6/27 From 1990: Grilli-Frieri, Game Tales - Cutch 16 Gamer, City Connection, Five Long Flies, B-2-Bs, Big Three, Denny Granny; HBD Yacksel
- 1991 – The Bucs finally solved rookie Frank Castillo in the ninth (he was making his MLB debut), turning a 3-0 deficit to the Cubs into a 4-3 win at TRS. Castillo and two relievers, Paul Assenmacher and Heathcliff Slocumb, gave up four singles, two walks, and a two-out wild pitch that allowed Barry Bonds to score from third with the walkoff game winner. Bob Walk worked the final frame to earn the win and run his record to 6-0 with Bill Landrum getting the save.
- 1993 – It took a couple of comebacks, but the Bucs rallied past the Phils, 4-3, in 10 innings at TRS in front of 27,824. Down 2-1 in the eighth frame, Jeff King banged a two-out single to plate Carlos Garcia with the game-tying run. Stan Belinda gave up a score in the 10th, but the Pirates got him off the hook quickly when the first batter, Don Slaught, took a 3-2 Mitch Williams delivery and tucked it just inside the left field screen to knot the score. Jay Bell singled, then a bunt and a pair of walks later (one intentional, one not) set up King again. His second clutch knock brought the Pirates all the way back in a match that Zane Smith had started against Uniontown’s Terry Mulholland. Garcia had four hits and scored twice.
- 1993 – RHP Yacksel Rios was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. A 2012 draftee of the Phils, he yo-yo’ed between them and AAA Lehigh from 2017-19. He was DFA’ed in July of ‘19, claimed by the Pirates, assigned to Indy and called up in September. Yacksel featured a 96 MPH heater, and the Bucs were hoping the change of scenery would help straighten out his control issues but he walked seven and bopped three batters in 14-1/3 Pirates innings. He was released in 2020 and is now in the New York Mets organization, his seventh team since leaving Pittsburgh.
- 1995 - Denny Neagle helped himself to his ninth victory by belting a grand slam, the key blow in a 6-5 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Neagle became the first Pirate pitcher to hit a salami since Don Robinson on September 12th, 1985 and just one of six Buc hurlers to smack one in franchise history. Not known as a strong batsman, Neagle told Ben Walker of the Associated Press “Something must have been in the coffee.” Paul Wagner earned a hold and Dan Plesac posted the save of Neagle’s victory. Despite his swat, Neagle still made his rep from the slab, making his first All Star appearance later in the campaign.
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| Jermaine Allensworth – 1998 Upper Deck |
- 1998- Pittsburgh traded OF Jermaine Allensworth, a 1993 first round draft pick, to the Kansas City Royals for 21-year-old minor league pitcher Manuel Bernal. It didn’t move either team’s needle very much. Allensworth’s last MLB year was 1999, and he left organized ball in 2008 after a long career playing on the farm and in the indie leagues. The righty Bernal never joined the Pirates, but remained in his native Mexico, tossing south of the border through 2009.
- 1998 – Ishmael Valdez was one batter shy of throwing a perfecto against the Bucs at Dodger Stadium, giving up a leadoff eighth-inning single to Kevin Young. Valdez struck out seven and used just 97 pitches to tame Pittsburgh, 2-0. Francisco Cordova was the hard-luck loser, a victim of temporary loss of control when with two outs and a runner on third in the sixth, an intentional walk was followed by an unintentional pass to set up Raul Mondesi’s two-run single.
- 2004 – Jason Bay, Jack Wilson and Craig Wilson combined to go 9-for-16 with three walks, three doubles, a triple and homer to score seven runs and drive in seven more as the Bucs romped over the Reds, 14-4, at GABP. Josh Fogg got the win after five relievers closed the deal.
- 2007 – Xavier Nady and Ryan Doumit smacked back-to-back home runs with two outs in the 10th inning to give the Pirates a 7-5 win over the Miami Marlins at Dolphin Stadium. Nady homered twice and Jose Bautista banged a two-run shot to give Shawn Chacon the win, to go with a blown save, and Matt Capps finished for the save. Pittsburgh used seven pitchers – John Van Benschoten started and went four innings, walking five before Jim Tracy emptied the bullpen. Dewey had a rough night; the Bucs gave up one run and set up the tying tally thanks to passed balls. As they say in baseball, four long balls make up for a multitude of sins…
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| Brandon Cumpton – 2014 Bowman |
- 2014 – Two pups, the Bucs’ Brandon Cumpton and the Mets’ Jacob deGrom, pitched strong games and then turned the game over to the bullpens as the Pirates outlasted NY, 3-2, in 11 innings at PNC Park. Pittsburgh was clutch; Jordy Mercer singled in a pair of runs with two outs in the fourth, then Josh Harrison chased home Clint Barmes with the game winner with a two-out double to right center; both RBI knocks came on the first pitch. Jared Hughes picked up the win.
- 2014 – In a change of scenery deal, the Pirates and Angels traded struggling closers, with Pittsburgh sending Jason Grilli to Los Angeles for Ernesto Frieri. Both had lost their closing gigs in 2014 (Mark the Shark Melancon took over for Grilli) after being the shut-down guy in 2013. Grilled Cheese had another good year left, notching 24 saves for Atlanta in 2015. He and Frieri both last pitched in MLB in 2017 for the Texas Rangers, with Ernesto hanging on in Mexico.
- 2018 – Zach Wheeler put up seven zeros against the Bucs at Citi Field in a battle with Ivan Nova and left the bullpen a 3-0 lead; it wasn’t enough. The Pirates plated once in the eighth and then put up a four-spot against closer Jeurys Familia in the ninth to rally for a 5-3 win over the Mets. The Corsairs went small ball to win with five singles, a walk and sac fly doing the final frame damage against the New York nine. Felipe Vazquez claimed the victory.
- 2019 – The Pirates swatted five homers on the way to a 10-0 win over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park after having won the prior game, 14-2, with four bombs (two off 1B Tyler White, used by the ‘Stros as a ninth-inning mop-up guy). Former Astro Joe Musgrove tossed six innings of shutout ball, and another old Houstonian, Michael Feliz, tossed a 1-2-3 inning of relief. Kevin Newman and Jake Stallings each had three hits, including a homer. Starling Marte, Josh Bell and Corey Dickerson also went deep. Every Pirate but one had a rap (and he walked), while seven Buccos scored and six had RBI (six had both) in a balanced offensive effort. The Pirates became the first team ever to win back-to-back interleague games by 10+ runs (although the Yankees turned that trick in 1960 during the WS, ironically against the Bucs, with 16-3 and 10-0 wins in games 2 & 3). They also became just the fourth NL team since 1900 to hit four or more homers with four or more doubles in consecutive games. As a bonus, they were the first squad in 13 tries to win a series in Houston during the ‘19 campaign.
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| Max Kranick – 2021 Darkside MLB Debuts |
- 2021 – Max Kranick made his MLB debut, pitching five perfect innings and striking out three at Busch Stadium. His day ended after 50 pitches thanks to an hour’s rain delay, though he worked long enough to claim his first win as the Bucs romped over the Cards, 7-2, behind homers from Ben Gamel and Gregory Polanco along with three hits from Adam Frazier. Max, now with the Mets, defeated future Bucco Johan Oviedo in a match-up of 23-year-old twirlers.
- 2023 – The Pirates introduced their City Connect uniforms, and they sure looked like keepers. The Bucs broke out of a weeks-long batting (and losing) slump with a 9-4 win over the San Diego Padres at PNC Park in front of 16,539 rooters. There were a couple of big league firsts checked off the bucket list – Nick Gonzales collected his first hit, a triple high off the Clemente Wall, for his first RBI and crushed his first homer, launching it 442’ into the batter’s eye shrubbery while Roansy Contreras kept the firsts coming with his first save, closing out Rich Hill’s victory. Carlos Santana and Jack Suwinsky banged back-to-back long balls in the third inning and Andrew McCutchen kept his 16-game on-base streak alive with three hits. Santana also had a trio of raps, with Gonzales, Henry Davis, Rudolfo Castro and Austin Hedges posting a pair of knocks as eight players had a hit, seven pushed in runs and six scored. Finally, Josh Palacios robbed Juan Soto, pulling back his blast with a well-timed leap, to add the cherry on top.
Source: https://oldbucs.blogspot.com/2025/06/627-from-1990-grilli-frieri-game-tales.html
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