefties, due to that deadly cutter, shades of Mariano Rivera there; of course, that's no coincidence, as that's who taught Melancon the pitch)
Jay Bruce grounded out. Runner on 2nd and 2 out. Still overwhelmingly confident.
Then the big play. A softly hit grounder by Frazier to shortstop Jordy Mercer, who charges but has to rush the throw. He throws the ball away. A play that should've been made, and now Frazier is a 2nd. Ludwick scores, 5-3.
Cozart singled just barely over the glove of Neil Walker. Billy Hamilton ran for him, and the speedster narrowly stole 2nd. Then Melancon has an extended battle with Reds catcher and Punxsutawney native Devin Mesoraco, and on the tenth pitch of the at bat, Mark lets a cutter leak a bit over the middle inside section of the plate, and Mesoraco hits it on a bounce to Pedro Alvarez's left. Alvarez lunges but the ball bounds off his glove, and at that point there is no catching Billy Hamilton. Tie game. 5-5.
The Reds would win the game in the 10th, when Joey Votto hit a solo shot to center off Kyle Fanrsworth (Good job by Kyle thus far, but this is why I didn't want to see him in any more high pressure situations) and Aroldis Chapman closed out the bottom half.
Just terrible. The Pirates needed this game. And if the Bucs lose out on the division by a game, heck even if they lose out on home field advantage for the Wild Card game by a game... this is the game that people will look back to it.
We had it. And it slipped through our fingers.
Not only was the loss crushing, but this was the first loss of the year that really put the Pirates into “longshot” status for the division, as the Cards took game one of their 3 game set in Milwaukee.
Mark Melancon was ridiculously close to finishing off this game so many times. And it just didn't happen. And now the Pirates will have to dust themselves off and win the next two games, because I don't see how their ever going to catch St. Louis otherwise. And that's not to even mention home field in the Wild Card game.
21 September - Reds 2 Pirates 4 - The story in this one: a stumbling Pirates team faces the man who no-hit them in PNC Park at about this time last year. What would happen?
Homer Bailey didn't come close this time.
Bailey couldn't make it through 6, and despite falling behind 2-0 early, Burnett's fortitude to hold together a great start and the heroics of Russel Martin, Marlon Byrd, and Pedro Alvarez carried this one.
Jason Grilli would record the save in place of a tired Melancon, Grilli's first save since before his injury.
22 September - Reds 11 Pirates 3 - Jeff Locke got crushed in what will surely be his final start, and perhaps will be his final appearance of the 2013 season. Locke only managed to throw 1 IP, and arguably, with the rosters expanded and given his recent track record, he shouldn't have been allowed to go that far. He didn't have enough control to do what he does, and despite a couple of glimmers of hope from recent starts, it's become clear that Locke just doesn't have it in him right now. It's been a good year for you Jeff, don't forget that. I hope to see you back in form next spring. You're one of my very favorite pieces of the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates, kid.
The Pirates were down 5-0 after 1.
Gomez came in and didn't have things go his way either. Bucs down 7-0 after 2.
Brandon Cumpton and Stolmy Pimentel combined for 5 innings of scoreless relief following Gomez, and the Pirates started to look like they might crawl back into this one, as they made it 7-3 by dint of a Walker HR, a Snider pinch hit HR, and a Morneau sac fly.
But Mazzaro couldn't get out of the 8th, gave up 3 runs, and that was all she wrote.
The big crusher in this series is obviously game 1. A winning weekend would've placed the Bucs a game back of the Cards with a week left in the season, as well as a game ahead of Cincinnati, and with the Bucs owning the tie breaker (head to head wins) for home field in the Wild Card game so far, it would've been extremely difficult for the Reds to take that away from them.
But instead the Bucs' division hopes again hang by a thread, somewhere in the 10% range. The Bucs head to Wrigley field, the Reds go home to host the Mets, and the Cards go home to host the red-hot Nationals.
Going into the final week, you have to think that, in order to win the division, the Pirates need to go at least 5-1, since it's hard to imagine the Cards being worse than 3-3, considering they have three games against the Cubs. And of course, there are the Cincinnati Reds in the lane next to us.
23 September - Pirates 2 Cubs 1 - Morton pitched great (again), and it looked like the Pirates would blow another one of his fantastic starts (again).
But Starling Marte said no. After Melancon, who's seemingly returned to his set-up role (a move I don't have a problem with, though it will inevitable be justified by Melancon's perceived "ineffectiveness" recently, which I truly believe has just been ghastly luck) again yielded a run to give up a lead.
Once again, I repeat, Melancon is still amazing. He's still inducing weak contact the vast majority of the time. The only fundamental flaw I notice with him is fewer K's, but really he should be fine and I still have just as much confidence in him as at any point earlier in the season. He's still not getting rocked. Indeed, he never has this year.
Marte delivered a clutch solo HR off Kevin Gregg to untie a ballgame in the top of the ninth. Great to see, for so many reasons.
Now the game up to that point was very good. But the ninth inning made it legendary.
Tony Watson led off the ninth for a lefty-on-lefty matchup with Anthony Rizzo. Watson fell behind 2-0 in the count, but induced a hard grounder down the line that was picked by Pedro, who fired a throw across the diamond, which Justin Morneau somehow snared on an in-between hop. An amazing play on both ends.
Hurdle then brought in Jason Grilli to hopefully record the final two outs.
Grilli immediately walked Dioner Navarro.
Grill then got ahead of Nate Schierholtz and then got him to ground into a fielders choice, a nifty play by Justin Morneau throwing to catch the lead runner before Navarro could reach 2nd.
So now, the situation: 2 outs, bottom of the ninth, Bucs up by 1.
Grilli drives Cubs centerfielder Ryan Sweeney into a 2-2 count. Grilli then delivers a fastball at the top of the strike zone, which Sweeney gets on top of and dunks into right center field. Schierholtz is off on contact and rounding second. Marlon Byrd runs in to snag the ball but the ball bounds off his glove! Cutch quickly picks up the ball and fires it into the infield, where Justin Morneau is standing as the cutoff man. Schierholtz was just waved around third.
McCutchen-Morneau-Martin. Schierholtz caught at the plate. Bucs win.
I couldn't believe that play after I witnessed it. And from the looks of it, neither could Mark Melancon or Jason Grilli.
The Pirates went into the clubhouse at 10:46 Central Time with the Magic Number at 1.
12 minutes later, the Pirates were in the playoffs.
The Cardinals held on to their 4-3 lead to beat the Washington Nationals, and the last team that could possibly take a playoff spot away from the Pirates (or the Reds) was eliminated.
The Pirates are in the playoffs for the first time since Sid Bream slid. And why? Because Martin tagged Nate Schierholtz when he slid.
That relay, picking up the ball booted by Byrd, and getting it into Martin's glove, will forever symbolize the Pirates struggle to re-enter the playoffs after 21 years.
That, and Russell Martin, his knees still on the ground, holding up the ball above his head, victorious.
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